Festive Cheer

Fehmida Khan

The cold wave continues unabated. The papers are putting it to ‘northerly winds’, ‘low humidity’ and so on, but to us in Mumbai, especially on Christmas eve, the extraordinary chill is the closest we can get to a white Christmas. Fehmida Khan even came dressed in a red Santa Claus outfit, replete with a fur-trimmed hood,

Naseem Khan (r) treats us to barfis from Nagpur

ushering in the yuletide spirit.
It was also Eid-e-Milad un Nabi today – the Prophet’s birthday. Amid the festive cheer with warm hugs and greetings all around, Mallika Kagzi treated us to hot, home-made tea to celebrate the occasion. Shekhawat got his chance and gave a big bear hug to each of his three saalis present this morning. The fourth one had taken the day off.
Naseem Khan also chipped in, adding to the merriment with a box of special malai barfis.

Bijoy Gupta (standing) in full flow

She has just returned from a visit to her home town, Nagpur and it was no small coincidence that she chose an auspicious day to treat us. What more could we have asked for on a freezing December morning when the best part of Mumbai was still fast asleep?
And yet, there was more. Rehearsals for the Annual Day function began in right earnest inside the China Hut (like the last time) and Bijoy Gupta came up with a surprise performance. When prodded to “do something” for the evening, he turned to Shekhawat, his bête noire and threatened to present a “mimicry act”.
What followed was a hilarious, belly-aching adaption of the old Hindi film song, ‘Bade Miyan Deewane, Aise Na Bano'. Gupta cannot sing to save his life, but the way he made up by shouting and gesticulating furiously at a stone-faced Shekhawat had us all in splits. It was by far the stand-out performance of the morning.
Kiran Prakash:
Bijoy Gupta is a hidden gem. His will indeed be a performance, applauded by one and all. We had a glimpse of the performance of Banoo Apa and Fehmida too. I bet the Annual Function will set a benchmark.