Bee…zzzzness!

Today, Harish Wadhwa scared Santosh Tyagi (right) out of her wits. While exercising, he invited her to inspect what looked suspiciously a pancake clinging to the tarpaulin of the Chinese Hut. Instantly, she recoiled in horror. Watching her, everybody burst out laughing, little knowing the cause for such a violent reaction.
The pancake-like object turned out to be a beehive swarming with red, dangerous-looking bees. Far from causing panic, it became the subject of much speculation and amusement with all kinds of conspiracy theories tossed around. The best one came from Nahid Khan. Referring to the bottles of honey distributed some days back (see post of September 6), she opined that this had to be the handiwork of none other than Razia Khan. “You people don’t understand,” she exclaimed. “Where else does she get her honey from? This is her bijiness!”
Why bees, with the monsoon on the wane, the Garden’s resident wild life are now coming out in the open and having a field day. There are so many of them flying and crawling about that we might as well take Srichand Arora’s cue and start bottling them: pickled centipedes, earthworm chutney, fried grasshoppers, caterpillar soup… That too is good “bijiness”. In fact, before Arora left for Singapore, Kishor Babani had offered to cook caterpillar stew for him as a send-off treat!
Jokes apart, we had two newsmakers this morning. One, Ramila Mistry (above, left) turned up after more than a month with holy water from Mansarovar lake and stories of her expedition to Mount Kailash. She looked pretty exhausted and asked for time to acclimatize before being able to resume her daily routine at the Garden.
The second event of the morning was the birthday celebration of Kishor Babani. We laughed extra for him, wished him, sang and clapped for him... and he distributed special Hyderabadi-Karachiwale biscuits around. Here he can be seen (left below) being the perfect gentleman and loving husband, giving wife Renu a bite. But pray, what is she trying to do? Why on earth does she look so determined to gouge out his right eye?
Srichand Arora (from Singapore):
Happy Birthday and Many, Many Happy Returns of the Day, dear Kishor. May God bless you.
Harish Wadhwa:
Well, I have had a bitter experience with those red bees and can swear that their sting hurts (like all "female" bees)! I wanted Santosh-ji also to keep a distance from them.
Nice pic of Kishor-da and Renu-ji trying to pull out the Karachi delights from each other. Must say they made a great treat today.
Renu Babani:
Oh my God! Was I so transparent that my mere look and position of the fingers gave it all away? Why do you all think I was giving him the biscuit? The idea of him feeding me was to divert everyone's attention. But I guess, it didn't work out. All said and done, thanks to everyone for wishing Kishor a great birthday. Each one of you made it a special day. These are the moments we cherish the most -- a simple but memorable celebration.
Great to see Ramila back. Hopefully, after a few days of rest she should be regular. And Mrs Bose, hope you recover soon. No matter what anyone says, we do miss your constant chatter. No wonder it was so quiet today!
Bhaswati Bose:
Happy Birthday, Kishor-bhai! May this day bring you as much happiness as you give to everybody every morning!
Dilip Babani:
Happy Birthday, Kishor-bhai. Many, many happy returns of the day. May God bless you -- and of course Bhabi, Harsha and Prakash.