Chocolate Boozies

Digging into Milwani's (l) liquer-laced chocolates?

Bihari Milwani had an unfinished job on hand. His birthday was on December 23 and he decided to ditch us and celebrate with his daughter instead in distant San Francisco. His birthday treat to the Club had been pending since.
So this morning, when he was sighted somewhere in Lokhandwala, news promptly reached the exercise circle that “chocolates were coming”! Not Milwani. He hadn’t even entered the Garden then. But everybody instinctively made the connection between Milwani and chocolates!
Milwani did not disappoint.

Yusuf Rassiwala (r) gives away
movie ticket for tomorrow

He had brought a boxful of Ghirardelli Squares in different flavors and fillings – which, by itself became another major talking point of the morning. Unfortunately, he was in a hurry to leave for work and did not quite gather why suddenly, everybody was demanding a second or third chocolate from him. One was not enough!
Little known to Milwani, word had got around that those were ‘boozies’ disguised as chocolates. Call it mischief or plain fantasy, an agitated discussion broke out on which of the many coloured wrappers (red, blue, pink, purple, etc.) contained daru-wallah chocolates.

Bunty (l) apologises for his absence yesterday

Dilip Babani declared that the one he got with a mauve wrapper tasted of raspberry. Others insisted that those in dark-brown wrappers contained liquor and even began to act tipsy. Unsure of what he was given, Yusuf Rassiwala quickly gave away his half-bitten chocolate, saying he was a sworn teetotaler. By then, there was no Milwani to confirm or dispel his fears, either way.
Meanwhile, our good friend Bunty came up to apologise for not showing up for our New Year function yesterday. He is a professional crooner with a band and was understandably tied up with year-end commitments at various musical shows around town. Yesterday, it seems he had returned home from Bhiwandi at 4:00 a.m. and “just could not gather the strength to wake up” and make it to the Garden in time.
Asking to be “forgiven”, he offered to make up for his lapse by inviting us to one of his concerts in the near future.
Geeta Latte:
Many, many happy returns of the day -- Baake Bihari Lal ki jai!
Bihari Milwani:
I held the chocolate box in such a manner that the ladies got raspberry flavor, teetotalers got the milk and persons like Shekhawat got the alcohol-based chocolates.