Reflections

Reliving childhood

As is the norm after every major event in the Club, the morning today was taken up by reflecting on the Republic Day celebrations yesterday. The overall feeling of joie de vivre – the pride in raising the national tricolor, Yusuf Rassiwala turning up in a regal paithani suit, the unrehearsed patriotic number by Shanti Singh and the spontaneity

Reflecting on Republic Day

of it all dominated conversations after the exercises.
“Everything went off well,” observed Yusuf R, who had led the march past yesterday. “It’s funny how we missed out on all this pomp and ceremony when we were young. Now that age is not on our side, all this is coming to us. We seem to be catching up on lost time.”
The insightful comment was lost while the exercises were on, but it verily echoes the sentiments of most of us who take to the Club like a second home. On the face of it, the statement also betrays a tinge of regret; but when turned around, it also leaves us with a sense of being blessed,

Nahid Khan is in red -- fourth from left (and from right)

unlike most seniors these days who spend their twilight years in loneliness and neglect.
Nahid Khan makes no secret of how Big Laaf has proved “liberating” for her in many ways. Not only is she among the most punctual and regular of members, she does not even miss a single function, a picnic or even an outstation trip, whatever it might cost her.
“My parents discouraged girls from going to school,” she reveals. “My husband kept me virtually under house arrest. Only after his demise did I step out of the house and learn to face the world.”
Others may not be as frank, but turns out that for many of them, Club activities provide the only ‘release’ they have come to recognise and enjoy. At the same time, they are all conscious that time is against them. Still, Nahid has the last word when she jokingly quipped today: “Old age is knocking at our doors – barring that of Shekhawat. He is the only one among us to have youth knocking at his door!”