Birthday Season

Bitter gourd on birthdays... yuck!

By some quirk of nature, monsoon in Mumbai coincides with the Club’s birthday season. Yesterday was Khatoon Baig’s birthday. Tomorrow is Sunita Jajodia’s. In days to come, six more birthdays will be celebrated, thus taking the June tally to eight.
Thereafter, as the rains intensify in July, another six birthdays will fall. In August there would be a lull, but still four birthday treats can be expected. And in September, as the monsoon departs, there are six more birthdays lined up yet -- to be followed by a drought for the rest of the year.
Effectively, in the four months between June and September, we have as many as 24 birthdays to celebrate – thereby accounting for more than 50 per cent of the celebrations in a year. The funny part is that many members, who are irregular and rarely seen, will now become regular and show up daily as long lost friends – only to disappear after September.
The most pathetic among them are those known to stroll around the walking track and just as we wind up the exercises, would present themselves abruptly with a sheepish grin.

Bijoy Gupta

The Club has coined a special name for these types – a byword exchanged in loud whispers and instantly acknowledged with a chuckle.
But that’s all very fine. Gatecrashers are part of any celebration, big or small. What is even more amusing is when ‘guests’ dictate the menu – as it happened this morning. While bracing themselves to an overdose of luddoos and pedas as staple birthday fare, the ladies wondered why we should not switch to something else.
“Too much of sweet is bad,” agreed Sitaram Hivarkar. “Then why not phapda-jalebi?” suggested Razia Khan. “But that is fried, full of cholesterol,” chorused all the ladies. Finally, it was for Arun Patil to declare that the best birthday treat would be karela. “But you don’t give anything bitter on a happy occasion!” argued Santosh Tyagi. Still, it was unanimously held that from now on, everybody should ideally be handed a bitter gourd as a healthy birthday repast!
In all this birthday planning, we did not notice Bijoy Gupta’s presence in our midst. We realized he had been away for a long time when he inquired about Shekhawat's health: “He was to have a by-pass, what happened?” The conversation had to turn to Bapu Rane before long. When Gupta heard the news, his face changed colour. Silently, he turned and walked away, straight out of the Gate.

Mice Will Play

Mrs Harbans Kaur

Mrs Mohankanwar Shekhawat

Santosh Tyagi came in early morning and announced that she had discharged the ‘duty’ entrusted upon her yesterday (see post). She rang Mohankanwar Shekhawat last evening and on behalf of the Club, sought her convenience on receiving a group of members who were keen to call on her husband.
The latter was taken by surprise. Completely unaware of any such programme in the offing – least of all of her son Raghuvir’s message – Mrs Shekhawat requested for some more time till her husband recovers fully and was fit enough to play host to the group. “I will let you all know when the time is right,” she conveyed through Santosh.
So that puts to rest any immediate plan of a delegation going to meet Shekhawat – at least till such time Arora returns from Indore. In his absence, the proverbial ‘mice’ were at play today with hardly anyone getting serious about the exercises.

Monthi Serrao celebrating Ryan's birthday

Happy Birthday, Khatoon Baig

And why should they? Mrs Harbans Kaur had turned up after what seemed like ages and that by itself was good enough reason to rejoice. It was Khatoon Baig’s birthday too. And then Monthi Serrao had brought along chocolates and toffees to celebrate her son, Ryan’s birthday, which also happened to coincide today.
But the one to take the cake (and eat it too) was Razia Khan. Midway through conducting the exercises, she became absent-minded about some Urdu couplet, snatches of which were echoed by Banoo Khan as she hurried down the walking track.

'Banoo Appa' confronting Razia Khan

Abandoning the exercises, Razia hailed Banoo, “Gori Appa!” Banoo did not hear. “Banoo Appa”, Razia shouted louder. “Behri Appa!” she shouted still louder, but Banoo remained deaf to all her frantic calls.
All this while we stood still, waiting patiently for Razia to be done and resume the exercises. But she was not in any mood of giving up easily. As Banoo took the turn back on the walking track, Razia went after her full throttle, yelling her lungs out: “Banoo Appa… Gori Appa… Kali Appa… Behri Appa…” Clearly, Razia had forgotten she was conducting the exercises. But this time Banoo heard her name being called and came running in as though someone had caught fire. The two ladies cheerfully exchanged notes on the couplet and only thereafter, did Razia resume the exercises.
Would such madness be possible any place else?
Jagmohan Papneja: Wishing you Khatoon-ji as well as Ryan a very blessed birthday, filled with happiness.

