On Hold

Shekhawat (in green) is in his elements

After lingering for an extra fortnight or so, the monsoon seems to have finally made its exit from Mumbai. The mornings are quite clear and pleasant as the Garden is bathed in mellow sunshine with a mild breeze blowing across. Winter seems round the corner.
But then, this has hardly made any difference to the attendance for our daily exercises. Except for the days when a party is scheduled, many of our members are choosing to stay away. Santosh Tyagi, Qadeer Bano, Manisha Kolhe and a few others are rarely, if ever to be seen. Some have left town or are preparing to leave. Many claim to be having guests at home.

Gupta tries to capture Nahid Khan's interest

And then there is the band of Bangkok-bound travel buffs (see previous post) for whom the Garden has almost ceased to exist.
All this has brought about a lull in our activities, in spite of the blissful weather. Dilip Babani came up with the idea of a picnic at Lonavala, but held himself back upon realising that he will not be able to get the numbers.
Even rehearsals for the Club’s Annual Function have come to a grinding halt. Till the other day, everybody was gung-ho during the post-exercise sessions, but now the general feeling is to keep things on hold till the Bangkok group returns.
Still, Bijoy Gupta made an attempt to infuse some interest in the play he is writing by narrating to Nahid Khan her role as an underworld don, but soon gave up. “Let the Bangkok Tour be over and then we’ll take it up,” he concluded.
If there was anybody totally unaffected by this milieu of listlessness, it was Shekhawat. Having apparently recovered from the painful skin rash (ref post of October 17) of last week, he was back to his usual pranks, getting reprimanded time and again, and still getting into everybody’s way. The odd part is that he did not consult any doctor for his skin ailment but got cured by an ointment Siba Prasad Maitra had suggested. Seeing its effect, Gupta warned Maitra never again to help Shekhawat.
“Your medicine has not only brought back his youth, he is now completely out of control,” Gupta observed.

Karun Sharma:
Shekhawat-ji was energetic to a level one could not have imagined two days back. This is a miracle and we must be grateful to God for the 'New Shekhawat'. Gupta-ji has an inborn talent to not only write scripts but also to narrate so effectively. He is the rare 'culture gem' for Big Laaf.