Picnics - School and Family Outings.

Dear Friends,

Recently when I saw a long 'Q' of young boys and girls outside the Guindy park which has a zoo inside, I was reminded of my own school picnics.

My picnic memories are all of Hyderabad - Nehru Zoological Park, Public Gardens, Gandipet, Golconda, Charminar, Salar Jung Museum, Begumpet airport, Hussain Sagar or Tank Bund which connects the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The regular ones from school would be either headed to the zoo or Gandipet. Teachers would announce a date and rate. Those interested will pay up and go by bus to one of the spots mentioned. The bus would leave early in the morning and return us all back to the school by evening. There would be singing of many group songs on the way. Goodies would be handed out as soon as the bus would start moving away from the school premises! The excited squeals, cries, shouting which would attract the road users. Some would wave us on.

There would be bun with jam. Biscuits. Mixture packets. Sweets. Juice. Lunch would be sandwiches. Tea time woul be tea with biscuits. In between there would be walking down the place to see the sights.
By evening all would be so very tired. On our way back there would not be too many enthusiastic voices willing to sing group songs. Some would be dozing off.

The best picnics would be those which were unplanned.
My mom worked as a teacher in All Saints High School, Gunfoundry. Since my school, the Rosary Convent was just nearby, I would be hanging around and the Rev Brother would invite me to join in too. I would simply hop inside the bus and have fun. I must have been hardly 5 or 6 then. The other teachers would pay a lot of attention as I was a teacher's daughter. I remember the picnics with my mom's class kids better than with my own school and classmates. On second thoughts, I think I never went with the Rosary Convent picnic team at all!

Each and evey picnic spot seems dear to me with varied memories of the oldest turtle, milk white pegions, the multi-colored parrots, the monkey with stripes on its forehead (aptly labelled as the 'naamaala kothi'). Have these picnic spots changed a lot? More than 40 to 45 years have passed by.

I carry in my heart such fond memories of family outings to the Public Gardens. There would be at least 4 or 5 families joining in with all the kids from all families and a few elders. Huge tiffin carriers, istaraaku (bio-degradable - dry leaves stitched together on which food would be served and easily discarded). There would be tamarind rice, lemon rice, curd rice, pickles, potato chips and deep fried papads. Huge cans of water with tumblers, spoons to serve, towels to wipe clean. The grand finale would be stopping by the ice-cream (bandi) trolley, buy for a whole lot of us. It would be such fun licking the dripping icekroot holding the thick stick intact.
The best would be the transistor-radio blaring music from the Vivid Bharati while we strolled around the huge greenery leisurely. Lata Mageshkar, Rafi, Asha, Mukesh, etc., have all kept us company on our family outings as the radio station would play Hindi film songs continuously.

Cheers.
Mahalakshmi

So much fun.