“Naughty Boy”

Hari Singh Shekhawat (right) earned a new sobriquet today. Fed up of his childish antics and being constantly distracted by him, Nahid Khan (left) called for some restraint and discipline while she conducted the exercises. “Aap bilkul naughty boy ho gaye!” she declared.
Apparently, this was just what Shekhawat was waiting for. He redoubled his efforts at pulling off the silly pranks he is known for, deliberately giving wrong cues – skipping the “Doorsa Padav: Kissa Kursi Ka”, calling “Nachh Baliye” before time, and so on… till Nahid finally gave up on him. But it must be said that it is because of his childish qualities that Shekhawat is so popular and loved by all. Belying his age, he is always so full of beans, bobbing up and down like an irrepressible schoolboy. While the rest of us exercised in silence, laboring under the terrible heat, he was all over the place laughing and dancing, invoking Rane’s name and generally, playing the fool.
Adding to the fun-filled morning, there was some good news from Nazma Sayed (left). Her favorite grandson (and a darling to us all), Ali has been promoted to Class 8 and she brought a box of luddoos to the Garden to celebrate his success. Within moments, all the luddoos vanished. Shekhawat grabbed his share before announcing jubilantly, “Pappu pass ho gaya!”
On the flip side though, there’s some disturbing news in today’s papers: The Bombay High Court has issued strictures against a laughter club in Kurla for causing “public nuisance, pain and mental agony”, following a petition by a 78-year-old lawyer: “From 7 a.m., around 10 to 15 members of the group gather and sing and clap. It is followed by loud and vigorous spells of laughter at the top of their voices and each member encourages the others to laugh to their heart’s content. This goes on for 20 to 25 minutes every day and the noisy routine would sometimes be rounded off with snacks.”
Sounds familiar? Well, the High Court has reportedly directed the police to restrain the members from “foisting their high spirits” on those residing in the locality.
Harish Wadhwa:
* Congrats to "Pappu" for passing his exams! How nice that his grandmom was so thrilled that she shared sweets with all of us. May you pass all exams in future with flying colors, Ali. And do cajole your grandmom to distribute more sweets to us greedy guys!
* We need to empathise with people staying near by and make sure that we do not disturb them with our activities. (As long as we can follow this restraint, it's all fine.) Arora-ji will need to use his statement, "Awaaz upar tak jani chahiye!" more judiciously. "Purjosh hansi" also will need to be replaced with "man ki hansi".