Diwali 2014 with Duck Pond Friends / BAPS temple

           This Diwali,  ten plus indian families at Duck Pond had planned a pot luck followed with games at the children's play area section in our apartment complex. The event was supposed to start at 11 AM yesterday and from our side, Divya was preparing appams and stew. We reached after 12 PM and the first striking sight was that of Kamlesh in his white pyjama and white kurtha making rangoli, music was playing in a blue-tooth speaker with wheels.
         
 Gents and ladies socialized separately for some time while the kids were playing with light fireworks and around 1 PM , everyone gathered for the pot luck lunch. All food items were vegetarian and felt very healthy and so much unlike restaurant food. The menu was complete with home-made gulab jamuns. We had some patio chairs to sit in and the kids sat in kids' chairs for lunch. Someone even brought a bucket of water to wash kids'  hands after lunch.



It was a sunny day and good weather to conduct this programme.  As per plan, each family was supposed to have a planned game for everyone to play.  The chairs were arranged in two lines with the wives on one side and the husbands on the other.  The games started off with 'Anthakshari' which was fun but mostly everyone was shy and the songs hardly made to the other side.  Kamlesh kept the enthusiasm flowing challenging the wives' team with time / tough starting letters etc.   The excitement/involvement was not up to the mark and so we switched over to 'Dumb Charades' which indeed took things to the next level.

Sundar Narayanan played master mind and started bringing in tough movie names from the internet
 to challenge the wives. The wives were not giving up either and the movie names got tougher and tougher as the game progressed.  The nominee of the acting team gets the movie name whispered to  his/her ear from the spouse in secret. As the actor tries to enact , the opposite team shouts out misguiding/discouraging responses keeping the challenge and spirits high.  We had not setup a time limit. So essentially every one did get the answer but the names were thoughtfully chosen to make it tough.  Once everyone had a chance to enact , we stopped the game but it was pretty clear that there was one hundred percent participation in the Dumb Charades section and the parents surpassed kids in the amount of fun they had for once.

Kids played by themselves and without incident which was good as well.

     

 As the families dispersed , Rekha recommended Divya to watch the BAPS Diwali fireworks.  Kishan/Rekha left on time while we left an hour or so later but for our luck as we reached the temple, we heard the count down to the fireworks - 8,6,5 .. 1 - no exaggeration there even while Kishan was continually keeping tab on us helping us get there on time.

This is how the fireworks started. It was pretty good. But when I think of fireworks, I still think of  the fireworks we saw in Bangalore out in the roads when Indian cricket team won the world cup.






We were in the publix parking lot on the road blocking the traffic and watching the fireworks.  It was a very indian sight.  The fireworks lasted about ten minutes or so only but it was still worthwhile.

That was how the finale was.
Having seen the fireworks , we decided to go watch the temple up close.

The simple color themes on the BAPS temple was a beautiful sight by itself

After seeing the temple , we went into the canteen for our Chola Battura dinner in a crowded tent setup , again very indian. 

That was a pretty eventful day for us , thanks to the families at Duck Pond who took the initiative for the lunch event and specifically to our neighbors Kishan/Rekha for the BAPS fireworks.