Spoilers

Shekhawat is clueless about the resort he wants to go to

The first Club picnic of the year appears to have fizzled out within a day of its announcement (ref yesterday’s post). Apart from Shekhawat and his wife, only one person has signed up in the past 24 hours. Former member Mohammed Gulzar today paid

Siba Prasad Maitra calls
the mysterious resort

for himself and his family.
As for the rest of us, Yusuf Rassiwala had already convinced Shekhawat to prepone the picnic by a day as he finds August 6 (Sunday) inconvenient. Now August 5 happens to be Pushpa Gupta’s birthday and she is strongly opposed to celebrating in Khopoli. She is committed to her friends and relatives on that date and Shekhawat does not want to leave the Guptas behind.
Arun Patil suggested pushing the picnic to Monday (i.e. August 7) when the resort prices would be lower than on weekends and besides, the place would not be over-crowded. Turns out that August 7 is Raksha Bandhan day and as Bihari Milwani pointed out, nobody would willingly stir out for a long-distance trip when a grahan is on.
That apart, Banoo Apa has declared she’d be unable to take time out after her sister arrives from London next Sunday. This effectively eliminates all chances of a picnic next week.
Moving on to the week-end, newspapers have front-paged warnings of resorts in and around Mumbai being “100% booked for six days” starting August 12, a second Saturday. The string of holidays includes Janmashtami (August 14), Independence Day and Pateti (August 17). Setting out during this period would only mean asking for trouble.
But the biggest spoiler is Shekhawat himself. Even today, he has no clue of the resort or the person he had spoken to for our picnic. All he could provide was a telephone number, which Siba Prasad Maitra tried calling from the Garden. On a third try, a sleepy voice responded to the mention of “Mr Joshi” and promised to call back in five minutes, promptly disconnecting.
Those “five minutes” are yet to get over.

Siba Prasad Maitra:
Yes, the fellow called up later and informed he is a bus owner and does not know anything about any resort at Khopoli.

Karun Sharma:
I missed wishing Arun Patil personally on his birthday tomorrow. Enjoy the day and share the joy.

Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
That there has been a great debate about the date and place of the picnic is quite entertaining. Whatever one may say, Shekhawat has been able to bring home thought-provoking discussions which are always quite enjoyable. Keep laughing. This is the essence of the whole episode.