'Baatuni Babies'

As winter loses its bite, the Garden is filling up again. The woolies are coming off and more people are punctual these days. Significantly, the noisy chatterboxes, who were rather subdued till recently, are back in their elements and regaling everybody with their nonsensical banter and delightful pranks.
The Club has come to recognize this select group of happy-go-lucky ladies as baatuni babies – the allusion deriving from what Yusuf-bhai had coined for Kajal Babani, the youngest and most talkative of them all. He called her “Baatuni Baby”. Today also, he singled her out during the exercises, glowering menacingly while she kept on giggling with other motormouths – Bhaswati Bose and Monthi Serrao. It made no difference to any of them. Within seconds, they were back to their antics. Together, they get along like the garden on fire!

It would however, be unfair to pick on the ladies, because the men too have what may be called 'baatuni babas' – just that they are prone to mood swings. Ironically, Yusuf-bhai is their leader and on his day, he can give Sunita Jajodia nightmares in daytime. And on a bad day, he may simply clam up – much like Srichand Arora, Bapu Rane and Sitaram Hivarkar. Even Tara Chand Seth (left) can be quite a talkative man and his absence for the past four days was therefore noticed with growing concern and alarm. Lest anybody imagine anything untoward, he has sent word that he is busy with his niece’s wedding and that there’s nothing really to worry about.
Adding to the spirit of bonhomie, Prakash Motwani (lead pic) celebrated his 65th birthday with a box of pedas soon after the exercises. Apart from the customary extra laugh, everyone clapped and sang, wishing him a long, healthy and happy life ahead.
Harish Wadhwa:
Monthi-ji has a nice expression of awe and admiration for the sweets being distributed... or is it for Razia-ji who is likely to sneak one away without notice?