Jokes and Jibes

Tara Chand Seth

Ram Shankar Shukla

Tara Chand Seth is yet to recover from the hangover of last Saturday’s trip to Lonavala. Taking off from where he left, he resumed his ragging Srichand Arora even as the latter pleaded to be spared today, now that his injured arm was paining very bad after the picnic exertion. “But natural,” Tara Chand retorted mischievously. “Everyone has to pay the price for his burey karam!” And so he kept at it, on and on, relentlessly.
Eventually, when Arora had to confront him on why he was determined to “auction” his reputation, Tara Chand cheekily changed tack. He praised Arora for organizing such a wonderful picnic at short notice, leaving no room for anyone to complain. “Bahot-bahot-bahot lutf uthaya!” he exclaimed and urged that more such day picnics with small groups of 15-16 members should be organized by the Club in future. Everybody agreed that there is no point carrying huge busloads of 30 to 40 people and get into complications of overnight stay and incur needless expenses.

Catching up with the Lonavala pictures on a laptop

Shekhawat, who had done much of the groundwork for the Lonavala trip, was mighty pleased that all went well in spite of his absence. He was however, concerned when told of the terrible fall Tara Chand sustained at Tiger Point (see post of July 20). “Haan, bina maal dekhe gir pada,” Tara Chand conceded, triggering Jagmohan Papneja’s curiosity about what he meant by “maal”. Soon everybody wanted to know the meaning of “maal” and the only way out for Tara Chand was to tactfully deflect attention towards his ‘bus partner’, Ram Shankar Shukla.
“Haan bhai, what about the party you promised for finding your purse?” he demanded.
Now, this became a new subject of discussion for all those who did not go to Lonavala. The jokes and jibes that followed took the next half hour of the exercises as everyone wanted Shukla to celebrate the recovery of his lost wallet. He tried to wriggle out, but relented at one point -- just that nobody heard him then. Ved Prakash Grover even tried to show the way to the Super Sweets shop from where Shukla could pick up luddoos tomorrow!
It remains to be seen whether the treat is on… or not.
Harish Wadhwa:
* The picture of Bhaswati-ji looks like that of a Praud Shiksha Kendra or adult literacy centre.
* Get well soon, Tara Chand-ji. I hope the injury is small and that you recover soon.