Childhood Memories - A Picnic!

During the school days, we along with my father and his colleagues used to go on an annual picnic every winter. And in all those growing up years we had the opportunity to visit Jayanti,Samsing,Kalikhola, Mongpong.
Phuentsholing(ask most folks and they will pronounce it as FOOL-SHILLING) too used to be a close favourite too.


With bleary eyes, barely awake we used to get on the picnic bus and we moved out of the town and through the lush green villages to our destination.Breakfast was staple diet - Bread with butter or jam, boiled eggs and hot coffee poured into plastic cups.


And here comes the lunch - mutton curry and steamed rice. Every body used to contribute , from collecting water from the streams to putting the wooden logs on fire. The smell of the braised mutton laced with the smoked smell of charcoal still lingers in my memories. Lunch used to be served in paper plates and we used to sit on the boulders beside the river with the plate on our hands. More often the not, the light curry used to spill over the plate and slid to the elbows and we used to lick that dry!


I even remember once, there was torrential rains when we were on our way to a picnic but couldnt reach there. So, we had the lunch in Maal station. And also the one time when we were in Kalikhola where we climbed up to the orange orchards up on a hillock. But the one golden rule: you may eat as many oranges as you like to, but can't take any from the forest.


Think of those now and the golden memories just stir up mind and tickle my imagination for some quality time that almost reflects the childhood time gone by.