Alhumdulilla with the grace of Almighty Allah the weather did not let Sunny Durban down on the morning of Sunday the 18th of May 2014.
Curtains were drawn open from the time of fajr and the womenfolk were busy on their watsapp chats with messages indicating the positve signs of good weather but with the cautious warnings “With the Weather you never know”.
AK with his son Asif, Al Imraan and Zaahid with their team were at the picnic spot at 7.00am with the first batch of chairs and tables to reserve the best picnic spot.
Solly Suleiman joined the team by 9am folliwwd by Yusuf Kamdar who as usual brought breakfast for the first team and therafter the buzz and excitement of the set up began.
Jameela Joosab came in early with her family and was constantly messaging to Fazila with:
“Don`t forget to bring this, Don`t forget to bring that. Where did you put this. Where must I place that ” And the excitement of the day began!!!
You could hear everyone talk at the same time : “The WMO banner will look good here! The jumple castle should be there. Please shift the registration table to that shady spot. The tea table should neither be here nor there”
And so it went on and on and the exitement built up right till the moment when the true spirit of it being a WMO function was when President of WMO Mr Sattar Dada and his wife Ayesha honoured us with their presence and were one of the few guests to arrive promptly at 11am.
By then the whole venue looked like a grandeur function with exquisitely layed out buffet stations and tea tables by the courtesy of Fazila and the AKI Family .
Kara Nichas on the spot Chilli bites and jalebi was sponsored by Yusuf Kamdar together with a team of waitresses to serve tea.
AK ismail had organized a sponsirship from Ikhlaas Latib and Anwar Karrim of Caterquip for the following:
Stations on the Spot of: Candy floss, Pop corn, Ice cream, Waffles, Tea and coffee .
Haroon Mohammed organized the sound System and he also organized the Jumping castles through a sponsorship by Hasshim .
AKI Wholesalers and Natal Builders had their dedicated team of office staff take over the co ordination of the whole event from: Loading and transporting and setting all the chairs and tables, gas stoves, extension cords, Jumping castles, Bain marines, Mussallah, carpets, Etc etc
Zohr salaah was read with Mr Sattar Dada after which he enjoyed biryani lunch with members and guests. Mr Dada had to leave early otherwise he would have had witnessed a most spectacular scene of memon families streaming in their numbers.
The ederly mingled with the young and exchanged stories of times gone by and the youth expressed their views on caring for the ederly and communiry bonding.
The photographs will tell the rest of the story and the congragulatory comments received made all the hardwork worthwhile as this was a dedicated effort with rhe sole purpose of bonding with our community .
Alhumdulilla The WMO Durban FamilyvPicnic saw an estimate of between 750 to 900 people attend.
We are truly thankful to Mr Yunus Suleman VP of Africa who constantly puts pressure on his executive team to perform and the initial persuasion of Shabir Moosa to Host such a functtion together with the never ending encouragement of Yusuf Kamdar and the guidance of Solly Suleiman and Adv Moosa and the dedication of AK Ismail of getting work done and the teamwork and networking of ladies of Jama’atun Nisaa.
We also thank Brothers Sattar Dada, Solly Noor, Feizul Ayob and the rest of the BOM for their dedication to WMO and putting Africa in the forefront on the map of WMO International .
May Almighty Allah bless them for all their efforts.
With salaams and Duas
Fazila AK Ismail