Passing Show?

WITH THE BIRTHDAY GIRL (R)

Monsoon finally landed in Mumbai today... or has it?
From early dawn, dark grey clouds hung over the Garden and by 6:30 a.m., when the sky opened up, it looked like we were now done with the punishing heat and humidity of the past several weeks. But the relief was only temporary. The showers did not last beyond half-hour and after that,

Happy Birthday, once again!

the sun began to play hide and seek with the clouds for the rest of the morning.
The upshot of this was that we had to shift location and like every year, revert to the China Hut for the exercises. The sudden rains had brought down the attendance considerably. Yet, the confined space turned claustrophobic and many quietly slipped out in the open while the exercises were on for a breath of fresh air.

Members felicitating Kanta Sharma

The fear of another downpour hung heavy.
In all this, the only bright occurrence of the morning was Kanta Sharma celebrating her birthday in the Garden for the first time. (She is one of our newer members.) Till yesterday, she was away in Delhi and quite clearly, had timed her return to be with us for this special occasion – what with delectable dry-fruit barfis from the capital, a humongous birthday cake (that just did not get over) and most importantly, there was her son, Aryan for company. She had ordered for snacks also, but for some reason, the boxes from Vyanjan got delayed and those have been saved for another day.
Without much fuss, mother and son made this an event that would stay in our memories for a long time. Sadly, the photographs taken on the occasion got accidentally deleted from the camera and in spite of all efforts through the day, the images could not be retrieved. What you see here are pictures clicked by Aryan Sharma.
Thank you Aryan, for being such a sound back-up.
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
We wish Mrs Sharma good health and happiness in the coming years.