SHRI PARAJIYA SONI SAMAJ

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Since 1960

Desert Safari 2009

Desert Safari 2009

by Haresh Dhakan, UAE

Although the year started with negative note with WORLD RECESSION but also New Year brings lots of hope & wishes for Peace, Prosperity & Success to all.

UAE Parajiya Soni Samaj has always been active and its members give an enthusiastic response attending functions. Some events attracted 200 – 300 members whereas others were attended in large numbers. Soni Samaj has been organising Desert Safari regularly. At one of the event in the past they had to book 26 coaches consisting as to transport nearly 1500 members.

This year, due to the recession, the Samaj was expecting a poor response. However due to the media publicity in the Pattni Connection website and local word of mouth advertising the Samaj had a very good response and members were keen to join till last minute for the event.

Members were so excited that most of them were present near ex-Sharjah Cinema parking ground on time with colourful dresses & bearing in mind the winter temperature, many of them were wearing jackets, sweaters or shawls.

About 500-600 members had the privilege to the desert safari enjoying the dune bashing with qualified drivers taking the charge & displaying their talents to the members while taking them to the designated DTCM camp site in the midst of desert where the base of activities lined up.

There were beautiful chalets, stalls for refreshments, henna , souvenirs, sheesha & the most popular studio catering ethnic Arabic dresses Gatra , Abaaya & Shaila for males, females & kids.

Also not forgetting desert ship Camel rides, dune buggies & also sand skies which the kids were enjoying immensely.

The highlights of the trip were the games like Tug of war, Kabaddi etc organised by the Samaj committee to entertain the crowd. Many enthusiastic members of all age group took part in competitions and all had a really wonderful time.

All of us admired the beauty that the earth offers, the sand dune to enjoy the breathtaking view over the desert. The desert scenery is just amazing. While admiring the nature it started to drizzle. This beautiful drizzles added the joy to the occasion as only such weather gives the pleasure of enjoying hot PAKORAS & SAMOSAS along with buffet dinner including specially made HAWAJIYA Ringna/Bateta (Stuffed Brinjal/Potato) & of course our laddu & ADADIA as dessert!

The evening also had members dancing to the tunes of DJ & of course the unforgettable Bellly dancer Natalia who not only made the young & old males but also kids were encouraged to dance with her.

Well I guess maybe this is not mere enough to describe the efforts of our committee to provide to the members I would say 3 cheers to our Pattni Samaj Commiittee for the excellent work to bring this all together to start the year so gracefully throughout.

Before departing I would like to tell all our PATTNI Members throughout the world "Ae aee Amara UAE maa kokdeek re ane bhulo ne pad bhagwaan ne thaaje amaro memaan taaru swarg re bhulaau shaamla"

Thanks & best of wishes to all our members.

Jai Hind

Haresh Dhakan

Member UAE Parajiya Samaj

From Editor

What an amazing response!

The credit crunch is hitting Dubai's fragile economy and has hit the pockets of many of the 1.5 million Indians living in the United Arab Emirates. One Pattni member told us that the gold sales in Dubai’s jewellery market have collapsed as much as 80 percent in the last couple of weeks. Due to this credit crunch, a low turnout was expected of not more than 100 to 150 members to join the desert safari.

But wow! What a response!

Soni Samaj has informed us that due to the website publicity on Pattni Connection and word of mouth advertising, more than 650 Pattni members turned up! Pattni members phoned from as far as Kuwait after reading the circular on Pattni Connection website and joined the safari.

And guess what? Soni Samaj served ringna batata nu bharelu saak and adadiya!!This was the first time ever that such a scrumptious tasty food was served on a desert safari.

We have already received many photos of this memorable trip and will be uploaded once a report is ready to be published on the website. Meanwhile members are most welcome to send photos taken on this trip. Let us know how much you enjoyed. Send your response and photos at PattniConnection@gmail.com as soon as possible so that we can upload everything in one go.

All the hard work done by the committee members to help organise the trip was much appreciated by the members. UAE Soni Samaj has set a standard for others to follow. Well done Samaj committee members. Well done all !!

Pran C. Arjan Dhanak

Editor/Webmaster

www.PattniConnection.com

------------