‘Pappu’ Passes

Nazma Sayed walked into the Garden, a proud grandmother, anxious to announce that her Ali (see post of April 20) has “passed with first division marks” and been promoted to Class VII. She had brought luddoos to celebrate his success. Promptly everybody joined Kishor Babani to congratulate the little boy standing alongside in orange T-shirt: “Pappu pass ho gaya!”
Before long Shekhawat came in. Instead of rejoicing or giving him his blessings, he thundered at Ali: “Why don’t you get some sense into your grandmother’s head? Day by day, she is putting on weight and still she does not want to come to the Garden. I am sick and tired of telling her to be regular. Only when her legs swell up so badly that she cannot walk, will she understand!”
But for that momentary embarrassment, Shekhawat and Ali were back to their old pranks like a house on fire. They gamely engaged each other, locking eyeballs in the Medium Laughter round, growled at one another like animals and performed a vigorous dance together after the exercises. Before Ali opened his box of luddoos (right), Shekhawat called upon everybody to raise an extra laugh to felicitate his little companion.
It wasn’t all hunky-dory though, as Mumtaz Jahan had a spot of disturbing news. It seems some busybodies are bent upon closing down our Club as we “make too much noise and disturb the sleep” of people in nearby apartments. Ideally, they’d want us to let sleeping people lie. Next, they’d want to stop the traffic on the roads... Does this bother us? Not really. It is just too irritating having to deal with this. We’ll cross the bridge when we come to it.
Renu Babani says:
Congratulations to Pappu! The parents must be so proud. Regarding news from one of our members about the laughter sessions being too loud, etc. We shall cross that hurdle when confronted. As the proverb goes, 'United we stand, divided we fall'. We have always proved that no matter what issues we face, all of us stand as one and solve it with such ease. Why think of it now, let us wait and watch... then come the fireworks!
--Renu