In Mourning

One man’s absence was more conspicuous than the presence of the whole lot of us put together. He was not there to respond to our routine cry of “Rane Ready?” before the Lion-Lioness Laughter. He was not around to wish Monthi Serrao a toothless “Namattey!” when she returned today from her Mangalore trip.

Monthi Serrao

He did not show up during the Kissa Kursi Ka exercise when we habitually say, “Rane, jahaan pe bhi ho, baith jao!”
The popularity of this man is evident from the deluge of ‘comments’ we have received on yesterday’s obit (see post). On last count, we had as many as 16 condolence messages with people like Kiran Makharia, Sitaram Hivarkar and Banoo Khan writing in for the first time. Never before has the blog received so many messages (and still coming) on a single post.

Anantrao Waichal's Monkey Laughter act

In view of such an overwhelming response, it has been decided to incorporate all comments in a beautiful photo-album we intend to gift Bapu Rane’s family. The album will essentially be a compilation of images capturing some memorable moments (mainly drawn from this blog) of his association with the Club over the years.
To uplift our spirits this morning, a 76-year-old man, Anantrao Waichal joined us for the exercises and later, demonstrated how Monkey Laughter is performed by his club at Kolhapur. Amusing as it was, we were more intrigued by the nimble-footedness of this elderly gent and the vast reserves of energy he could summon in putting up an absolutely astounding show.
Message from Raghuvir Shekhawat:
Daddy is recovering. The stitches have been removed. He still has some pain which the doctors are saying would last for a couple of months. I am very grateful to all of you for showing patience till now. If you wish, please visit Daddy. He would be more then happy to see you all. My request is, if you all can come together, the strain on him would be a little less. My apologies for keeping you all away from Daddy. But I hope you understand.
Srichand Arora:
I am not there next week as I will be going out of town. But I request you all to pay a visit to our dear Shekhawat jointly at the earliest possible day.