New Motormouth

The helicopter tickets for Vaishno Devi have come in. Today, while Arora distributed copies of the passenger manifest and flight schedule, a minor glitch was detected. Jagmohan Papneja (pic alongside) and wife Rita Papneja have been booked on separate flights. While many explained it away as a common occurrence and that the seats can always be “adjusted” (with someone traveling alone, like Arun Patil), there remained a niggling doubt that the authorities at Katra might not agree. After all, every booking is made on the basis of identity proof, by virtue of which a passenger obtains insurance cover for a particular flight.
Surprisingly, the man to be affected by this slip-up, remained cool as a cucumber. Rather than getting worked up, Jagmohan was at his chirpiest best, explaining while exercising how helicopters operate at Vaishno Devi. Shekhawat was all ears listening to how “dukr-dukr the choppers take off one by one, and in eight minutes, dukr-dukr they land”. So taken in was he by Jagmohan’s “dukr-dukr” narration that while others were doing the butterfly exercise, he was absent-mindedly performing lein-dein… till Nahid Khan stopped mid-session and Arora had to physically pull Shekhawat out and away from Jagmohan.
But Jagmohan was unstoppable. Otherwise a man of few words, he had become exceptionally garrulous today. Now he had a new audience in Bose. And again, Nahid Khan shook her head in exasperation. Seeing her expression, Jagmohan launched off on a “doctor friend” who was shocked to learn that Tara Chand could be photographed holding a cricket bat (yesterday’s post). “Tomorrow, you will put a pistol in his hand and implicate him in a murder,” the doctor said. “Why pistol, we already have Nahid Khan in uniform brandishing a stengun!” Jagmohan had replied.
Hearing the word “stengun”, Shekhawat quickly slunk back to his original place in the circle. Till then, he had been desperately straining his ears for snatches of Jagmohan's stories.
Srichand Arora:
Dear Papneja, don't worry at all. The problem will be sorted out once we reach Katra. Till then, just keep laughing!
Jagmohan Papneja:
Thank you so much, Arora-ji for your good gesture. I really acknowledge your kindness.