Goodbye 2011

And so we reach the end of another year. Srichand Arora, Geeta Sardhana, Yusuf Rassiwala and Neelam Garg returned to the Garden for the last round of exercises in 2011. A guest, Dinesh Sharma (the Boses’ brother-in-law) was also there. So were all the regulars – barring Santosh Tyagi, Sitaram Hivarkar, Renu Babani, Razia Khan, Sunita Jajodia and Pratap Bhatt.
In retrospect, it’s been a joyous and eventful year with parties, picnics and celebrations galore. Arora found a sister in Geeta on Raksha Bandhan day and the latter got her daughter married towards the end of the year. Sunita got her son married around the same time. Dilip and Kajal Babani’s meritorious daughter, Neelam is now a professional speech therapist with a reputed hospital in Mumbai while Khatoon Baig’s son has landed a prestigious job with a U.S.-based company. Bhatt’s wife has survived a critical surgery of her vertebra while Arun Patil is doing fine after a life-threatening bout of diabetes.
And Ramila Mistry successfully scaled the heights of Mount Kailash to keep her appointment at Lord Shiva’s abode near the Mansarovar Lake.
Holi was a major highpoint of 2011 as all members had a blast on a scale never before seen at the Garden. We also got to sample Santosh’s home-made kanji and the taste of Bapu Rane’s oil-free besan-ka-laddoo is still fresh in everyone’s mouth. The two octogenarians, Tara Chand Seth and Hari Naraiyani are in the pink of health.
Yusuf-bhai’s health however, remains a cause of concern – even as he has recovered from a bad heart condition. Hari Singh Shekhawat too has been raising alarm bells while he keeps getting drawn to the resident chudail of his village in Rajasthan. Last year he was down with a severe case of depression and this year too, he had to suffer because of this mysterious entity and ended up being hospitalized. Happily, all that is behind him and he too is now in the pink of health. After all, all’s well that ends well.
Harish Wadhwa:
A beautiful way to sum up a year. Very well done Blog Monster. Just to add a few more:
a) Our blog was up-to-date 348 days out of 365. Kudos for the regular, non-stop reporting.
b) Blog hits became a healthy 60,000-plus figure and growing.
c) Birthday celebrations and picnics rejuvenated our members and their zeal for life.
d) Pehchan Kaun pics kept everyone speculating over the real identity.
e) Kishor-da and Santosh-ji jokes made the daily exercises lively.
f) Badmaash Company got more male and female company for Chai, proving that everyone is a "badmaash" at heart -- just that nobody wants to admit.
g) Many exercises and dialogues were patented: Neelam Exercise, Santosh-ji Taliyan, Gupta-ji's and Dilip-ji's Lion-Lioness (sher ki dahad), Shekhawat-ji's "Rane, jahan ho beth jao", Yusuf-bhai's "Sab saath mein kyon nahi karte?", Bapu Rane's special 'namattey' to Monthi-ji, Kishor-da ke gane... the blabber-blabber blah-blah women gang. Nafisa-ji ki nazar se, One-Tuuuuu-Three-Four by Ring masterni Razia-ji, Dawadiya, Shekhwat-ji's ashiqana goliyan, loud calls of "Bose-Babu"... Well, the list is endless.
All this made the morning fun memorable. May the New Year bring in more fun.