More the Merrier

Mallika Kagzi

Mallika Kagzi was right about the ta’i chi girls. “Yesterday I spotted three of them,” she had said. “Today, I can see there are four. Tomorrow there will be five. The day-after, there will be six… At this rate, are we going to remain a laughter club or would we turn into a ta’i chi club?”
That was the day-before-yesterday when Mallika had reasons to be upset (ref post of November 10). She took the morning off today; but as predicted, the number of our Chinese instructors has gone up progressively from four to five and today, to six.

Limbering up for the qi gong exercises

Yuan ji dance music puts Shekhawat on balle balle mode!

And we are so much more happy about it. For with every passing day, we are learning something new from each of them.
After being put through the warm-up exercises (which are actually meant to activate acupressure points), we were today introduced to the so-called qi gong or healing exercises. With soothing yuan ji dance music playing in the background, the six girls enjoined us in a beautifully synchronized demonstration of graceful stepping and fluid movement of the limbs in slow motion.
Only three of us lasted the 15-minute workout: Kiran Prakash, Ajit Choudhary and Swati Punjabi. The rest, including Yusuf Rassiwala, Shekhawat, Harbans Kaur and Srichand Arora gave up after a while.
Clearly, ta’i chi has come to signify different things to different people. Kiran Prakash, Arora and most others are hooked on to its health benefits while Mumtaz Jahan and Swati cannot get over the flexibility of the girls’ bodies. Harbans Kaur is impressed by what she describes as the “quiet, single-minded concentration” of the girls while exercising. And Shekhawat is completely bowled over by their “ageless look” and that unlike Indian women, “none of them has a paunch”!
On one count though, there was almost total unanimity. We need these exercises as an extension to our normal routine and if necessary, we might have to curtail our second laughter round. The ta’i chi girls have agreed to come for us every morning, but “not before 7:40 a.m. and provided no one leaves or joins midway while the exercises are on”. Too much of commotion disturbs their concentration, they say.
Bihari Milwani:
Is Mr Shekhawat planning to have some more saalis now?
Kiran Prakash:
If rumours are to be believed, Shekhawat is seriously considering to drop one of his present, not-so-regular saalis. Whether this will be the opportune moment for him to really go multi-national, we will have to wait and see. That could be a new leaf in his life's book.