Holi is Here!

Bijoy Gupta holds centre court this morning

Holi has arrived almost 10 days ahead of time, except that we did not play with colours today. Bijoy Gupta held centre court for close to an hour, briefing us on how to go about with the main event of the festival, the Mahamoorkh Sammelan (ref post of February 27). And for the benefit of the uninitiated, he enacted parts of it amid peals of laughter.
“I am the biggest mahamoorkh of Mumbai,” he announced, reading from a prepared script. “My father was also a mahamoorkh. My grandfather was a mahamoorkh. My entire family is full of mahamoorkhs. Even my children and grandchildren who are not yet born, shall be mahamoorkhs!”
Gupta outlined process of electing the “greatest fool of the Club” and significantly, did not exclude the ladies from qualifying for this distinction – provided of course, they volunteered to stand for election. He already has half a dozen male members eager to assume the mahamoorkh title

Navin Bhai's salted peanuts (from Baroda) for all

and insisted that the best candidate be chosen on merit.
To cite an example on what makes an ideal mahamoorkh, he narrated an incident of a man who claimed to being married for two years and having fathered a child. “But in all this time, I have never lifted the ghungat (veil) of my wife,” he confessed.
Gupta was simply unstoppable with such anecdotal quips,

Kanta Sharma: Get well soon

witty jibes and stylised mimicry -- much of it unrehearsed. He even went on to imitate the way some of us laugh during the exercises – from Yusuf Rassiwala to Nahid Khan to Shekhawat (of course) and Kiran Prakash. “If I were to do others also now, nothing would be left for Holi,” he giggled. “Just take this to be a trailer of the main show.”
In all this, comes the distressful news of Kanta Sharma being hospitalized. She had been keeping indifferent health since the Rajasthan tour (February 5 to 12, 2017) and following the demise of her younger brother in Delhi, her condition had worsened. Still, she showed up at the Garden on a couple of days, but did not exercise for the most part. Now we hear she is admitted in the ICU of Belle Vue (opp D.N.Nagar Metro Station) since yesterday. Further details are awaited. Let us all pray for her speedy recovery and early discharge from hospital.
Bihari Milwani:
The one who comes to the Club wearing new clothes on Holi should be conferred the title of 'Mahamoorkh'.
Dilip Babani:
There are many mahamoorkhs in the Club. But Gupta's acting is better than all the mahamoorkhs. Gupta is a genius!