Another Big Bash

Birthday girl MUMTAZ JAHAN celebrates with family and friends

Emboldened by Santosh Tyagi’s unusual act of defiance on Saturday (ref post of February 13), Mumtaz Jahan today celebrated her birthday in the Garden with generous rounds of samosas, salted wafers and sliced cake to be washed down with warm, energizing kahwa (Kashmiri tea) brewed at home.

Mallika Kagzi presents mumtaz with Club calendar 

Dilip Babani distributes Vaishno Devi prasad

Her birthday was yesterday, a Sunday. Being a holiday, she had to push the celebration by a day.
Significantly, Mumtaz’s parents were with us today for the first time. They joined us in the birthday song and applauded with us when Mallika Kagzi presented her a personalised desk calendar from the Club. The old familial feeling of bonding and bonhomie which we were missing since the imposition of certain restrictions on celebrating in the Garden was revived today.
Meanwhile, campaigning for the Woman of the Year-2016 trophy (presented annually on March 8, International Women’s Day) gathered momentum.

Mumtaz organises the food before serving

Swati Punjabi made an earnest bid at garnering votes from male members by appealing to their weakness for good food and hot tea in the morning. Dilip Babani advised her to stick to what she is best at – giving a head massage to anybody who promises to vote for her. But Swati clearly has more appetizing ideas and hobnobbed with Kiran Prakash, Angad Singh, Bijoy Gupta and others for their support.
This time around, there are three criteria on which the winner would be selected – Attendance (regularity and punctuality), whether Active in Club matters (conducting exercises, going out on picnics, etc.) and Adjusting nature (helpful, cooperative, not quarrelsome etc.) It has been made amply clear that dishing out lavish treats or offering gifts will not count for anything. The idea is to have, in all fairness, a level playing field and more importantly, select a lady who should stand out as an example for all members to emulate.
Campaigning concludes 10 days from today. Voting day is February 25 (Thursday). And the trophy, as mentioned earlier, will be presented on March 8.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
The presence of Mumtaz Jahan's parents made all the difference. Parents are overjoyed to be present on such occasions. Well done, Mumtaz!