‘Poor Air’

Today’s papers described Mumbai’s air as “very poor”. According to data recorded by some Weather Forecasting and Research System we are told that the air quality index in the city was 302 yesterday and it would worsen to 306 today.

Welcome back, Teja Singh Bhambra!

Translated, this was to mean dark, cloudy skies with the revival of early morning chill in the Garden. Woolens reappeared and many like Mallika Kagzi presented a comic sight while exercising with a heavy shawl wrapped around. She also led the ‘joy train’ at the end of the free-hand exercises – just that she insisted it was

Siba Prasad Maitra regales with a song

not a train today but an ‘all-women’s boat’ and that she was “rowing”, if not wading.
Mallika could get away with the prank because Shekhawat (our regular ‘engine driver’) was not around. And in order to make an impression, she went about wishing everyone ‘Happy New Year’ instead of ‘Good Morning’. “The whole of January is new year,” she declared. “Didn’t they teach that to you in school?”
Be that as it may, Sardar Teja Singh Bhambra deserved our warmest New Year greeting when he turned up today as promised (ref post of January 4).

Harbans Kaur (l) shares the tragic news

He was unusually dressed – in full-sleeved striped blue shirt, tucked neatly into belted formal brown trousers – as though he had come directly from the airport. “Oh-ho! It is terribly cold out there,” he said about Faridabad, while treating us to a box of barfis. Kiran Prakash gave him the first bite.
Lt Col Angad Singh also joined us for the first time in the New Year – but with some tragic news. He has lost a close relative which prompted his sudden disappearance last month. He had to rush back to Mohali (from where he had come a few days earlier) upon being informed of the death. He is now back after attending the last rites – still grief-stricken, but trying to keep a cheerful front.
Harbans Kaur too is in a state of bereavement. Her elder sister, who was suffering from cancer since long, has breathed her last. “We knew she did not have much time with us… but still, when someone so close leaves you like this, it is hard to come to terms with the absence,” Harbans Kaur said bravely. We join her in sorrow at this difficult moment.