Taking a Toll

Nahid Khan returned from Lucknow: treats us to sweets this morning

If proof were needed of how time has taken a toll on us, here it is. Never before has attendance in the exercises hit rock bottom for such a protracted period. Those who could overcome the rigors of fasting during Ramazan and bravely made it to the Garden in the past are hardly to be seen this time around. For once, there are also pleas from the elderly to curtail the exercises to beat the heat – a clear indication of the fatigue factor kicking in.
The other day, Naseer Putani Shah struggled

Naseer Putani Shah

to complete the exercises and ended up coughing continually till he was given warm water to wet his throat. He has stopped coming to the Garden since. Likewise, Bijoy Gupta showed up for a couple of days, complained of feeling low and drained out (ref post of May 10) and disappeared thereafter. It’s been almost a month he was down with viral fever and has not yet recovered.
His junior by three days, Shekhawat (yes, there's documentary proof of both being born on April 1943 but three days apart!) is today a shadow of his former self. More than the festering sore in the skin covering his sternum (ref post of May 7), he suffers from chronic loss of appetite and according to his wife, has shed 12 kilos in the recent past. Being vegetarian has only worsened matters.

Tara Chand Seth

Sitaram Hivarkar

Nazma Sayyed

Khatoon Baig

There are many others – Santosh Tyagi, Fahmida Khan, Khatoon Baig, Sitaram Hivarkar, Nazma Sayyed, Tara Chand Seth… all of them not in the best of health. In appearance too, they are no longer what they looked when they joined the Club. That was more than a decade back. Sad to say, age has caught up with all of them – as indeed, with the rest of us.