Too Many Cooks...

The weather may continue to play foul, but there was enough heat generated this morning in the Garden to offset its 'chill' effects. Mumtaz Jahan's famous pachaas ka panga (yesterday’s post) is turning out to be a real bee in the Club’s bonnet with everyone, once again, pretending to be a know-all and holding forth authoritatively on its desirability. After much hair-splitting and finger wagging, it took some plainspeaking from Monthi Serrao (in pic, right) to restore a semblance of order and call for a general body meeting this Saturday, February 2 to discuss the issue threadbare.
Significantly, there is not so much of a divergence of views as a sense of ignorance and confusion – stemming largely out of insufficient information, miscommunication and ambivalence on the part of certain members. So it is imperative to provide a degree of clarity on the issue in order to enable everyone take an informed decision on the three options available: one, whether to consolidate and carry forward activities for the Club’s growth with the common fund created for this purpose; two, refund the moneys collected so far and disband all activities, effectively reverting to the status quo prevailing nine years back; and three, adopt a middle path, e.g. making all contributions voluntary, rather than an imposition on anyone. The right to participate in the daily exercises will, of course, continue, as always. Whatever the majority decides will hold good for all time.
As a happy diversion from the ongoing hullabaloo, we reproduce here a picture Monthi wants us to share (above, left). Exactly a month back, she was with her daughter in Sri Lanka – far, far from the madding crowd. Anybody would run for dear life from these elephants... but strangely, both mother and daughter seem to be completely at peace with them. Wonderful!
Jagmohan Papneja:
"My mother belongs to a group called Big Laaf. She finds everything alarming and believes that AGM is the only effective instrument for settling issues."
Anonymous:
I am a regular reader of your blog. Your club is at an interesting juncture. Change is always resisted, especially by old people. Whether it can be brought about or remains stagnant, I shall keenly follow.
Harish Wadhwa:
Monthi-ji, a nice pic of you and your daughter. Who were more scared -- the elephants or the two of you? You people look very much at ease. So I guess it must have been the elephants!