Potty Bombs

Don't miss the white Laksman Rekha on the ground

Little known to many, the Garden is a busy place night and day. Its verdant expanse with beautiful flowering plants and bushes, well-manicured lawns, the crisscrossing walking track and shaded stretches make it a popular haunt for countless health enthusiasts, courting couples and many aspiring film writers and lyricists.
By nightfall, the denizens of darkness take over. Mainly stray dogs, they too have important business to conduct, just that they do not need a gate to enter the Garden. But before leaving, they would dutifully defecate around so as to record their visit at night.
The randomness of this act has turned the Garden into a veritable minefield of ‘potty bombs’ which only a trained eye, like that of Santosh Tyagi or Sunita Jajodia, is able to detect. Many members insist that it is unfair to blame only stray dogs, because stray humans are also capable of defecating and going by evidence on the ground, their involvement cannot be ruled out. While nobody has dared to ask what that evidence is, one thing has become eminently clear: Dog potty is acceptable around the Garden, but human potty is not!
All this has left us with no option but to shift position every other day (“a few feet left, a few feet right”) for the exercises in order to avoid treading upon a hidden mound of fresh excreta. Still, for all their alertness, people are often seen walking away in embarrassment, dragging their feet and leaving behind a soily, sticky, squishy and stinky trail

Arora wants to host a party on Thursday

for all to see.
Today a solution of sorts was found by marking out a circle on the ground with a spare hose pipe lying about. We were told to exercise within the circle as this was a ‘safe zone’ free from all hidden dangers of the grass. But out of politeness and not making things too obvious to the ladies, Srichand Arora described this as our Lakshman Rekha. “If you step out of this circle, Ravan will abduct you,” he joked.
Tara Chand Seth did not quite get the point and remarked that there were “already so many Ravans around that no Lakshman Rekha can help”. But Arora was to have the last laugh when Jagmohan Papneja did his usual disappearing act midway through the exercises. “Watch out, Sita will now abduct you!” Arora warned amid rousing laughter. Jagmohan walked away regardless, taking care not to step on slippery ground.