Mountain of Molehill

The ladies reprimand Bijoy Gupta (in white tee)

Bijoy Gupta today let the proverbial cat among the pigeons by staking a claim to the office of club president. While the present incumbent, Srichand Arora was not present on the scene, the ladies swooped upon Gupta for making the following announcement during the exercises:
“Make me the club president and I will come to the Garden daily. I will host a big party, bigger than what Yusuf-bhai has. I will do whatever you say, but first make me the president. Put a garland around my neck, take my photograph…”
That was enough for Sunita Jajodia, Harbans Kaur and some other ladies to go hammer and tongs after Gupta: “You can give any party you like, but why compare with Yusuf-bhai’s? We take strong objection to this. Go and apologise to him. Say sorry to Yusuf-bhai.”
At first Gupta did not know what hit him.

Sitaram and Shukla wish Angad Singh well

He stood up to the ladies defiantly, then looked up in space pretending to be deaf and when he found himself outnumbered, his shoulders fell and he looked helplessly at Shekhawat who started it all. Shekhawat had asked Gupta why he was absent yesterday and why he cannot be regular.
“If you are not regular you will lose your membership,” Harbans Kaur warned him. “But that does not mean can you talk like this. You cannot say you will give a party better than Yusuf-bhai’s. You should ask for his forgiveness!”
Gupta just could not understand what was wrong in what he said. But he was clever enough not to argue with women and listened quietly. He had seen Yusuf Rassiwala wink at everyone when he brought up the comparison with the Eid party and if anything, he was paying a compliment on having set a benchmark for Club parties. But in the end, Jagmohan Papneja was proved correct (comment of August 4). The get-together will be talked about for a long time, he had predicted.
Meanwhile, Angad Singh took leave from the Club as he has to return to Mohali, his hometown. He was on a visit to Mumbai to be with his children and all this while he kept his rendezvous with us religiously every morning. He did not seek formal membership into Big Laaf, but in no way was he a lesser member than any of us. We look forward to having him back in 2015.
Jagmohan Papneja:
Gupta-ji had made a loud and boastful statement about throwing a better party than Yusuf-bhai subject to becoming president of the club. Whether he will be able to fulfill the commitment remains a question mark.