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200B SEBS Camping in Blue Ridge Mountain of Virginia

"Two roads diverged from the Skyline drive
And we took the one, less traveled by
And that made all the difference."

Members of 200B in North America continued the old BNKS tradition of Camping out in the WILD jungles of Virginia (Sept 1-Sept 3, 2001). Saturday night we camped atop big flat mountain in Shenandoah National, a mile off of a famous Skyline drive with plentiful supply of firewood. The fact that it was free and a mile off of anyone's reach made it all the better. Only thing mission was the water, but hey who cares when we had plentiful supply of beer and fine wine, marinated pork slabs, barbequed drum sticks and the baked potatoes in true Nepali sense. . A bit of beer buzz along with "Madal" and on the spot "Dohori poet" Anil 279B (Japan) and "pidit poet" Tirtha 264B, was all it took to get the evening started that melted right into the late night and blended to early next morning. Like every camping in the past 10 years this was no exception and the cultural program started with recitation of famous poem from Sufi GP Singh, "Bihana uthe, dara khole….", and you know the rest.

Guest members from 400B, Navin 428B (West Virginia) and Paras 416B (West Virginia) along with their college friend Anu Gurung (West Virginia), Binaya (Virginia - Tirtha's roommate) from Virginia's Tech and Pragya Sitoula from Washington DC brought in much needed diversity in the 200B crowd and added tremendously to the late night dancing.

Next day brought in the limitations of modern technology, cell phone as we headed off to Lazy River for some white water rafting. Group of us separated along the way and never actually regrouped until the evening. Cell phone was used to contact each other but in the jungles of Virginia signals weren't strong enough to make any contacts. Just gave me another reason not to buy cell phone. About 2.5 hrs of Whitewater Rafting gave us the much needed rejuvenation from the previous nights camping. Surprise attacks from neighboring rafts and sinking of the famous sailors brought in the entertainment highlights. It was heartening to see Usnik 213B (Texas) resort to his vestigial trait of swinging from branches of the tree and jumping right into the water. Such acts couldn't be further from the universal truth of "Old habits die hard".

Kamal 287B, Kiran 285B (San Francisco), Pawan 261B (New York), Nuru 280B (New York), Bishnu 238B (Virginia), Amir 234B (Texas) were other famous figures that graced the occasion. Monday morning brought us together as SEBS members and discussed on ways to promote the SEBS. Members have pledge to continue their support for SEBS activities and have expressed their happiness.

15 of us from all walks of life from East to West were united during this camping. Some of us haven't met each other for the past decade, others quickly and quietly had married and even had kids, still others never seem to learn and are still going in school and few of us are trying to make day to day living. We hope you too can unite with your friends and family and share your reunion. Life must go on and so must you, so let's SEBS………..

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