BOSTON: For BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir devotees, Sunday July 16 morning came with some of the best possible weather for their annual picnic arranged at Nara Park, Acton, MA
Hundreds of families and friends with their children began to assemble early on the day to enjoy the open air with delicious food, feast and entertainment.
The picnic place was a large, open, flat area of land covered with green grass where volunteers started putting up several big tents, chairs and tables and arranged food, fruits, and drinks for the members. After having light food and drinks, members played some fun games for all ages including cricket, volleyball and football etc.
Different age-group teams started playing cricket in the Park. Youngsters were running and jumping all around while elders were walking briskly on the grass. Everyone enjoyed the games as they were given a fair chance of winning as some of them were learning new skills.
They all enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.
Later, they all settled down for great sumptuous food and cold Badam milk drink with excellent company of friends, family members, and guests. All that was heard was natural conversations and sounds of contentment. After a delightful lunch, most of the games were continued by members while ladies sat in the tent relaxing along with everyone else and sang lovely old Hindi and Gujarati film and non-film songs.
In the evening, the members assembled in the tent for a brief religious discourse, Bhajans and Arati to Swaminarayan with utmost devotion and spiritual fervor. After this, everyone was served hot spicy Khichari, Buttermilk, Chips, and Boondi sweet. The event, from beginning to end, was carried out in peace and harmony with lot of good times, and conversation with close friends, and good food.
All the picnic volunteers and kitchen committee members were thanked by the Picnic Organizing Committee for their time and patient work. The picnic broke up late in the evening at 7:00pm and all returned to their daily lives feeling enriched by the experience and tired from the activity of the annual picnic.
“This year’s picnic is a success and I am looking forward to the next year’s picnic event. They did a magnificent job and all the members are grateful for their dedication to the event. It is one of the best events of the Temple for the entire family to just get together with other member families from Greater Boston community,” said one of the participants.
Geetha Patil
