Spring Picnic - Bryson City

Last weekend we went on Spring Picnic with our Marietta friend circle - Punyarthy, Kulkarni, Dhaneshwar, Kher and Kamatkar. Prashant Deshpande was luckily visiting from Aurangabad and could join the fun. This was our 5th picnic together. This time we booked a large single cottage which had huge great room and 5 bedrooms with overall capacity for 30 persons. The location was at Bryson City - on southern side of Smokey Mountain national park. We started on Fri early afternoon since there was forecast for thunderstorms on the way. It was only 4 hrs drive on north. We took scenic route through mountain ranges hence it took longer. It rained heavily with thick fog on the way. Everybody reached by 7 pm. Bryson City is small sleepy tourist town. You can travel through almost every road in city within 15 min. Friday night was potluck day and Supriya had assigned different menu items to each family. We had lovely dinner followed by mainly chatting and discussions - most heated was 'how to preserve and promote Marathi culture/traditions'. There were 10 kids and they were busy playing among themselves. Sat morning breakfast of pohe+tea was to be cooked by gents. After lazy preparation we all set out at around 11 am. We drove to a creek nearby and parked our cars. I had planned small trek to 2 waterfalls. Weather was very pleasant (around 10deg) and cloudy. It reminded of our treks in Kulu Manali. First waterfall was just 20 min climb, from there we took a wrong route and went on a 1.5 mile detour into mountains. I had forgotten my route map in car so after a long walk we reached third waterfall unplanned. Exhausted we returned to parking and picnic area by 3 pm. Girls prepared bhel there while gents played on the green lawns. I actually had planned 'tubing rides' in the creek but the water was very cold. So in evening we just strolled in the downtown area near creek and enjoyed ice-cream. Sat night we ate all the extra food leftover and had nice singing program till 2 am past midnight. Sun morning was again lazy and we finished clean up by 11 am. After group photo session we departed. On way back we just took highways and returned quickly by 3 pm. It was lots of fun for all. Below is the link to picnic photos

Spring Picnic Photos - Bryson City

Earlier Sat we had 'trip planning meeting', below are photos from that meeting in Roswell Park.
Spring Picnic planning meeting

Gudhi Padwa function - MMA

The Gudhi Padwa function last Sat was a great success. We had 500+ total attendees though the evite confirmations were only 460. I was neck deep into driving the entertainment event. I was at the location at 11 am in morning to start setting up the hanging mikes for drama and music system for songs. Supriya and rest of the committee members arrived at 1 pm. Supriya was leading food team and quickly got to setting up stalls. At 3 pm people started arriving and they were given Upama and Panhe. Artists also arrived around that time and we started tuning the mikes with sample dialogues and songs. Exactly at 4 pm the song program started and went on till 5 pm. I and Supriya were also the stage anchors but we had brief introductions only planned. After 30 min tea break the second session was for Kathakathan and Natak by Chicago team. Dinner also started on time at 7.30pm. Youth committee had separate activities in Gym and kids were happy there. We finished at 10 pm and came home. The event was a real success with congratulatory emails still pouring. People are praising - sticking to time schedule, great food, kids activities, variety entertainment. Below is the link for the pictures from the function.
Gudhi Padwa function pictures