Orphaned!

With the Kashmir group gone, we have been rendered headless – if not legless, bodyless, brainless… After all, all the Club biggies are currently on that train to Jammu Tawi. And they include Srichand Arora, Nahid Khan, Yusuf Rassiwala and Razia Khan who have been conducting our exercises regularly every morning. To borrow an expression from Bhaswati Bose, we have been left orphaned!
And yet, the turnout at the Garden was extraordinary – if only to establish that the show must go on. Many non-regulars like Dilip Babani and Ram Shankar Shukla (who has just recovered from a viral attack) as well as two new ladies joined us for the exercises.
What’s more, Jagmohan Papneja was also there. He was away on vacation to Canada and had brought along a box of Lindt chocolates – one of the oldest ‘super-luxury’ brands of Switzerland. He was not sure when his friends were leaving for Kashmir and had hoped to catch up with them this morning. But they had already left and happily, the Lindts meant for Shekhawat & Co also ended up in our mouths.
Effectively, their loss was our gain.
Harish Wadhwa:
Their loss was certainly our gain, as each one of us got an extra chocolate. Just to confess that even I had two! [I can already see some readers smiling:)] But thanks Papneja- ji for those lovely chocolates. You should visit Canada more often!
Renu Babani's PICSPEAK:
"You talking to me? Sorry, I'm busy relishing these chocolates!"
Harish Wadhwa adds:
Renu-ji, what I was prompting Ramila-ji was that if she could 'steal' a couple of extra chocolates for me. She happily obliged. Thank you so much. That's how I got my second helping.