Keeping Track

Sheela Mirani

Laxmi Naidu

Harish Wadhwa

We all know that Arun Patil does not come to the Garden because he is unable to walk with an amputated leg. We know that Harbans Kaur is undergoing post-operative treatment for her knee replacement surgery and shall be able to return from Ludhiana towards the end of this month. We also know that Lt Col Angad Singh and Tara Chand Seth are spending time with their folks in Mohali and Delhi respectively. And we also know that the better halves of the Big Three -- Srichand Arora, Yusuf Rassiwala and Hari Singh Shekhawat -- are unable to visit the Garden due to pressing domestic compulsions early morning.
This accounts for some of our senior members who are conspicuous by their absence these days. But there are others about whom nobody has the faintest clue. It is as though they have all fallen off the map.

Sharing a light moment at the Garden this morning

One is Sheela Mirani. Last heard, the lifts in her high rise were out of order and might have to be replaced. Since she is unable to take the stairs (owing to her physical condition) nobody insisted that she should turn up for the exercises. But that was more than a month back. After that, no news.
Another one is Laxmi Naidu. She was away for a fortnight to celebrate her birthday on May 5 at Lonavala and had even showed up briefly to distribute sweets. How, when and where she has disappeared after that, nobody knows. Rumours are she is at her hometown in Kerala. And then there is Harish Wadhwa. He is very much in Mumbai, but his job has taken precedence over the exercises in the Garden. Earlier on, he used to make time to show his face occasionally (and that was more than a year ago) but now, he is no more than a voice on the phone. Physically, he too has vanished into thin air.
Somehow, these people do not realize that they are being missed. Newer members would come and go, at best making up for the numbers every morning. But no one can fill in for the absence of a friend gone AWOL.