Bharat Bandh

Rukhsana Khan (file photo)

The all-pervasive climate of fear and uncertainty took a toll on club attendance this morning. Banoo Apa, Bijoy Gupta, Razia Khan, Bihari Milwani and many others chose to stay indoors in view of the nationwide strike today. As Rukhsana Khan, a paraplegic, put it yesterday: “If something untoward happens, I won’t be able to even run for my life.”
She too did not turn up today.
Now this is not the first time a Bharat Bandh was called; nor would it be the last. But the fact that it led to calling off the Alibaug trip at the eleventh hour (ref yesterday’s post) played heavily

Lacklustre gathering at the Garden

on the minds of members. They were all very excited to be together for two days on this first ever all-women’s trip from the Club. And now, they find their plans to be suddenly short-circuited and being unable to do anything about it.
Still, some efforts were made in the past 24 hours to check if there was any hope of salvaging the trip. While phone calls to the hotel at Alibaug revealed that all was normal and peaceful out there, Rukhsana’s daughter, Afreen quoted some “friends” as saying that it “was unsafe to go there owing to a lot of garma-garmi in the area”. Geeta Latte also tapped her contacts in the police and informed all was quiet for the present, but nothing can be said of the future.
Thus prudence prevailed over valour and the Alibaug programme stays on hold.