Khan vs Khan

Conducting exercises in the Garden requires special talent and tact. Not everybody can get it right. Like Shekhawat-ji, Kishor-bhai or Santosh-ji, you could be religiously attending the ‘classes’ every morning, for years, but still not be able to conduct a single session of exercises. You need to be a natural like Arora-sah’b, or Yusuf-bhai. Or Sitaram-ji. Or Nahid Khan. Rane Bapu and Sunita-ji almost got there, but unfortunately, they lack the confidence to take the rest of the group along.
Razia Khan (right) realized this the hard way this morning after a series of run-ins with Nahid Khan ( below left). The latter is a veteran while Razia has been conducting the exercises off and on, mostly to fill in for the absence of the seniors. Today Arora and Nahid were both present, but Razia volunteered to step into the middle. And much to her dismay, nobody seemed to follow her instructions. When she said “left”, many were lifting their right hands. When she said “right”, they were turning their heads left. When she said, “Position ley lijiye,” Bhaswati Bose could be heard asking, “Kya, bandook chalaane ke liye?” while Geeta Sandana murmured under her breath, “Hamein kaunsa front mein jana hai?”
Exasperated, Nahid Khan began trading jibes with Razia on her inability to maintain order in the class. “Yeh, kaisa teacher hai?” she kept asking aloud. Time and again, she had to correct Razia with a shrill “Heyyyyyy!” whenever the sequence of exercises went wrong. At one point, when Razia looked at her helplessly, wondering what followed the “Uddh ja panchhi” round, Nahid burst out, “Yeh teacher zaroor naqli certificate leh kar pass hui hai”!
The light banter continued between the two, right through the exercise session -- not that Razia was taking it entirely lying down. “Theek hai bachchoo, meri bhi baari aayegi,” she threatened, amid uproarious laughter. Geeta-ji provided a counterpoint, once again murmuring with a deadpan expression: “Hamein kya lena-dena hai in dono ke beech mein?” Those who overheard couldn’t help bursting into another round of laughter.
It was a happy, invigorating morning, rounded off by Nazma Syed (right) distributing chocolates to mark her return from a holiday at Goa.

Harish Wadhwa says:
1. Nice of you, Nazma-ji for the chocolates this morning (yum!). Is anyone visiting Goa or his/her hometown in the near future? Well, honestly I am interested only in getting chocolates!
2. Today's Santa-Banta session by Santosh-ji was very nice. And so was the burst of laughter by Kishor-bhai and Arora-sah'b. Hanste Raho Hansate Raho. I also noticed our dear Shekhawat-ji regaining his usual good mood. We wish to see him and Rane-ji doing the daily Hoo-haa-haa dance like before.
--Harish