Loss of Innocence

Nahid Khan with Karuna Waghmare (rt)

How a new member grows into the Club makes for an interesting study. The process of adjusting, being comfortable, finding a voice and eventually merging with other members is much like a child losing his/ her innocence. For some this might take long. For others, like Kiran Prakash or Siba Prasad Maitra, fitting into the Club can be instantaneous – like a fish takes to water.
Karuna Waghmare offers a refreshing case in point. A descendant of some brave warrior who killed a tiger (or was it a leopard?), this stout, rotund lady used to be a silent observer when she joined, following each of us intently like a predator sizes up its prey. It could get uncanny at times -- more so when she would mumble something to herself and laugh.
We soon learnt that this was her style and laughed with her, often without hearing what she had said. This made her more vocal (and audible).

Sweety Sinha canvasses for Art of Living classes

While we cursed the sweltering heat and humidity, Karuna informed that people still conduct all-night bhajans and kirtans in villages to propitiate the rain gods. She even did a cameo of playing the drum to illustrate her point. Many found this “cute” and started calling her “Karunamayi”.
It is almost six months since Karuna joined the Club and she appears fully sorted out by now. She has always been regular for the exercises, is punctual to a fault and can claim to be more disciplined than most. This could well have given her the confidence (if not the license) to upbraid others to the extent that she directed Srichand Arora to stand where she can see him (because “he is so small”) when he conducted the exercises today. The other day, she picked on another member, asking how he had overnight "sprouted so much black hair" on his head. She even suggests that someone must go to Kanpur to get a ‘kaan’ (ear) for people who “cannot hear” what she says. In effect, she has become so talkative that Nahid Khan would now appear like the Sphinx.
But quite clearly, Karuna is no longer an ‘outsider’.