Warm Winter

ENTERTAINMENT WITHOUT TAX!

END OF ANOTHER SULTRY MORNING

Winter is upon us. The nights have started to lengthen and everywhere across India, there’s a pleasant nip in the air, especially in the mornings. But in Mumbai, it is still hot as hell.
Here, like the rest of the country, the sun takes its time to rise and it is no longer bright and lighted when we assemble at the Garden. In some areas, the street lights could still be on. But the lingering darkness scarcely provides any relief from the mugginess in the air.
Strangely, on some mornings, it might even seem like the skies are overcast and that we could be treated to a gentle morning shower. No luck though. We are left to stew in our own juices and curse the weather while submitting ourselves to the exercise routine.
But all is not lost. By a happy circumstance, there would always be someone or the other to rescue us from this sordid situation and brighten our mornings. It could be Shekhawat or Bijoy Gupta, Razia Khan or Mumtaz Jahan, Srichand Arora, Mallika Kagzi, Mohar Singh, Nahid Khan… just about anybody, even little Akshat Choudhary.
Nothing is beyond these natural born-entertainers. Something as basic as forming a human train (to mark the end of our free-hand exercises) gets blown out of proportion and becomes a cause of much hilarity. When Gupta accuses Shekhawat of practicing black magic (seriously, ‘kala jadoo’) to perpetuate his hegemony on the Club, no offence is taken. On the contrary, it invites charges of him visiting a certain Radhey Maa on the sly – such is the extent of Shekhawat’s flights of fancy!
The latest is Razia Khan’s rejoinder to Shekhawat’s playful ditty on serenading his mythical saalis: ‘Baharon phool barsaao, Mera mehboob aaya hai…’ He sings these two lines with such gusto and exaggerated emphasis at all the wrong places that Razia is left with no option but to retort in all earnestness: ‘Baharon paththar barsaao, Mera jija-ji aaya hai!’
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
When one enters the Club in the morning for the exercises, one forgets the weather conditions -- more so, when some treat is in the offing. The hilarious antics of some members also serve as a cohesive factor.