Cool and Cloudy

Ethereal morning at the Garden

Ladies deliberate over visiting Shekhawat's place

It rained last night. Early risers woke to a cool and cloudy morning with little puddles everywhere and the branches of trees swaying delightfully in the breeze. Everything looked beautiful and ethereal. Overnight, the Garden not only felt but smelt like some hill resort in Europe. According to the weather bureau, the pre-monsoon shower brought the city’s temperature down by 5 to 7 degrees Celsius. Nothing could be more welcome after the traumatic heat wave and humidity we were subjected to over the past few weeks.
The pleasant weather had its effect in lifting everyone’s mood. Nahid Khan and Santosh Tyagi joked about the ladies who did not turn up today fearing they would "dissolve in water", should it rain. Ramila Mistry announced that the three days of mourning following Bapu Rane’s demise were over and we may now “raise our flags at full mast”. There was also talk of setting out on a picnic this weekend while the good weather lasts, but with Shekhawat not fully recovered (from a heart surgery) and Arora away to Indore for a week, everyone eventually gave up.
However, plans are afoot on constituting a small delegation for the Club to pay a courtesy call on Shekhawat, in response to his son, Raghuvir’s message through this blog (see post of June 1). The ladies got into a huddle and it was decided that Santosh would check with Mrs Shekhawat on phone for a convenient time and accordingly, coordinate with the rest of the members tomorrow. Everyone agreed that rather than visit separately at odd hours, we should go together as one group after prior intimation.

Day 1025

Pic of the Week

THEIR 'LAST TANGO IN THE GARDEN'! (file photo)

This is really one of the most memorable images. I think this one should be on TOP of the album which is to be presented to our dear Rane's family. --Srichand Arora

"Those were the days my friend, we thought would never end..." --Bhaswati Bose

The last dance. A beautiful memory etched in our minds forever. --Renu Babani

Happy times come and go, but memories last forever. --Jagmohan Papneja

Missing him and the Club. I have come to Faridabad for two months. Will resume the fun time soon. --Teja Singh

Happy moments. Though Rane-ji is no more, his memories will always stay with us. --Harish Wadhwa

In Mourning

One man’s absence was more conspicuous than the presence of the whole lot of us put together. He was not there to respond to our routine cry of “Rane Ready?” before the Lion-Lioness Laughter. He was not around to wish Monthi Serrao a toothless “Namattey!” when she returned today from her Mangalore trip.

Monthi Serrao

He did not show up during the Kissa Kursi Ka exercise when we habitually say, “Rane, jahaan pe bhi ho, baith jao!”
The popularity of this man is evident from the deluge of ‘comments’ we have received on yesterday’s obit (see post). On last count, we had as many as 16 condolence messages with people like Kiran Makharia, Sitaram Hivarkar and Banoo Khan writing in for the first time. Never before has the blog received so many messages (and still coming) on a single post.

Anantrao Waichal's Monkey Laughter act

In view of such an overwhelming response, it has been decided to incorporate all comments in a beautiful photo-album we intend to gift Bapu Rane’s family. The album will essentially be a compilation of images capturing some memorable moments (mainly drawn from this blog) of his association with the Club over the years.
To uplift our spirits this morning, a 76-year-old man, Anantrao Waichal joined us for the exercises and later, demonstrated how Monkey Laughter is performed by his club at Kolhapur. Amusing as it was, we were more intrigued by the nimble-footedness of this elderly gent and the vast reserves of energy he could summon in putting up an absolutely astounding show.
Message from Raghuvir Shekhawat:
Daddy is recovering. The stitches have been removed. He still has some pain which the doctors are saying would last for a couple of months. I am very grateful to all of you for showing patience till now. If you wish, please visit Daddy. He would be more then happy to see you all. My request is, if you all can come together, the strain on him would be a little less. My apologies for keeping you all away from Daddy. But I hope you understand.
Srichand Arora:
I am not there next week as I will be going out of town. But I request you all to pay a visit to our dear Shekhawat jointly at the earliest possible day.