First Ever International KP Cruise

News and Events

7th KP Cultural Meet - First Ever International KP Cruise.
Mexico, July 3- 6, 2014

Report by Arti Raina Bambroo

The 7th Annual KHF cultural meet this year was more different than usual. We decided to go international and on watYes, the endeavor to provide something different and unusual crossed boundaries and was celebrated on Carnival Imagination with much zest and fun.

The experience started with campers boarding the liner on July 3rd between 12 and 5 and started enjoying the lovely Long Beach weather aboard the Lido Deck. Kids mingled, parents said their namaskars and were greeted by all with love and respect, grateful to have elders on board to share the tradition and love of KHF camps.

Everyone met at the Shangrila Lounge, specially reserved for a welcome get together to introduce members of the camp. It was a hilarious round of introductions with a member of each family being subject to some fun questions. The icebreaker was enjoyed by all especially the parents who were emotionally overwhelmed by the love shared by the campers and the efforts of such camps that help bind the community together.

This was followed by sit down dinner and thanks to the wonderful arrangements, we enjoyed great vegetarian and non vegetarian Indian meal. Folks after that dispersed to see shows or chat with new friends and old and eventually called it a day.

Next day 4th of July saw the ship docked at Ensenada and after a hearty breakfast some folks chose to visit the lovely city sights like a bus tour or go to the famous blow-hole and peruse the local trinket market along the way. Of course there was also a whole bunch who chose to stay on board and get leisurely massages and take a trip to the saunas and steam rooms.

After having cheered two fellow indians who won the hairy chest contest, some of the campers took over the lido deck to dance away to all tunes including indian dance numbers. They were joined by other music lovers who spotted the unmistakable passion and fun of the KF campers.

Dinner and comedy shows in the evening kept the folks busy. Kids enjoyed late night dancing on the deck. Some of the night owls started interesting conversations which lasted till the wee hours of the morning… 5 AM to be precise. This was everything they had expected the camp to be bonding with fellow kashmiris, sharing, laughing, teasing and of course sowing the seeds of some new friendships and nurturing the existing ones.

Since there is no denying that kashmiris have talent, we yet again put it to test the next day which resulted in the getting together of the KHF campers for the talent show. There was a bharatnatyam recital and some lovely songs rendered by budding young guys and gals. Totop it all the tweens presented an awesome culmination of hours of practice, a self coreographed group dance. bacche to bacche baap re baap was what folke said for the two hilarious skits presented.

The first did a great spoof of the tuitions that every kashmiri kid in srinagar was used to seeing. This included a professor and some young students and what followed was probably the reason that none of those students would have passed any exam.

The second skit was no less but “Kashmiri Sholay” where gabbar bobuji and sambha and the three imbecile followers of bobujee were put to test. Not to mention koshur veeru and a nadur bag toting basanti.

Other adults rendered some great songs and the highlight was the wonderful “aehi” song sung by Shyama & Maharaj Dhar, which made the whole audience very emotional.

Another amazing meal and chat sessions followed by more shows kept the campers busy and in great spirits and with that the next day the much loved and soon to be missed camp camp came to an end. promises to keep in touch were made, hugs, smiles and a few tears marked the end of another remarkable camp that brought us kashmiri brethren… just a little more closer to each other and our roots.er.

Kashmiri Songs and Leelas by Ajay Dhar, Jyoti Zutshi, Anjali Pandita, Shyama & Maharaj Dhar
Soulful Poetry in Kashmiri by Acclaimed writer and poet from Kuwait- Mrs. Anjali Pandita
Kashmiri Skits- Masterji and Koshur Sholay by Neeraj Kaul, Ashish Bambroo, Rajesh Kaul, Liloo Kaul, Jyoti Sumbly, Sanju Salman, Ankit Monga, Rajeev Sumby, Arti Raina Bambroo & Deepak Ganju
Melodious Hindi Songs by Rohini Hak
Amazing Performances by talented KP kids: Saachi & Rushil Saraf, Yuvika & Esha Salman, Sheen Trisal, Srishti & Sahil Sumbly, Mihira & Ashira Monga and many more.....
BharatNatyam bySiya Pandita
Asuna-ta-Ginduan- Koshur & Bollywood DJ - Rock the Ship