Too Hot!

Mumtaz Jahan treats us to Dilli ka luddoo

The April heat is hitting us bad. It is the kind of heat fit to fry you in your own juices, if not blow you up in smoke. Surely, not a nice way to start the day!
Yet, for the past few days we are witnessing a record turnout every morning for the exercises – nothing less than 30 on an average. From Rakhi Bansi to Sitaram Hivarkar to Yusuf Rassiwala and Pushpa Gupta, many of the not-so-regular sorts are religiously attending the ‘classes’ from start to finish.
Some of course, would be landing up late, as did Kiran Prakash today. Much as he explained that he felt unusually lethargic after waking up, the real reason for reporting towards the end of the exercises was something else. Even Mumtaz Jahan timed her visit this morning – loaded with luddoos from Delhi -- with the post-exercise session.
The purpose behind all this late-coming is nothing but to catch up with the entertainment once the day's exercises are over.

Dilip Babani gets biscuits for us

Jokes narration in progress

The heat does not matter then, or whether you are exhausted, soaked to the bones in sweat or still gasping for breath. What matters is whether you’d have survived the battering on the back (god forbid if it was to be Swati Punjabi behind) at the end of the exercises. Thereafter, do you have the stomach for the unending rounds of jokes and eats and drinks and tomfoolery and monkeying around and the masti-mazaak…? Most important, are you able to laugh at yourself? All the fun and frolic hinges on to this crucial factor. That, in essence, constitutes our ‘prime time’ entertainment. Everything else, including the weather, recedes into insignificance.
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
It is too hot throughout the country. Despite this, it is nice to know that attendance is very high. Healthy sign.