Mass Amnesia

Ramila Mistry

The exercises were conducted by Ramila Mistry in the mandap against a backdrop of unrelenting downpour. She took the place of Nahid Khan, who was a little late to arrive today. But the latter was not about to easily forgive Ramila for usurping her position in the middle. From the very outset she did everything within her power to confuse Ramila who, in any case, was a little rusty as she had not been conducting the exercises for some time. So when she forgot a number, Nahid deliberately gave her a wrong cue. And when she was doing something right, Nahid called it by a different name.

Confined to the mandap because of the rains

The number for the backbone exercise became ‘Hai Mera Dil’ and when Ramila called for ‘Hai Mera Dil’, Nahid called it ‘britthing’… The sequence went topsy-turvy, often prompting Ramila to abandon an exercise midway with an “Eh-eh-eh!” At one point she confronted Nahid: “If this is bird-fly, then what was that we just did?”
Normally in these circumstances, someone or the other in the circle would helpfully provide auto-prompts to keep the exercises on course.

Teja Singh Bhambra

But oddly, that was not happening today. It was as though we had been struck by a bout of collective forgetfulness. The rains had evidently dampened our memory cells, rendering them totally non-functional. And so Nahid had a field day needling Ramila.
After a while Ramila saw through Nahid’s gameplan and tried ignoring her. But her eyes would instinctively flit to her at every stage, as though seeking confirmation and inevitably, she would land herself in a deeper muddle. She even got the counting wrong because Nahid was counting wrong. And the best part was that none of us had the presence of mind to correct them. But in the end, Ramila got even when Nahid innocently remarked that the road roller parked in the Garden had shifted position overnight. She was clearly mistaken. Instantly Ramila shot back at Nahid: “How many pegs did you have last night?”
Witnessing the madcap antics of the two ladies and chuckling to himself was our good old sardarji, Teja Singh Bhambra. He has just returned from a visit to Faridabad and was formally greeted with an extra-loud extra laugh. Surely, he couldn’t have chosen a better day for this homecoming.