'Raja-Rani'

Bijoy Gupta

Shekhawat was today anointed raja (king) of the club. By extension, we have become his praja (subjects). And guess who is the rani (queen)? Rukhsana Khan. Together, they make for an enchanting ‘Raja-Rani’ duo… or so would Bijoy Gupta like us to believe.
As for the optics, we must concede that Gupta cannot be entirely faulted. Anyone dropping by, as we exercise in the China Hut, cannot miss how Shekhawat and Rukhsana, both seated on high chairs next to each other, hold court while the rest of us pay obeisance to them. It is a spectacle reminiscent of the glory days of Indian royalty.
Significantly, Shekhawat and Rukhsana were both sporting enough to acknowledge the ‘title’ bestowed upon them.

Raja and Rani (at the far end) hold court in China Hut

Shekhawat even started to throw his weight around, ordering people the way some raja would. And Gupta was just as unsparing, poking fun at his friend all morning. “What are you doing leaving your rani behind?” Gupta would say every time Shekhawat left his seat.
There is a back-story to this though. Rukhsana needs the height of two chairs (one on top of the other) to adjust the level of her seating ever since she underwent a hip surgery. A single chair is too low for her. So, for the past two years, she is the only one to have an extra chair to herself during the exercises.
Shekhawat obviously does not like this. Call it one-upmanship or childish envy, he has of late, been insisting upon an extra chair to be on level with Rukhsana. Moreover, he makes sure that the two double-chairs are placed side by side so that they get to sit next to each other. This has been the standard operating procedure for us since we moved into the China Hut about six months back.
So it is not unusual for Shekhawat and Rukhsana to be seen sitting together in positions of pre-eminence (at least, visually) while we exercise. But for Gupta to pick on them today and confer the title of a royal couple would seem a little odd. If anything, this is evidence of his fertile imagination running riot.