Bangkok Bound

Bihari Milwani says 'hi' and 'bye' 

After months of meticulous planning, the Bangkok Tour is ready to take off. By night-time today, the 20-member group should be checking into the Sahar International Airport for an early morning flight to the Thai capital and onward, by road to Pattaya tomorrow. On November 4, they would take the road back to Bangkok for a three day stay, before catching the return flight to Mumbai on the night of November 6.
Today being their last morning at the the Garden (before leaving), everyone expected the group to show up for the exercises in full strength. But barring Kajal Babani and Bihari Milwani, none of them made an appearance. Yesterday though, there were some like Nahid Siddiqui, Bhaswati Bose, Laxmi Hadimani and Pushpa Gupta who had turned up to say their good-byes. Clearly, the ladies are having much more pressing engagements such as parlour visits, shopping for clothes and of course, last-minute packing to attend.
If there is anyone in the Club who regrets not being in that plane tonight, it is Shekhawat. He makes no secret of how envious he is of Milwani (and Mohammad Gulzar) being the only males in

Zarina Khan distributes sweets on her return from Lucknow

the contingent and has been telling people repeatedly why he deserves to be with the predominantly all-female gang. There is Kiran Prakash too, but considering that he is currently on the last leg of a hectic Egypt tour (ref post of October 23), it would be a miracle if he can join the Bangkok tour tonight. He is a likely drop-out.
The tour assumes significance because this is the first time we would be crossing the country’s borders as a group and it shall serve as a test case for organising overseas trips from the Club in future. Moreover, this is the first time many members -- particularly ladies -- would be stepping on to foreign soil. Most of them were holding virgin passports till the other day. Now they have all got a “sikka” on it – as Laxmi calls her much-coveted visa stamp. After all, where there’s a will, Big Laaf shows the way.
We wish the group a safe, joyous and memorable journey.