Campellan 2016 – Recreating Kutch in California

KutchValley went on its annual camping during Memorial Day Long Weekend 2016. We have been doing this for the past 14 years and this was the milestone 15th Year. We have been crossing 3 digits for past couple of years. But this year we blew away previous attendance records and went upto 139. Now managing 139 people on a camping trip is not easy but thanks to co-operation from everyone and because many folks in KutchValley have been regulars on the annual camping trip thereby knowing the drill we managed to pull off a successful camping experience.

After 14 years of non-repeating camping, We decided to revisit one of our old camping spots this year. Lake Don Pedro in La Grange, CA had most of the things that we needed for a FUN camping and hence we decided to repeat this campground to which we had previously gone in 2006. We booked 19 sites in all and many of them had good lake view.

This year we decided to do something different in Camping since it was the milestone 15th Year. Since it was also the year of the Kutchi Sammelan in New Jersey, we wondered what if we integrated a Sammelan flavor in our camping. As such Camping is a bit similar to Sammelan in the sense that Kutchis come and stay together for 2-3 days, eat together, play together and have fun together and of course catch up on plenty of Medavo. But to take the Sammelan idea further we would have to incorporate something new and unique to the Camping experience.
What if we recreate a Kutch Village within our campground complete with Fariyas and Kutch Decorations, etc. Will this idea fly with the campers? Will we get a good response? We had no idea. But we decided to take the plunge anyway and came up with “Campellan-2016” – Camping with a flavor of Sammelan.

Next we decided to tackle what kind of activities we want to do as part of Campellan-2016. A Sammelan usually has Samaiyyo, Key note speakers, Information sessions, Kutchi Food, Entertainment, Raas Garba, Photo Booth, T-shirt as souvenir, etc. Now being in a Campground means we could not do everything from the above list. But we decided to try our best. So we narrowed down to :

– Formation of Fariyas and Decoration of Fariyas with Kutch theme
– Kutchis Got Talent as the Entertainment segment
– Some Games on Kutch/Kutchi
– Raas – Garba (Thank Goodness we have 2 class dholis among us)
– Games for Kids and Adults
– Dance sessions for Younger Kids held by Older Kids
– Fitness session by Payal Shah
– Common KutchValley T-shirts for those who wanted to purchase it

There was lot of chit chatter and enthusiasm among all campers in the week leading up to the camping. Most of us had reached by Friday Night itself. There was lot of medavo and card games on Friday night. The youngest of the KVites had so much energy that they were up till midnight and beyond. Sat morning brought us Bombay Jam fitness session led by Payal Shah. And we had good participation. We had the Kids Game Team play games with the Kids after breakfast. In the afternoon it was Lake time and everyone had a blast near the Lagoon whether they were in the water or playing outside of it. Sat evening brought some Raas Garba with our live Dholis – Nitul and Sameer. Pallavi and Nevin Shah celebrated their 43 anniversary at the Camping and sponsored a nice Basundi Dessert prepared by our own masterchef Hasmukhbhai Patel. Sat night ended with some well thought out Campfire games.

On Sunday morning we had another fitness round of Bombay Jam. Then we announced that folks have 1.5 hours to decorate their Fariyas after which we all would take a group tour of all the 6 Fariyas. Now at this point we had no idea what people had planned or will come up with. There was lot of enthusiasm and team work among people as they went about creatively trying to recreate a Kutchi Village. At around 10 am, the group as a whole (all 139 of us) went around the 6 Fariyas one by one.

It was very interesting to see what each Fariya had come up with – sometimes with limited resources. We had the Peer Fariyo highlighting the Peer Baba ji Dargah. We had an excellent impromptu skit put together by the Uttaro Fariyo highlighting life in Kutch and how some visitors from America found everything in Kutch very interesting. We had the Khakariyo Fariyo who explained nicely in a speech why they could not do as much – since most people have now left their Fariya and gone to USA. The Jakh Fariya showed us a bonsai Kutch village with Mataji, village elders with big moustaches and a surprise visit by Phudadi maasi. The Nam Fariya took us back to some of the Kutchi games that were played in childhood and also showed us Matukdi. The Sethiya Fariyo put together a variety of interesting things from a typical Kutchi village including a Bhoi Ma, a well, a swing, camel and the typical saas, bahu, sasur personas with a traditional Dholi thrown in to complete the family.

Overall it was a delightful trip through all the Fariyas in the KutchValley village at the campground. Given such a short time, Kutchis came out with flying colors with their creativity. It was a truly unique experience.

We had also planned on wearing our common new KV T-shirts on Sunday. So everyone looked similar and part of ONE group on Sunday. It was a good time to take a group photo. Later on we had some presentations where KutchValley honored Bhavini Gada and Dimple Dedhia for their services to KutchValley over the past several years. It was a hot afternoon post lunch but KVites displayed enthusiasm to play some competitive games organized by the Games Team. These were creative and folks had fun playing them.

In the evening some folks started to leave for home. But we had planned something special for the folks who stayed behind. It was the “Kutchis Got Talent” Night. We had various performances from individuals and groups. Some of them were dances and some were recitals and some were musical instruments and yet others were old time Kutchi songs and stories. Here also we had no idea what would Kutchis comes up with. But one by one Kutchis came in the center and overall we had a great entertainment package. The Kutchi Kids had been practicing on the campground for some group dances taught by some of the older kids and it was delightful to watch the dances done independently by the kids with no help from the adults at all. To top it off we also had a unique dessert from roasted Bananas prepared in the campfire. The night was still young and many KVites sat and played Antakshari late into the night.

It was time to wrap up on Monday morning and say good bye to each other. It was a delightful unique camping experience and no one wanted it to end really. But we have lovely memories to cherish now for a long time to come.

Three Cheers to all Campers for a Terrific Fun Campellan-2016.

Note: Many pictures and videos have been uploaded on KutchValley’s Facebook Group.