Sheer Torture

Today was no day to exercise. It was so hot in the Garden that you could fry an omelette on someone’s head. But then, all our heads were covered in caps and the trapped heat inside was driving us mad. Karun Sharma suggested loosening the caps to allow some ventilation.

Braving the unbearable heat and humidity today 

It helped to an extent. Our biggest worry was that nobody should collapse out of exhaustion midway through the exercises.
Two days back, the sudden spike in summer temperature had led to cloud formations in the morning and according to the papers, there were even light showers in some parts of the city.

Bijoy Gupta

This had only worsened our situation because now, we were to contend with severe humidity also. And with the air totally still today, we were not just sticky all over, we were dehydrated to the bones – a perfect recipe for disaster.
For the first time, Kiran Prakash had come with his water bottle in a bag. Our regular ‘water carrier’ for the club, Fahmida Khan was nowhere to be seen. At one point, there were just 18 counted people (apart from us) walking in the Garden. They were literally dragging their feet, panting for breath. Some joked that the Almighty above should install a giant fan over us, in view of our dedication to the exercises!
Amid all this, Bijoy Gupta found reason to pull Shekhawat’s leg. Over the phone, he chided him for going to Dhanbad when he was supposed to stay put in his village in Rajasthan. “I wanted to know why you have moved to Dhanbad,” he teased Shekhawat. “You should have come straight to Mumbai because your birthday is coming up on April 27.”
Shekhawat realised the joke was on him and cut off the phone before long.

Bihari Milwani:
Had we known that it was going to be very hot in the morning today, we could have organised some chilled lassi.

Karun Sharma:
Bijoy Gupta is very creative as he is able to build comical stories on anyone around any situation. If we can take this sportingly, it would be great fun.