Now, Paid Picnic

Swati Panjabi is back... with a bang

Swati Panjabi returned today from a nine-day whirlwind tour of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The “most memorable” places of her visit, she said were the Golden Temple of Amritsar and Taj Mahal at Agra and she had a load of crispy revdis and soft, crunchy matthis to show for them. Siba Prasad Maitra pitched in with piping hot tea from a nearby chai stall and accompanied by the usual joking and jesting, our quota for end- of- the- week fiesta was taken care of.
Swati’s return had another salutary effect. She revived the picnic plans for November 26, which had almost been abandoned following the showdown last Thursday (ref post of November 17). Swati was obviously out of the loop. She realized something was amiss only when Yusuf Rassiwala and Maitra proposed that we must not cancel the picnic and whatever be the expenses, we would all chip in and go ahead with our plans. Just because Shekhawat would not pay does not mean we should not go for a picnic, they argued. Bijoy Gupta studiously distanced himself from all this, for obvious reasons.
Swati promptly cornered Shekhawat on why he was now backtracking on his promise to “take the Club on a free picnic”.

Siba Prasad Maitra (ext left) treats everyone to hot tea

Soon the 'terrorists', Bhaswati Bose and Kajal Babani joined her, though it must be mentioned in all fairness, that nobody should be singled out to be pressurized, especially where expenses would run into several thousands. Surely Shekhawat (or anyone else) is under no obligation to bear such a huge financial burden for Club members, regardless of whether he can afford it or not. This would be setting a wrong precedent.
Even then Shekhawat offered to bear the transportation costs to and fro for the picnic and spoke to the resort (recommended by Dilip Babani) management on phone for a group discount. He struck a good deal, only to invite fresh demands, this time to bear the expenses at the resort instead of transportation.
Hidden in all this talk for freebies is the inescapable prospect of an overwhelming response, even from members who do not ordinarily join us on picnics. After all, who does not want a free lunch – and a joyride thrown in?
Kiran Prakash:
Mr Maitra strikes back! As I had predicted on November 12 (in this blog) Mr Maitra has once again, felt like treating us today with piping hot tea. Thank you very much, Maitra Babu. Your dreams have really come true. God bless you.