Freedom Struggle

Razia Khan (l) demands azadi from Arun Patil (r)

After a long time, Razia Khan spoke her mind today: “The moment we are born, we are in the custody of our parents. When we grow older, our brothers take control over us. After marriage, we have to be under our husbands’ thumbs. As we age, we become answerable to our sons. At least in the Garden, we should be able to breathe freely. But here too we face restrictions, all because of Arun Patil. We want azadi!”
Arun had this coming. He has acquired the reputation of a hard-nosed disciplinarian, pulling up all and sundry for say, being late, forgetting to wear the cap, not exercising properly, causing disruptions, being over-talkative and so on.

Shekhawat chats up Zarina during exercises

After bearing the brunt of this offensive for long, Razia today showed the first signs of rebellion by picking on the way Arun had been conducting the exercises. “Nobody is perfect,” she reminded him.
Emboldened, Nahid Khan also took a defiant stance when Arun tried correcting her and before long, other ladies like Khatoon Baig, Nahid Siddiqui and Shanti Singh challenged his authority on insisting upon the cap.

War of words breaks out after the exercises

But Arun remained unfazed, prompting Bijoy Gupta to ask in mock seriousness, “Who made him Captain?”
If anybody rejoiced at this sudden turn of events, it was Shekhawat. Here is one man who is genetically programmed to be disruptive during the exercises and his inability to stand at one place for even a minute has been the cause for countless slanging matches with Arun. Today, he had to be repeatedly told to be serious while exercising and at one point, was directed to step out of the circle when speaking on his phone.
Predictably, Arun’s instructions fell into deaf ears. It was another matter that Gupta got curious about who could possibly be calling Shekhawat so early in the morning. But before the mystery could be resolved, Shekhawat had crossed over to sit beside Zarina Khan and chat her up -- all this as the exercises continued. In no time she broke into fits of uncontrollable laughter, much to Arun's consternation.
But all he could do was to glower at them -- helplessly.

Bihari Milwani:
Discipline is a must. Otherwise some of us may be doing the laughter exercises at 2 in the afternoon or 5 in the evening or even at 9 in the night instead of sharp 7 in the morning. And we would have never been able to form our loving laughter club, BIG LAAF.

Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Liberty (or azadi) is one aspect which all of us enjoy. But azadi does not mean that one can do whatever one wants to. It has got to be within limits. When we join a group/society/club, we should follow its rules. In such manner we will be better placed to enjoy ourselves. Passing hilarious comments is enjoyable. They make us laugh. Relax and enjoy.