Tale of Two Women

Khatoon Baig

Nahid Khan

Nahid Khan leaves for the Gangtok-Darjeeling trip today. A fiercely independent woman, she takes a late night train for Delhi and after spending time there with a friend, she would board the Rajdhani Express to reach New Jalpaiguri on March 28, in time for the rest of the group to arrive by air.
For the next six days, Nahid would be ‘paired’ with Khatoon Baig – a study in contrast. A painfully shy person, even timid, she is a retired school teacher and has led a sheltered life amid five brothers and two sisters. Even on this trip, Khatoon is being escorted by a brother, Ibrahim Qureshi and his wife.
Since accommodation is on a twin-sharing basis in hotels, Khatoon cannot possibly share the room of her brother and bhabhi. And as luck would have it, she has been allotted Nahid’s room. The moment she got to know this, she started having sleepless nights and went on making frantic phone calls. Plain and simple, she is terrified of Nahid. Even this morning, she kept pleading for a change of room.
Strangely, Khatoon believes that Nahid bears a grouse against her for being the one to always tick her off for conducting the morning exercises too fast.

Gayatri Talreja (in spectacles) enrols with the Gangtok gang

Now she is mortally afraid that Nahid would settle scores with her in Gangtok. No amount of assuring that Nahid would not throttle her at night has convinced Khatoon. Incidentally, Nahid carries the reputation of a toughie with everyone calling her “bhai” – a moniker reserved for underworld dons.
Nahid is well aware of this panic situation, but is “enjoying the fun”. She couldn't care either way, even as she makes a pretence of refusing to stay with Khatoon. This has all the more put the fear of the unimaginable in Khatoon. She is dreading the worst... all because she had once raised her voice against Nahid rushing through the exercises.
The issue would not have cropped up had Rakhi Bansi not got her sister-in-law, Gayatri Talreja to join the contingent as a last-minute entry. Till then Khatoon was supposed to share her room with Rakhi (and Nahid with Nasim Khan who has since dropped out.) In the changed circumstances, with Khatoon and Nahid both at loose ends, the only option left was to get them together in the same room. Last heard, Khatoon was requesting that at least their beds be kept apart!
Bihari Milwani:
I am sure when everyone is back from the trip, Nahid and Khatoon will be the best of friends. All fears of Khatoon will disappear.