Favorite Pastime

Tara Chand Seth is back!

Some people like discussing the weather. Others enjoy talking sex. Many are able to wax eloquent on food. But for us in the Garden, our favorite pastime is chatting on medical matters. We love to discuss our ailments threadbare, badmouth the doctors of all hospitals, yet inform one another of free check-ups, prescribe strange therapies and cures and most irritatingly, tender unsolicited advice.
Today’s provocation was Tara Chand Seth.

Shekhawat is MIB -- Man in Black

He returned last evening, partly to escape the freezing cold in Delhi and also to catch his breath before plunging into another big wedding in the family in February 2016. He said he had been having a hectic time of late and now that he was in the wrong side of the 80s, he gets tired easily.
“I had a by-pass done on my heart 17 years back,” he narrated. “I was then prescribed a fistful of tablets and capsules.

Angad Singh narrates his tale of woe

I took them religiously till about three years back, when I started to feel some unease in my chest. I went for a check-up and the doctor instantly stopped the medicines. My grand-daughter, who is also a doctor, consulted her seniors and they too confirmed that those medicines served no purpose. Since then I am without any medicines and I feel perfectly fine.”
Shekhawat, who also underwent a bypass surgery (three years back), informed that he would have to soon go for a check-up at the Asian Heart Institute in BKC. Over the past week or so, he had endured a battery of tests at the Naval Hospital in Colaba but the findings have scarcely inspired any confidence. [Actually, not many know that late last month, Shekhawat had suffered what seemed to him a ‘silent heart attack’ at Brindavan Gardens in Mysore.] “My son says we need to go for a second opinion,” he said.
Angad Singh narrated a hilarious incident in Mohali one afternoon, when he was abducted by neighborhood women, all because someone saw him exercising a crick in his neck. They got him hospitalized and the doctors there did their best to pin some ailment or disease on him. When they failed after two days, they decided to ‘invent’ a cardiac problem and threatened him with angioplasty. By then his daughter (a doctor) came to his rescue and he could escape unscathed.
Today, looking at this tall, handsome army veteran, who would say he is 82?

Good Cheer

Angad Singh celebrates his grand-daughter's wedding with barfi

All of India may be in the grips of a bone-chilling cold wave, but in Mumbai, the weather is divine – the mornings especially so. Yet, attendance for the exercises is slipping with every passing day. Evidently, people prefer to stay indoors in the most pleasant of times and when the going gets tough, they tumble out en masse in the Garden!
Even so, it was a good day for us. For starters, we ushered Kajal Babani’s birthday by raising an extra laugh and wishing her many happy returns. We understand she is busy with preparations for her daughter’s wedding next week and could not make it to the Garden this morning.

Happy Birthday, Kajal Babani

Moreover, the ‘desk calendar’ the Club gifts to every birthday girl/ boy has got inordinately delayed in her case. So we have requested her to take time out for us on Saturday morning – by which time, the calendar should be ready for her.
Lest anyone felt deprived of a birthday treat, Lt Col Angad Singh graciously stepped in with a box of kaju-katli (barfis) soon after the exercises.

Shekhawat greets the two Chinese ta'i chi girls

Many thought this was his way of registering his return from Mohali (ref yesterday’s post) and as decent human beings, we politely picked a piece each. But Angad insisted we pick a second piece also of the barfi and only then did we learn of the good news: Shiven Preet Kaur, his grand-daughter got married recently and this was a happy grand-father sharing his joy with us. Our blessings go to her and the lucky groom as well.
Meanwhile, Shekhawat had a rare euphoric moment while doing yoga in the China Hut. Two of the Chinese ta’i chi girls wandered into the Garden late morning, obviously not expecting any of us to be around. But Shekhawat had spotted them and without as much of a with-your-leave, he abandoned the yoga session and bounded gleefully towards the girls. It was more of a reunion of long-lost comrades and their happiness in catching up (after no more than a month) was mutual and palpable. After an animated exchange of pleasantries in sign language, Shekhawat managed to convey that they should report to the Garden from tomorrow, without fail.

Work in Progress

Angad Singh (centre) is back after eight months

Brainstorming over Annual Day programme

A youthful looking and rejuvenated Lt Col Angad Singh (retd) returned to the Garden to a rousing welcome this morning. He was away at his hometown, Mohali for the past eight months or so. But he had all along been in touch with us through this blog and used to post his comments from time to time on the day-to-day developments in the Club.
Today, the octogenarian was promptly sucked into the planning and preparations for the Annual Day function, scheduled next month. At the instance of Yusuf Rassiwala, Kiran Prakash and Srichand Arora (who was to join us after the exercises), it was decided to firm up for the evening of January 16, 2016 (a Saturday) when the weather will be “neither too warm nor too cold”. It is being conceived as a two-hour variety entertainment programme (maybe, extended by half-hour max), followed by a packaged dinner.
A minor dispute broke over the venue, since the space in the China Hut was found inadequate to house an audience of nearly 100 last time (April 18, 2015). Razia Khan came up with an alternative – an air-conditioned dance hall in her building complex let out on Rs3,000 for an evening. This would allow us to also dine in the premises, rather than settle for packed food boxes. Yusuf Rassiwala, who is familiar with the place however, shot down the proposal saying that “the hall is too small to accommodate even 40 chairs”. So we are back to the China Hut once again.
Razia had also come prepared with a draft ‘programme sheet’ listing the items to be presented on the evening and their sequence – welcome address, ramp show, audio-visual projection, short play, skits, songs, mimicry, dances… Now, this is the trickiest part of any planning exercise, as no one likes being left out for any reason. How Razia Khan and Kiran Prakash should allow them to give vent to their bottled-up talent, all within two hours, remains to be seen. With exactly a month to go, this is doubtless heavy-duty work in progress.
Lt Col Angad Singh:
Thanks for the rousing reception. I am glad that members of the Club are so youthful and energetic as to remember their old colleagues. I am thrilled to be back with them. I was also surprised that some new, rejuvenating Chinese exercises have been added which are essential and helpful to feel full of energy in the end.

