Happiness Day

DILIP: "Why did the mouse refuse to marry an elephant?"  

A running insider joke of the Club has been Shekhawat’s clarion call, “Rane, baith jao” (Rane, sit down) just before the Kissa Kursi Ka exercise. With Bapu Rane’s demise last year, the call has assumed an ominous ring. But Shekhawat remains persistent, occasionally substituting Rane for Ramila Mistry or Ruksana Khan or Razia Khan... just about anybody present whose name begins with ‘R’.
Funny thing, the person he mentions would inevitably stop coming to the Garden soon after. It happened with Ramila who was struck by a crippling knee problem. Then Ruksana complained of sudden ankle pain.

Hari Singh Shekhawat

Soon Razia was down with some such ailment. But Shekhawat refuses to admit that he is in any way to blame.
So this morning, when he reported sick, there were no sympathizers. Of course, we all know it is nothing serious and has more to do with the season change. But the news gave the ladies a good reason to jump and shout, “Serves him right!” Arora qualified this unexpected outburst by clarifying, “For so long Shekhawat has been putting everyone down, now it is his turn. He is down with fever."

MONTHI: "What's wrong in asking about Behrambagh?"

Dilip Babani also got to show his wacky side as he narrated a hilarious tale of a mouse rejecting an elephant’s marriage proposal – only to prompt Santosh Tyagi to come up with an equally hilarious elephant and ant courtship joke. Amidst all the laughter, Monthi Serrao committed an unintended gaffe, which only goes to prove what a natural wit she is.
Nahid Khan was being told about Arun Patil calling up and that he was camping in the grand Kaiserbagh Palace in Lucknow for the shooting of Raqs (yesterday's post). Nahid had begun saying that Kaiserbagh was close to her maternal home when Monthi butted in to ask, “Behrambagh?” instantly triggering a round of laughter. Nothing wrong in hearing wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. But the way Monthi put it made everybody crack up immediately. And the more she tried to explain her way out, the more everybody laughed and laughed.
Now, none of this can be deliberate, planned, forced or rehearsed. Everything happens at the spur of the moment. And this exactly is the kind of unalloyed pleasure and joy we derive from the Club every morning. What more can we ask for on World Happiness Day -- today!
Jagmohan Papneja:
There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy. Every day we discover one or the other reason for sharing happiness. This has become part of our life and it will remain so in the Big Laaf club.
Harish Wadhwa:
Laughter, they say, is the best medicine. So get tons of it and feel happy and healthy.