Surprise Visits

Sunita Jajodia

Sunita Jajodia paid us a surprise visit, coming all the way from Malad. It’s been quite some time since she had relocated there with her family. To travel the distance by auto-rickshaw early morning was a little out of the ordinary

Efforts to cheer Mallika Kagzi (in red)

– unless of course, it had to be for a specific purpose.
But then, Sunita was quick to clarify that she had not come to meet her close friend, Santosh Tyagi (who, she was aware, would be away till Saturday). “I was a little free this morning and felt like seeing you,” she said before warming up for the exercises. “Why, is there anything wrong

Swati Panjabi's parting treat

if I should feel like meeting you people?”
A few minutes later, Mallika Kagzi walked in with measured steps, holding on to Swati Panjabi for support. As followers of this blog are aware, Mallika is recuperating from a violent bout of dengue (ref post of October 28) and hasn’t quite found the strength to move around on her own. She did not join the exercises, but sat on a bench close by, observing us. “I couldn’t help it,” she explained in a frail voice. “I have been missing you people.”
Now, it is one thing to be regular in the Garden by force of habit. And quite another to overcome physical odds and be in the Garden, only to catch up with friends. Surely, there is something more compelling than addiction that draws people repeatedly, even as they cease to be members or are in no condition to exercise. This magnetic pull is hard to understand even as we see it playing out, in different ways, time and again.
In all this Swati Panjabi announced that she would be away from tomorrow on a tour of Amritsar, Gurgaon, Delhi, Agra, etc. As her parting shot, she treated us to a box of coconut barfi while promising to be back on November 20. We wish her a safe and happy trip.