Picnic at Pawagadh

One of the traditions with my family on my Ammi's (Mom's) side is to go on picnics. On Sunday, we made cold coffee, packed some uncooked rice and daal, the frisbee, the ring, and of course the music. We left around 10:30 and headed to the area behind Pawagadh, a mountain about an hour away from our house in Baroda. And of course, in all the hungama (craziness), noone brought a camera. But I'll paint a picture. We parked the jeep on the side of a small road, and headed down to an area where, if it wasn't so dry and hot, a river would be flowing. The trees above us were filled with sleeping bats.

We set up a stove using three rocks, dry leaves and twigs in the middle. Soon the fires were going, and we began to cook. I had recently introduced Mamu to the acapella music of Penn Masala, and he insisted that we do it. Mamu and Sajju Mamu (two of my uncles) made us all laugh sooooooo hard, my tummy hurts just thinking about it. After our food digested a bit, we threw around a ball and frisbee for a little while, and then the uncles, my cousin Saud, and I went hiking. We found some of the most beautiful rocks: pure white with crystals forming on the side. Once we headed down, we had some cold coffee and played Estimate (a card game). Although we left the picnic spot after that, the day was still far from over.

On our way back, we stopped off to check out a new camping area owned by Mahipal Singh Yadav where we found a wooden flute made by some village locals. By the time we left, it was time for dinner. We ate the most delicious butter chicken at a pretty famous restaurant called Tandoor. After eating, when the music in the attached club began, my cousin Saud decided to go in and dance to his hearts content, and in doing so, make a complete food of himself. But if anyone asks, he's not my cousin ;).