Holiday Season

Celebrating happiness with loads of laughter

Kajal Babani was back from Lonavala, loaded with its famous chikkis. She had taken off on a brief vacation, essentially to “chill” with friends at the hill station, not very far from Mumbai. We profited by getting to sample the very best of chikkis – even by Lonavala standards.
The other day Manisha Kolhe returned from a vacation in Nagpur and treated us to its special ‘santra barfi’. Mallika Kagzi brought us nankhatai from Surat and is now at her mother’s in Mumbra. Santosh Tyagi is threatening to make a trip to Delhi this week-end and Monthi Serrao is yet to return from her sojourn in Mangalore.

Loads of chikki from Lonavala

Likewise Kadir Banu, Mumtaz Jahan, Karuna Waghmare, Fehmida Khan, Laxmi Naidu and several others are in no hurry to return (from wherever they are), if only to escape the muggy mornings in the Garden.
This summer exodus is an annual feature for the Club and the effects get compounded with the onset of the holy month of Ramzan (beginning June 7) when attendance for the exercises comes literally crashing down.
We had a foretaste of this today with many regulars such as Shekhawat, Arun Patil, Rukhsana Khan, Bijoy Gupta, Khatoon Baig and Swati Punjabi (among others) not to be seen.
Yet, in making the most of our 20-odd friends who turned up today, we had our spot of sunshine after the exercises. For some strange reason, Siba Prasad Maitra wanted to designate the day as 'World Whiskey Day' (now, who’s going to dispute that?) and belted out a series of rib ticklers.
For good measure Bhaswati Bose and Kajal Babani pitched in and with well-timed wisecracks and one-liners from Yusuf Rassiwala, Geeta Latte and Kiran Prakash, it would seem that we were the only happy-go-lucky souls in an otherwise doleful and deserted Garden.
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
It appears that club members are 'relishing' the return of their friends with lip-smacking sweets and other eatables. Do enjoy, but at the same time, keep a watch on your health!