Children’s Day - 2015

Akshat and Hussain rejoice

Today was Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary -- Children’s Day. It was quite thoughtful of Yusuf Rassiwala to bring his grandson, Hussain to the Garden this morning. Little Akshat Choudhary was already there, as usual. A third kid also joined us for the exercises.

Shekhawat is eager to impress

But eventually, it was Shekhawat who stole the thunder today.
In a determined bid to not just awaken the child within him but to let it run amok bindaas, Shekhawat was all over the place showing off his newly acquired knowledge of Chinese (ref yesterday’s post). He accosted everyone with head bent low, exclaiming “Ni-hao!” (Hello there!). And when the tai chi girls turned up, his excitement reached new heights. Eager to prove what a good student he can be, he rattled off all the three phrases he had been taught (in no particular order) yesterday, only to be saddled with some additional Chinese words as homework for Monday.
Such childish exuberance did not go unnoticed.

Bijoy Gupta

Razia Khan

As expected, it elicited strange looks and snide remarks (but in good humour) from various quarters. Shekhawat could hardly care anyway. He waxed eloquent in his limited vocabulary and when the time came, performed his balle-balle dance with great vigour while the Chinese girls glided gracefully, demonstrating the ta’i chi steps. “This is what happens when a crow wants to imitate the gait of swans,” remarked Nahid Khan, thoroughly amused by Shekhawat’s unprovoked antics.
But Bijoy Gupta was greatly alarmed. “Isko roko,” he warned. “Nahin toh Cheen chala jayega” (Stop this man or else he’ll run away to China!) Razia Khan took Shekhawat aside and reasoned that he owes it to his saalis to remain faithful to them and not be swayed by extraneous elements. “This is not right,” she reprimanded him.
Realising that all her advice was falling into deaf ears, she arrived at the profound conclusion: “All men are the same!”