Celebrations!

As we near the end of the year, it’s celebration time once again at the Garden. The weather is wonderful – neither warm, nor chilly. The general mood is upbeat. And what’s more, people like Razia Khan, Harbans Singh and Kiran Arora are back.
Bapu Rane, who shares his birthday with his more famous lookalike (just that they are separated by exactly two months) celebrated with huge belly-filling besan-ka-luddoos. He completes 70 years today and to mark the occasion, his friend (not a member) Suresh Samel delivered an inconclusive laudatory speech in Marathi. By then Srichand Arora had stuffed Rane’s mouth with a luddoo (above) and we all applauded and rejoiced for the birthday boy.
Following this ceremony, Pratap Bhatt (below, left) stepped in to distribute chocolates to celebrate the success of his wife’s surgery (of the spinal column) recently. It was a tricky procedure, he was to narrate later. The doctors did not give her much of a chance and she had to be on life-support for three days. The way she has come out of it, Bhatt attributes entirely to divine intervention.
In between, a matronly lady (right) sauntered in, trying to regale us with some Haryanvi jokes. (She was to introduce herself as Maheshwari Sharma, a retired headmistress from Jaipur.) Hari Naraiyani intervened to assure her that we already have our “own Birbal” and when Kishor Babani started narrating his quota of jokes for the day, she realised it was no joke to outshine him. She backed out gracefully.
Meanwhile, all plans for a movie outing from the Club seems to have come unstuck. Everybody wants to watch The Dirty Picture (releasing today) but nobody can coordinate their timings. Muharram is next Tuesday, which automatically excludes a large chunk of members before December 6. Kishor and Arora cannot wait till then and have booked their tickets for tomorrow’s show. Renu Babani, Monthi Serrao, Bhaswati Bose, Santosh Tyagi and Kajal Babani have ganged up for another day’s show. That leaves the likes of Shekhawat, Bhatt and all others on a loose end. But determined as they are to watch the “gandi pikchar”, they will surely find a way out – even if it means doing it solo.
Harish Wadhwa:
* Many happy returns of the day to our dear Rane-ji. He should have given the first mouthful-shut luddoo to the Marathi manoos, who cannot say 'Happy Birthday' or give good wishes in Hindi, English or any other language.
* Nice homemade yummy luddoos can do so much wonders to bond a lovely family. Kudos and thanks to Rane-ji and the chef at home who made them. One for sure does not need five-star sweets to make an event memorable.
* Special greetings to Bhatt-saheb's wife for a happy and quick recovery from a citical surgery. Sweets were as yummy as the lovely intention of distributing them.
May you all have a long, great and a happy life ahead.
* Kishor-da, the Baadmash Company joke on mobile charging was just too much. Could'nt control my laughter for a while, even as we parted ways after the chai session. Tussi great ho!
Renu Babani:
What is it with our group that attracts strangers like a magnet? This has happened more than once. We are admired for our spirit and joyful mood and then they decide to intervene and share a joke or two. We are the polite group and quietly listen to their jokes without a fuss. Yes, it feels nice to be admired and makes all of us realise that we realy are unique.
The movie, The Dirty Picture seems to have attracted more of an audience than one could imagine. Let's see what is each one's review on the movie. Here's an idea: For all those who watch the movie, apart from a personal review, each one has to rate it, giving it the required number of stars.
Dilip Babani:
* Vidya Balan is bombart in The Dirty Picture. She is called "poison to men". She danced like Silk Smitha. She is tooooo hot -- so hot that egg become half-fried omlette on her stomach! Be careful, aag lag jayegi dil mein. Some emotional people could get a heart attack.
* Happy birthday, Bapu Rane!
Harish Wadhwa:
Dilip-bhai seems to have caught the 104 bukhaar after watching Vidya Balan and is therefore abstaining from the morning exercises. Ek toh soch soch kar raat bhar neend nahin aati, aur subah exercises bhi karo! Forget it yaar.
* Srichand Arora:
Renu-ji, if I am asked to rate this movie, I would give it one star only. Nothing great about it!