Day 500

Today the blog completes 500 days. Befitting the occasion, members decided to let their hair down and have a blast. Things got so out-of-control that the exercises, which usually end by 7:45 a.m., went on till 8:10 a.m. with the suryanamaskar prayer still to go!
It all began with Yusuf Rassiwala matching wits with Razia Khan, the latter taking repeated digs at him, “Sir, aap toh hamarey sir hai!” – the pun on “sir” deliberate. Abruptly Yusuf turned his attention to Santosh Tyagi, greeting her with a “namaste” and went on to compliment her for looking “so beautiful” in her youth. Attention had to shift to the “picture on the blog” (post of December 4) with everybody wanting to know whether that was really her. Razia even performed a hilarious jig in front of Santosh -- “Tu cheez badi hai mast mast…” and only then did the exercises resume.
Tara Chand brought about the next break by casually calling Bapu Rane (left) “young boy” – since he could do all the exercises so well, belying his age. Somebody said Bapu was hardly 18 years and another said he was not even in his teens. Razia corrected them, saying he was still a baby whose teeth hadn’t yet formed – all the while Rane giving her a toothless grin. The conversation was interrupted by a bearded man at a distance going berserk, wanting to hit Subbu (post of December 6) with a stone. A crowd had gathered and he was restrained. Needless to say, the poor fellow had been jabbed in the tummy.
Yet another break came about when Yusuf decided to narrate a scene from The Dirty Picture – how Tushaar Kapoor was giving driving lessons to Vidya Balan. He wanted to make a point about how perceptions differ – the fact he was not wearing spectacles today and could be seeing things differently. By then some ladies were getting impatient and Yusuf, for once, had to tell them sternly: “Those who want to go, may go!”
“You may go,” intoned Rane in English, as Sunita promptly stomped away in a huff.
Harish Wadhwa:
I am happy Yusuf-bhai did not see me pounding at him from behind. This happened when everyone was wanting him to speed up the exercises. Indeed, the exercises were going too slow, even though I do understand that they need to be done slow to avoid injury.