Fast Work

One of those odd days when we winded up the exercises in double-quick time. We started five minutes late and ended ten minutes earlier than normal. By quarter-to-eight, we were out of the Gate!
The reasons for this mad rush lay fairly and squarely on the two ladies who conducted the exercises this morning. While Sunita Jajodia (below-right, in the foreground), reputed to be the archetypal woman-in-a-hurry, took charge of the laughter rounds, Nahid Khan (below- left) raced through the free-hand exercises as though she had a flight to catch. In the absence of seniors like Srichand Arora, Sitaram and Yusuf Rassiwala, there was no one to put the brakes on these two ladies and they were done with us in 30 minutes flat.
How we were done with deserves some elaboration. Much of the time, before we could, for instance, exhale (or inhale), Nahid Khan had moved on to the next step, doing the opposite. After a point everybody was on to doing their own thing with no pretence of coordinating their movements with one another. Some just stood and gaped around foolishly. Poor Motwani and Tara Chand became so hard-pressed that they had literally run out of breath and were looking at their watches anxiously. Ramila-ben and Harbans Singh made some defiant noises initially, but they too gave up after a while. There was no time even to say the customary “Very Good, Very Good” as Sunita Jajodia had moved to the final claps by then.
Ultimately, Tara Chand-ji had to describe the two ladies as “super-fast express” – a fair analogy which should make say, Sitaram-ji, by contrast a “passenger train”. Arora-sah’b would probably qualify for a “mail train” and Yusuf-bhai, a “local train” that would stop-start, stop-start… something that gets on Sunita-ji’s nerves. And Razia Khan, for the way she conducts the exercises, should be the good old “goods train” that trundles on and on with very few stoppages.
But still it was fun. Despite the pressing urgency in wrapping up the exercises, there was still time to comment on the songs Kishor-bhai was playing, discuss why Yeh Saali Zindagi is an ‘adults film’, make snide remarks on a lovey-dovey couple who had settled on a bench behind the ladies, ogle at some of the walkers… All in a day’s work!
Renu Babani says:
Frankly speaking, I thoroughly enjoyed exercising today. It was done well, both the laughter and exercise routine and completed in time. I actually went and complimented Mrs Khan for the way it was conducted. Exercises should be done well and not with too many distractions. The instructor should be the least distracted, because otherwise the rest tend to follow suit and this causes unnecessary chatter and waste of time. So, kudos to the two ladies today and hopefully the others will follow their example to some extent. I genuinely enjoyed it today.
--Renu