New Cues

Hari Singh Shekhawat

As the indisputable ‘ring master’ of our daily exercises, Shekhawat’s task is well cut out. He has to deliver cues at every stage of the free-hand session: ‘Hai Mera Dil’, ‘Kissa Kursi Ka – Doosra Padav’ and ‘Nachh Baliye – Teesra Padav’. Like compliant cattle, our job is to obey the master – sit down when he says to, stand up when he wants…
Once in a while, Shekhawat would deliberately invoke someone’s name or playfully ask a lady to sit on her haunches -- if only to test her stamina. We understand all that.

What are these gentlemen up to?

But who would have expected that those cues would suddenly change to 'Hai Mera Botal', ‘Doosra Padav’ would become ‘Doosra Peg’ and ‘Teesra Padav’ shall be ‘Teesra Peg’?
Oddly enough, it stops there. For that is what Shekhawat says is his “limit”. He cannot imbibe beyond three drinks in one session. And so, for the past week or so, we have been doing with 'three pegs of exercises' every morning, much to his infinite pleasure. So tickled is he about this new twist to the exercise routine that he isn’t even disclosing the real author of the botal and pegs. Believe it or not, he is none other than our Jagmohan Papneja!
Meanwhile, there’s been another development on the exercising front. We have evicted ourselves from the China Hut (it has been too claustrophobic out there) and relocated to a make-shift shed close by. It is far more breezy and well-lit out there, though the shed is still under construction and Srichand Arora had a hard time today with a bamboo pole trying to drain the tarpaulin roof of accumulated rain waiter. Otherwise the water would have kept dripping, leaving puddles on the concrete floor.
Incidentally, this was the same place where we had taken refuge during the monsoon last year.
Jagmohan Papneja:
Monsoon finally hits Mumbai. We are lucky to have a permanent shed and also a make-shift arrangement where we can do our regular exercises. But there is one area of concern. Despite heavy showers in city, lake levels continue to dip. If the catchment area doesn't receive sufficient rains, we are in for a crises. Hope conditions will change for the better.