In Top Form

Action replay of the pick-pocketing act

Srichand Arora nearly got pick-pocketed during today's exercises. Stationed at his usual position in the circle, he was flexing his muscles and swinging his arms in the air, blissfully unaware of a hand that had stealthily slithered into the right pocket of his shorts. It pulled out some house keys, replaced them, then began exploring the other contents of the pocket… and still Arora was unaware of the intrusive hand.
Only when he discovered that everyone in the circle was staring at him open-mouthed, did he realize something was amiss. He swung around and came face to face with the owner of that hand: Mallika Kagzi. “She is the only person in the world capable of such mischief,” he deduced.
“But don’t you ever keep cash in your pocket?” Mallika asked cheekily.
Mallika was in superb form today.

Mallika won't give up on Arora easily

For more than a month, she had been unusually quiet and keeping low, often speaking about her brother-in-law who is critically ill in Surat. Even yesterday, when someone asked why she appeared off-colour,

Sitaram Hivarkar will be away
from tomorrow to nurse his knees

she revealed that her brother-in-law was still in ICU. But this morning, she was back to being her former self.
She started out by holding durbar in the China Hut with her famous weather forecasts. “It won’t rain today,” she declared, even as the sky was heavily overcast. “Go ahead and exercise bindaas in the middle of the Garden. Nothing will happen today, I'm telling you. But tomorrow morning, be careful. It will rain heavily. And the day after, it will be dry again!”
Even before the Arora-episode, Bijoy Gupta was to get another taste of the Mallika treatment. He needlessly provoked her, demanding to know what she and Santosh Tyagi were giggling about. “What’s so funny?” he bellowed. “I want to know!”
Out came Mallika like a bulldozer and proceeded towards Gupta with measured steps. Suddenly Gupta looked a pipsqueak before a larger-than-life entity, actually backing off to avoid a fatal collision. He blabbered something about being inattentive, not to talk while exercising and so on while Mallika kept advancing. She had one question for Gupta: “What's preventing you from talking?" and went on to cajole him. "Talk, talk… talk right now, let me hear what you have to talk.” Gupta clammed up instantly.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd) from Mohali:
This shows what female enterprise and skills are all about. Mallika Kagzi has demonstrated her expertise with hands -- which is not restricted to the enjoyable tea she makes.