Collective Amnesia

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RUKHSANA KHAN

Forgetfulness got the better of us today. This is nothing new. Amnesia is a common affliction that comes with age. Individual slip-ups keep happening and we usually overlook them. But how would you explain when an entire segment of the exercises

Razia Khan (c) conducts the exercises today

is forgotten and no one gets any wiser till it is too late?
Surprisingly, it was Razia Khan who raised an alarm when she realised that we had skipped the entire second round of the laughter exercises today. By then, we were already half-way through with the tai-chi exercises. Nobody else, among the dozen members present in the China Hut, had noticed the lapse!
Oddly enough, Razia did not give a very good account of her own memory while conducting the free-hand round earlier.

Sisterly Love: Mallika (l) feeds Rukhsana

She committed countless mistakes – forgetting to repeat certain exercises, mixing up the sequence, not completing a drill (like kissa kursi ka) and so on – much to the amusement of all present.
At every point she had to be corrected, though it must be said that many of the gaffes were deliberate. Moreover, there was a concerted effort all around to confuse her into committing more errors and she willingly played to the gallery. In the end, Razia got to prove (though belatedly) that she had the sharpest mind among us all.
Amid all the laughter and bonhomie, former president Mallika Kagzi made her way into the China Hut as a ‘special guest’ of Rukhsana Khan’s birthday celebrations. She presented the birthday girl with the club calendar and posed for photos. Indeed, it has been ages since we saw Mallika last.
But the most memorable part of the celebration was the massive treat Rukhsana had arranged – neatly packed idlis, medu vada, samosas… and tea. Banoo Apa pitched in with delectable rawa halwa, befitting the occasion.

Bihari Milwani:
It was not lapse of memory but the presence of Mallika that diverted our attention from the exercises!