People with common heritage of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and residing in New York New Jersey Tristate area came together and celebrated their First Friends of MP - NY NJ Annual Family Picnic in New Jersey on Sun 20th Sept, 2015. The whole day Picnic was a grand success, with participation from people of all parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and with origins in Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Khandwa, Dewas and other towns of MP. The pleasant sunny weather and ambience of Liberty State Park, NJ right next to Statue to Liberty at the waterfront added to the fun filled atmosphere. The Friends of MP Conclave in New York in early 2015 gave a booster to the NRIs from MP to coalesce for a friendly family get- together.
With around 120 attendees of all ages, the day started with Indore’s traditional Poha - made on the site by men participants – laced with Ratlami Sev, Jeeravan and suitably accompanied by Jalebi/Kachori. Then followed sports and games and catching up of friends, many meeting each other after many years and connecting on many common roots/relationships. Lunch again was MP’s signature Choorma – Dal – Batee, which was really relished by all. Future years may see Baflaa, which is truly a Malwa Cuisine. Lunch was followed by a Social Hour of introductions and plans for future such get – together and with much larger participation. While thousands of people from MP may be in the NY Tristate area, this was the first such gathering of its sort at the people’s level in many years, making attendees happy and nostalgic.
The planning and execution for the event was managed by a Core Team of Jitendra Muchhal, Rakesh Bharagava, Dr. R Kakani, Rajiv Goyal, Rajesh Mittal, Raj Bansal, Pankaj Gupta, Avinash Jhawar and Navneet Trivedi over few months. Right from name labels to conversations, usage of Hindi and Malwee language was encouraged through out the day, also coinciding with MP’s hosting of World Hindi Conference the same month.