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A fun-thrilled summer
For the Indians, this past fortnight has really been a fun thrilling one, writes Lalit K Jha.
For the Indians staying in this part of the United States -- where mercury dips
below zero degrees Celsius for several months in a year and as a result people are mostly confined to the four walls -- this past fortnight has really been a fun thrilling one.
Like the local Americans, the Desis too are enjoying the every part of this summer, which as per Delhi standards would still be considered winter months. But, they are so "tired of the freezing winter", that this they now believe to be the real summer.
Picnic, get-togethers, a trip to nearest tourist spot, visiting friends and relatives in other towns and cities, besides organizing annual events of various desi associations are some of the popular summer past-time over the weekends.
Giving a desi flavour to whatever they do even in fun and sports is an interesting aspect of all these.
In fact, preparation for spending this summer weekends begins several days in advance. Frantic phone calls are made to the popular resorts and tourist spots either for picnic or camping. The World Wide Web is browsed to search what is new. Discussions are held for hours together or by chat to decide on what needs to be done the next weekend.
"We should make the best use of the summer. No one knows when the weather would go otherwise," is the common refrain among the people here.
Far away from their motherland, the Indians do try to find a connection to their culture at these fun thrilled events. At picnics, one can find all the traditional Indian mouthwatering dishes and latest Hindi songs being played either on the music system or "antarakshhari".
Many Indians also make it a point to visit the nearest temples, which at times could be at least hundred miles away. Some of them even cross over the international border to visit temple in neighbouring Canada specially its township of Winnipeg.
While for those parents of growing child, they try their best that their children make the best use of the summer by taking some short-term course or attend hobby classes which would give them an idea about the rich cultural heritage of India.
For many parents in places like Minneapolis send their children for Hindi learning classes, attending classical Indian dance schools, which are now coming up in numbers is another popular thing among the desi population here.
"It is very important for us that children know what their roots are and how rich their culture is. These few months provides us an opportunity to let them know about India, people and its cultural heritage," said one of the parents at Minneapolis.
For smaller places like Fargo in North Dakota community leadership come together to screen popular Hindi films at more regular intervals or organize cultural evenings with dance and Bollywood music.
For even smaller places where there are only a few Indian families or stay in different neighbouring cities, they invite each other either for dinner or lunch or together go for picnics at the nearest tourist spot.
"Summer has always been a fun for us. We eagerly wait for this good temperature, when Sun is bright, flowers blossom and grass is green. Otherwise, it is the same old snow all over, slippery roads (because of the snow) and fear of getting trapped in a snow storm or a tornado," said another Indian professional.
Staying in this part of the US for more than a decade, he said this was one of the rare occasions when the summer has been so good and offering such a beautiful weather for days together at a stretch. "This is the reason, why one can see a special smile on the faces of all of us," he said pointing out towards the fact that the every Indians he knows is virtually out of their home these weekends.
But the big is yet to come. The long Memorial Day weekend of July 2-3 and 4 is going to be a fantastic experience with the weather being so nice to us, he said.
