Sage Advice

GARDEN PARTY: Celebration of green in all its myriad shades

Breakfast was taken care of today also. No matter what anybody might tell her, Mallika Kagzi believes that it is her moral duty to feed the hungry souls who assemble at the Garden every morning, ostensibly to burn calories and reduce flab.
But today, she had a reason. It was grand-daughter Shifa’s birthday and Mallika wanted us to join her in celebrating with a round of home-made dhokla, samosa-pao and tea. The little girl had school to attend and could not join us. But we remember her from her last visit to the Garden

Bijoy Gupta

and sent her our blessings by raising an extra laugh after the exercises.
Siba Prasad Maitra was curious to know the meaning of ‘shifa’. The closest equivalents he could get were cleanliness, purity, clean up (somebody even insisted it was a male name), much as Mallika tried to explain that the word has more to do with healing and cure, rather than safai.

These are selfie-taking times

Obviously, there is no English synonym for this quaint Arabic name.
Earlier in the morning, Bijoy Gupta was to corner some unintended attention when he abandoned his regular exercises and started bawling at a miserable looking middle-aged man: “There is not one thing good about me, do you understand? I am a heavy drinker, I smoke a lot, I eat fish, mutton, chicken… whatever I get. My personal habits are very bad. The only time I behave myself is in this Garden. I am not a nice person to know. Is that clear?” Mr Miserable mumbled something inaudible and Gupta again went hammer and tongs at him: “My father died of diabetes, my grandfather was diabetic, my great-grandfather had diabetes, his father had diabetes, my whole khaandaan has diabetes… and here I am at 72 years, hale and hearty. Diabetes runs miles away from me.”

Khatoon Baig

So what was the provocation for this loud self-depreciating outburst early morning?
“Arrey, what to say?” said Gupta, a known fitness fiend and ardent follower of the Brahma Kumari order. “For the past four months, that fellow there has been pestering me every day, wanting to know the secret behind my sehat (physique). Whatever I say does not make sense to him. So today I gave him exactly what he wanted to hear!”

NEWS FLASH: Khatoon Baig has suddenly taken ill and been admitted to Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad mid-morning today. Doctors attending  have diagnosed her as a “severe case of asthma”. The rest of the members in her group (on the south India tour) are on a day-long visit to Ramoji Rao Film City. Khatoon’s brother, Ibrahim Qureshi is with her though, in hospital. Further details are awaited.

UPDATE: Khatoon Baig is recovering fast and no longer dependent on drips or an oxygen cylinder. Her condition is being monitored closely in Emergency. Doctors are hopeful she should be able to travel by the morning flight tomorrow to Mumbai.