Habit That Grows

Whatever may be said of the Club and its members, one fact cannot be ignored: their spirit of joie de vivre is simply infectious. Being there with them is a habit that grows. Ask Yusuf Rassiwala: It has been a week today since he resumed his Garden routine. Apart from health issues, an inexplicable “feeling of listlessness and lethargy” had kept him away for about four months. Now, having broken out of that state of ennui, he cannot but show up every morning.
There are of course, many who join out of curiosity, leave and rejoin – again and again. Then there are the hardcore addicts like Nahid Khan, Shekhawat, Santosh Tyagi and Ved Prakash Grover who cannot start the day without paying a visit to the Garden. Some like Harish Wadhwa and Monthi Serrao are inveterate late-comers, but come they must. Bapu Rane too needs to touch base, even if it is for a few minutes. Today he showed up moments before we were winding up. And what would you say of Kajal and Dilip Babani? They dropped in during the closing prayers!
Obviously, there is something intensely compelling and irresistible as to draw all these people to the Garden every morning. The following banter, triggered by Srichand Arora is indicative enough:
Instead of saying, “Turn to your Left, Turn to your Right”, Arora (who was conducting the neck exercises) orders: “Idhar-Udhar dekhna.”
Yusuf Rassiwala retorts: “Old habits die hard.”
Kishor Babani reiterates: “Even at this age, he wants to look around here and there.”
Pratap Bhatt informs: “He went to Singapore to look around…”
And so it went on and on. This is just one passing example of the countless crackpot comments that get tossed about – invariably spilling into the tea session (pic above) with a volley of jokes and uproarious laughter outside the Garden. How can anybody miss such fun?
Harish Wadhwa:
Hey, what's the point being at the Garden before 7:00a.m.? After all, aaraam bhi koi cheez hai! That's all we need. Coming a little late gets you lots of good wishes, good mornings, namastes, Sat-sri-akal, Salaam-alai-kums... With so many compliments what fun to start the day!