Weather Change

Photos of south India tour change hands

It is mid-December and only now is winter creeping in. The mornings are dark, but cool and pleasant. Woolens have started to appear on the likes of Razia Khan, Monthi Serrao and Siba Prasad Maitra. And even regulars are turning up late these days or reporting sick due to the ‘change of weather’.
Khatoon Baig showed up after four days, looking anxious and scared. Her asthma problem has aggravated – much like when she had to be hospitalized in Hyderabad earlier in the month. But rather than agonize in self-pity, she kept assuring her friends that she will “manage somehow” and that nobody should worry unduly for her.
Many seniors like Srichand Arora, Sitaram Hivarkar and Jagmohan Papneja have turned erratic in their daily attendance.

Chauudhurys, father and son

Bijoy Gupta today could not take the exercises beyond a point and plonked himself on an empty chair, complaining of “weakness”.
Shekhawat is going every morning for tests at the Navy Hospital in Colaba. Mumtaz Jahan and Fehmida Khan are said to be still under the weather.
And then, there is the growing mystery surrounding several long-term absentees. For one, Nirmala Yadav (ref post of November 28) has disappeared without a trace, significantly, after collecting her Club cap.

Khatoon Baig

For another, there is no news of the Choudharys, who used to be so popular and had endeared themselves to everyone in a short time. It is over two weeks since the family stopped coming to the Garden and Ajit Choudhary isn’t taking any call either. And what can be said of those lively ta'i chi Chinese girls, last seen on November 23? Like the rest, they too have vanished into thin air!
The good news though, is that Kiran Prakash could make it to the Garden this morning (ref yesterday’s post). He had to drive down from Malad, but if he had any plans for the Annual Day programme, it is unlikely he could make much headway. Nahid Siddiqui had brought a bunch of photos on the South India tour (November 24 to December 3) and everybody got so taken in by them that everything else receded into insignificance. The tour hangover would apparently last for some more time.
Ajit Choudhary:
I am sorry I could not accept any call. My mom is now okay but Papa has developed some urinary problem. Due to this, I am busy with office, the pathology lab and hospital. Really sorry. Once this settles, we will be back with Big Laaf. We are really missing you all.
Anonymous:
Early morning my wife clings to me and cries, "Mujhko thand lag rahi hai mujhse door tu na ja, na-ja, na-ja na-ja na-ja..." Then tell me how shall I come.

Shifting Out

Kiran Prakash

This was one association too good to last. It would seem just the other day that Kiran Prakash joined us, literally out of nowhere. He simply walked into the exercise circle, introduced himself and before long, became an integral part of the Big Laaf family – forever helpful and supportive, taking the lead at conducting the exercises, setting an example by being unfailingly regular and punctual and most remarkably, initiating the Annual Day function. We too embraced him unconditionally, with open arms. And just as abruptly it all started, it is ending now.
Kiran Prakash has relocated to Malad.
“I am not leaving you people any time soon,” he phoned up to say this morning.

Razia Khan conducts 'Chinese exercises' in place of Prakash

“I need to be in the Club, both for my physical and mental well-being. The morning regimen has become a lifeline for me over the past year or so. I will figure out some way to be in the Garden early morning – maybe not as regular as earlier, but as often as I can.”
Malad is a good 15-minute drive to the Garden and according to most members,

Nahid Khan gets us Shirdi prasad

it is unlikely Kiran Prakash would be able to keep up to his morning routine however much he would like to. “How is he going to make it?” said Santosh Tyagi despondently. “They all talk like this before leaving. Purushottam Sharma had said the same thing before shifting to Goregaon. But once he left, he forgot all about us. It is not physically practical to maintain old ties long-distance.”
Harbans Kaur agreed: “But Kiran Prakash-ji was a good person.”
Razia Khan is feeling particularly ‘orphaned’, for obvious reasons. On Kiran Prakash’s say-so, she agreed to coordinate the entertainment line-up for the Annual Day function (ref post of December 13) and today, even got Fehmida Khan to commit a ‘mimicry act’. Nahid Khan said she already had a short play in hand and would get started with the casting and rehearsals.
Some members insisted their grandchildren be allowed to take part while Santosh Tyagi came up with some innovative ideas for the ‘ramp show’. She said she would cut short her trip to Delhi this week so as to be able to devote more time for the programme. Alas, Kiran Prakash will not be part of all this action.

Kiran Prakash:
I read my obituary with interest. No body knows what is in store in future. Big Laaf is very close to my heart. I have love and respect for everybody -- Arun Patil to Zareena Khan. This is one team which takes care of one another, values one-another's opinion and forgets fights in no time. Where else will I find such people? I hope I am able to prove you wrong and continue to be a part of the Club's New Year programme.
Bhaswati Bose:
Please don't leave us, Mr Kiran Prakash. The (double) light of our lives will go away from the Garden!
Kiran Prakash replies:
You are embarrassing me, Bhaswati-ji. Big Laaf is a self-sustaining club. Where else will you find somebody flanked by his four saalis in a public place? It happens only in Big Laaf. Where else would 60+ brothers and sisters fight like teenagers? There is much more to Big Laaf than anybody can think of. God bless us.