Comic Twist

Shekhawat presents birthday calendar

With Tahira, distributing cake rolls

Bijoy Gupta sings a romantic song

Razia Khan celebrates her birthday in the Garden

The drama over late-coming yesterday (see post) took a comical turn today with Arun Patil boycotting the exercises in the morning. He sent word through Rukhsana Khan that he would henceforth not be coming to the Garden and for all intent and purposes, he had quit Big Laaf!
“He said he would exercise elsewhere in another Garden,” relayed Rukhsana, who usually gets a lift every morning from Arun on his scooter.

Nahid Khan takes Arun's place in conducting the exercises today

“He also told me that the ladies he was to introduce to the Club would now be joining him.”
This is not the first time Arun has threatened to resign. A few weeks back (before being anointed secretary) he remained inexplicably at home until some phone calls went from the Garden. Arun returned gleefully having scored a moral victory.
Or so he thought. For he was soon back to rubbing people the wrong way and worse, he refused to make amends. Much as his intentions may be good, he suffers from a terribly abrasive tongue – something that has caused all-round resentment.
So it came as no surprise this morning when Bijoy Gupta began to mimic Arun – exhorting the ladies to concentrate on exercising, reining in Shekhawat for his pranks, pulling up all and sundry for talking and so on. It was hilarious. “Arun’s ghost has got into Gupta,” observed Nahid Khan.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s core issue of enforcing discipline remains unresolved. Or maybe, it isn’t an issue, after all. For the pains some members were taking this morning to defend their ‘right’ to come late was remarkable. Perhaps it is better to let sleeping dogs lie.
In all this, Razia Khan celebrated her birthday with almost 20 well-wishers from the Club in attendance. She had come with her daughter-in-law, Tahira.

Bihari Milwani:
How come 'Guruji' absconded on Guru Poornima day, without taking any dakshina?

Karun Sharma:
There is an underlying profile of Big Laaf which states: "We are a bunch of fun-loving, health enthusiasts who have been hanging out at Mumbai's Lokhandwala Garden No 4 from 7 to 8 every morning since March 14, 2003 to eat, drink and make merry... AND WE EXERCISE TOO!". We are not an organisation where discipline is a must. We are actually a group of people. It does not mean that we should be undisciplined.