Carry on Camping
Nikil Parmar and Jayantibhai Patel from the Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangh picked me up from Kings Langley station to ‘observe’ a youth camp they had organised at a school nearby.

“We may have to wait for Swami Nirliptananda as well. He is coming by train too,” Nilkil explained politely.

We waited.

And we waited.

Then we waited a bit more.

30 minutes passed us by.  Not a single Swami materialised out of passing trains.

Having no desire to solve mysteries of missing Swamis, we made our way to the camp. I was greeted politely by a group of youth, who made me stand next to a Ganesh sculpture and merrily clicked away with a camera.

The camp encouraged youth to ask questions starting with the phrase,  “why do I?”.  Posters adorning the wall provided answers to these questions -  why Hindus perform arati, why they wear a tilak, and why Hindus have a shrine in their house.

I joined a group of 8-year olds drawing characters from the Mahabharata, made my way across to another group having a heated discussion on the Hindu ethos, and plodded on to a gym where a bunch of teenagers were kicking a ball.

“It’s a residential camp,” explained my escort. “And it develops new friendships, camaraderie and a sense of pride in the Hindu identity.”

I was joined by Anil Pota, President of the Overseas Friends of BJP and Vinod Wadher from the Wembley branch of VHP UK.  They explained that the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh drew inspiration from Dr Keshiram Hegdewar the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India.

Lunch was a spicy plate of Paav-bhaaji.

“Do you have onions or garlic in the bhaji?” I enquired.

“Yes, we do,” explained Wadher. “The youth prefer eating pizzas and paav-bhaji you see. They get rotli-shaak every day at home.”

Word got around that I did not eat onions and garlic. A moment later, a plate of fresh fruit materialised in front of me.

“Actually, onions and garlic are in the mode of ignorance – they are tamasic,” explained Pota. “They are not very conducive to spiritual life. You are better off not eating them.”

A youth walked by with a basket of freshly cut raw onions sprinkling them quite generously on plates of  paav-bhaaji.

I passed the Ladies room on my way out and saw a poster on the door that screamed: Out of Bounds! This toilet is only for the use of guests!!

“There are no ladies in the camp. So we converted the Ladies room into our Guest cloakroom,” explained Pota.

The organisers had definitely done a good job educating the youth about their religious roots. More camps like this held more regularly will do a lot more good for a lot more youth.

A young organiser of the camp who was being introduced to me, smiled brightly and said, “I have never met Mr Ramesh Kallidai, but I do have the pleasure of reading his tongue-in-cheek column every week in the Asian Voice.”

I tried very hard not to look pleased with fame and glory, but failed on all counts.
By Ramesh Kallidai
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