Fooling About?

Father and son

Prabha Kapoor treats us to
biscuits brought from Delhi

Yesterday’s kids did not show up today. But an old man did. He had come from Bihar and according to his son (accompanying him), he is recovering from a paralytic stroke that had, till a few weeks back, rendered him immobile waist-down.
Apparently the son had attended our exercises earlier (not that we remember) and was familiar with our routine. “I feel that if he joins you every morning on a regular basis, he will recover faster,” he said. “We don’t mind paying your membership charges.”
Now, this is something that beats us.

Jagmohan Papneja wants to take
everyone to a musical show

On the one hand, we hold the reputation of being a bunch of foot-loose, fun-loving, happy-go-lucky people who have nothing better to do in life than to play the fool every morning in the Garden -- and eat and eat.
On the other hand, there is this enduring public perception of we being a well-disciplined and regimented group such that, we never skip the exercises even for a day, come hail or high water. Many in the Garden say that they set their watches on our movements. It is also not unusual to have crowds gawking at us from the walking track, as though we are some kind of a tourist attraction. This is very common on Wednesdays and Saturdays when most of us are in uniform green or white tops/ T-shirts.
So every time someone takes a leap of faith and seeks permission to join us, we are flattered. We feel reassured that we are not as bad as we make ourselves to be and that we could be doing some things right after all. This is also reflected in the ever-expanding exercise circle – as was evident today. A time would soon come when we would cover the full section of the Garden where we have been ‘fooling about’ for the past ten years or so.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd) from Mohali:
Laughter is contagious. If one laughs, everybody starts laughing. Laughter is also a great medicine. It cures a lot many diseases. You forget all your worries and your heart starts functioning well. I cannot say about paralytic attacks, but I am sure the father and son duo from Bihar will be happy doing the exercises with Club members.