Rare Spectacle

An all-male show this morning

In a predominantly female club, we were witness to a rare spectacle: an all-male presence during the exercises. No lady member was to be seen today.
Over the past few days -- since the onset of Ramzan on May 7 -- Bhaswati Bose and Nahid Khan were the only two ladies who have been making an occasional appearance. Naheed Siddiqui too was sighted one day. But today, they were all conspicuous by their absence.
A drop in attendance during Ramzan is however, not surprising.

Bijoy Gupta rues his fate

We have been experiencing this every year and as usual, efforts are taken to persuade people to be punctual so as to keep the show going. But two peculiar factors have come into play this time around, thereby impacting our daily attendance severely.
The first is that Ramzan has come to coincide with a period when summer is at its harshest. (As Nahid Khan once put it, “it has come too early” this year.) The second reason is that a number of our members have not been keeping well of late. The extremely torrid weather conditions have led to an outbreak of ailments – viral fever being the most common.
Bijoy Gupta was frank enough to admit that he has no clue why he feels "down and out” these days. He says he has lost interest in everything – even to get up and take a walk around the Garden as he used to earlier. In fact, he would be among the first to arrive in the Garden at daybreak. But nowadays he is prone to playing hooky.
“Everybody tells me to see a doctor,” he complained today. “But what do I tell the doctor? That I am having an upset stomach, head ache, sleeplessness, body pain…? The truth is I am not suffering from any of these. In fact, I have no ailment at all, except for feeling low and out of sorts. Nothing else.” Siba Prasad Maitra advised him to take a stiff drink (of vodka) before retiring to bed tonight. “You’ll wake up full of energy, raring to go!” he assured. Funnily, Gupta believed him!

Lt Col Angad Singh (rtd):
Scant attendance for the exercises is mainly due to lack of energy. We lead a very unhealthy life style. We eat and drink for taste and not because of the quality of nutrients. Think about it. A few weeks back we had the good fortune of listening to a talk by a dietician. Follow her advice and all of us will feel better. We are senior citizens and we should be more concerned about food value rather than the taste of what we eat. I would suggest that whenever we celebrate birthdays or anniversaries, we should observe these basics.

Bihari Milwani:
Attendance was less because there was no party!