Tokum Toki

Pushpa Gupta (r) confronts Arun Patil head on

Arun Patil’s penchant for playing the no-nonsense watchdog of Big Laaf has become a major divisive issue among members. On the one hand, there are many who admire his guts at reining in wayward elements and enforcing a sense of discipline in the Club. On the other, there are those who resent his authoritarian attitude, arguing that he has no business to throw his weight around.
“I am fed up of his tokum-toki,” Shekhawat protests. “Ours is a laughter club, not a parade ground. We come here for a little hansi-mazaak, that's all, not to be rebuked every day.

Today was Kiran Prakash's 40th
wedding anniversary. Posing with
Bihari Milwani's beautiful memento

Even in military school, they don’t dictate what you must do, what you must not do the way Arun tells us. I am sure this fellow has nothing better to do in life!”
Matters hit flashpoint this morning when Arun pulled up Pushpa Gupta for showing up without the Club cap and getting a mouthful from her in return. She made a half-hearted attempt to explain her discomfort wearing the cap in peak summer heat, then abruptly changed tack on seeing Arun’s belligerent attitude. Short of telling him to go to hell, she demanded she be refunded her membership fee.

Yogurt treat from Kiran Prakash on his 40th wedding anniversary

“I’ll stop coming to the Garden from tomorrow,” she declared defiantly.
Obviously, there’s a history to this altercation. Pushpa, it seems, had renewed her Club membership on the condition that she (like Swati Panjabi) would be exempt from wearing the cap. Arun’s contention was that she should then not take part in the exercises and instead, bide her time on a bench.
“Or else, others would also demand a similar exemption and eventually nobody will wear the cap,” he reasoned. “What would be left of Club discipline then?”
Somehow, a truce was brokered with both finally agreeing to concede each other’s point of view. The matter would have died there and then were it not for the Club’s nine-member managing committee suddenly calling an emergency meeting to independently handle the issue and before long, starting a fresh round of fireworks. In effect, a mountain is being made out of a non issue with nobody is hearing the last word yet. Watch this space.