Fixations

Shekhawat in his uniform

Of late, Shekhawat has been wearing his ‘favourite’ turquoise blue, full-sleeved shirt to the Garden – day-in, day-out. Since the onset of winter, he has discarded his t-shirts for this particular shirt, teamed with dark track pants and casual floaters.

Bijoy Gupta

Rather than calling it a dress code, Bijoy Gupta describes this as a misguided “guard’s uniform”, suggestive of the joy train Shekhawat loves to lead every morning at the end of the free-hand exercise round.
In order to drive home his point, Gupta once asked Shekhawat how he could manage to get hold of Raj Kapoor’s shirt. He answered the question himself by stating that Shekhawat must have picked it up at an auction of the late actor’s clothes. And the shoes he was sporting was purchased from a Sale where Shekhawat paid for one shoe and was rewarded by a pair!
This is just one instance of how fixated some of us can become with an article of clothing, food item, behaviour or belief. Without naming names, there have been occasions when even samosas can become a bone of contention. One member is known to obsess over a particular position while exercising.

Members try to dispel the fear of a rat's ghost! 

A blinking street light (visible from the Garden) had captured the imagination of the entire Club for days on end.
The latest is a dead rat found near our exercise circle yesterday morning. It was a huge, black freshly-killed creature that we felt should best be left to the Garden crows to feast on during the day. Sure enough the carcass disappeared this morning. But a casual remark by someone about the “ghost of the rat” haunting us took matters to an absolute bizarre level.
One lady simply could not get over the idea of being possessed by a rat’s ghost. She had taken the remark seriously, believing it to be gospel truth. So fixated was she that no amount of explaining by half a dozen members could dispel this grown up woman’s fear of sighting a dead rat’s ghost some day. She even recounted her encounters with assorted ghosts!
In the end, Banoo Apa gave her a piece of valuable advice: "Never fear the dead. Be afraid of living beings."

Bihari Milwani:
I find it rather strange how people who eat mutton and chicken and who have kept company with two 'lions' should now be scared of a dead rat.