Damage Control

Meeting in progress

Today must have been the coldest day of the season. Even those hailing from the north, for whom winter in Mumbai has always been a joke, came wrapped tight in woolens. Shekhawat too came heavily padded up, but could not take the chill beyond a point and rushed home, abandoning the yoga session. Monthi Serrao, as indeed many others, simply did not show up. For all we know, the morning temperature would have dipped well below 10 degrees, something we are not accustomed to.
In all this, Bihari Milwani could get our energy levels soaring with a sumptuous treat of bitter-sweet dark chocolates. It was his birthday today. And in keeping with Big Laaf tradition, we cheered and raised an extra laugh for our ‘Baanke Bihari’, wishing him many happy returns of the day. Tara Chand Seth presented him with a personalised birthday calendar on behalf of the Club.
However, the highlight of the morning was an impromptu meeting convened by Kiran Prakash in order to salvage the Annual Day function scheduled for January 16. It was a last ditch attempt at damage control following a shocker from Razia Khan last evening: “My brother is coming from the USA in the first week of January. So I won’t be able to give sufficient time to the program.

Tara Chand presents birthday calender

Birthday treat from Bihari Milwani

I will have to be with him most of the time. So I request you to please give this responsibility to someone else... I won’t be able to organize the program the way it should be. So I will be very grateful if someone who is more suitable and capable takes this responsibility. I am extremely sorry about this. Next time I will be there, but for now, please excuse me.”
The SMS left Prakash with little option but to take the bull by its horns and himself get everyone motivated for the programme, rather than depend on anyone. And what a fruitful meeting that was! Razia was also present and seeing the enthusiasm of all present, she drew a chair next to Prakash and guided the course of discussions. If only this was done earlier, we would not have lost a lot of valuable time.
Kiran Prakash:
Razia always took a very active part in all the club activities and this time too, wanted to organise the Annual function. However, she is at a crossroad between club commitment and family. I sincerely thank her for taking the lead today. I also thank all members -- especially Banoo Apa, Mumtaz, Mrs Singh, Mallika, Gita, Bhaswati, Qadir, Naseem, Nahid Khan, Swati, Fehmida‎, Rekha, Arun and Bose Babu for their active participation in today's meeting.

Pleasantly Surprised

Tara Chand Seth introduces us to
the magic of shakkar parei

Harbans Kaur receives her birthday
calendar from Lt Col Angad Singh

Dark and chilly morning, broken by the warmth and revelry of two unexpected events: one, Tara Chand Seth celebrated his return to the Garden (on December 18) after giving his grand-daughter in marriage in Delhi; and two, Harbans Kaur received her long-pending birthday calendar from the hands of Lt Col Angad Singh. All of a sudden, it was sunshine again in the Garden.
Harbans Kaur’s gift was however, tinged with sadness. Her birthday was on Sunday, November 29, when many members of the Club were away on the tour of South India. Nevertheless she had a “small celebration” on December 1 (ref post) saying that she intended to throw a bigger bash, when the rest of the Club returns from the tour.

Mohammad Gulzar and his wife (extreme rt) drop by

She would collect her birthday calendar then.
Unfortunately, she had to rush to Delhi as news came in of her sister being terminally ill and in a critical state. “The doctors have given up on her,” she informed upon her return yesterday. In the circumstances, a celebration was considered grossly inappropriate; but upon our request, she agreed to accept her calendar.
As for Tara Chand’s treat, it was yet another occasion when the Club got to savor a somewhat forgotten culinary delight. Not many in Mumbai are familiar with shakkar parei – a crunchy molasses-coated sweet that owes its origins to weddings in the Pakistan side of Punjab. Or so we were told. We thank Tara Chand for introducing us to this magical confection.
Mohammad Gulzar and his wife, Tabassum also gave us a pleasant surprise by turning up after the exercises – though briefly – to collect a cash refund Shekhawat was making. Sadly, they are unable to attend our morning exercises as their little daughter Gulta Fida needs to be dropped to school around the same time. We do miss all three of them.

Headless Chickens

Kiran Prakash appeals to everyone to participate

Time is ticking away and there has been no headway on the Annual Day function scheduled on January 16, 2016 (ref post of December 16). Not one rehearsal has been held so far. Razia Khan, who took the initiative in mobilizing members and had even drawn up a detailed ‘program sheet’ for the evening, has apparently developed cold feet now. She has stopped coming to the Garden.
Clearly left in the lurch, Kiran Prakash today appealed once again to the collective conscience (and individual talent) of all members to “actively participate” in the function and make it a bigger success than the last time.
“I expect you all to take part,” he emphasized. “I want you to tell me by tomorrow morning what you would individually like to do for the function. After tomorrow, we shall not be able to entertain any request from anybody!”
Harbans Kaur repeated her wish to sing two Punjabi folk songs while Fahmida Khan parroted her intention to stage a ‘mimicry show’. Swati Punjabi

Razia Khan

and Monthi Serrao said they were ready to do whatever they were told and Mallika Kagzi, as usual, reiterated she was incapable of doing anything. Mumtaz Jahan said she is an accomplished singer-dancer-actress rolled into one while Bhaswati Bose offered to put together a 15-minute AV presentation on the Club’s recent South India tour.
But all that is not enough. What Kiran Prakash needs is someone with organizational skills, prepared to devote time and inspire by example, conduct rehearsals at odd hours and effectively, get his/ her hands dirty. A supervisory command-and-control mechanism can never work. For ours is a peculiar Club with a distinctive herd mentality. We always like to follow the leader. We need a driver to push-start the car and once it is up and running, everybody else will climb in automatically.
Right now, our best bet for such an inspirational and capable driver is Razia Khan. Sadly, the last time around, she did not get the kind of support and encouragement she had expected from the Club for volunteering her services. Unless she can be persuaded to change her mind (or someone else is identified in her place), we shall be left with a lot of headless chickens and a very slim chance of staging the Annual Day function on schedule.
Kiran Prakash:
Rest assured, the Annual Day function will be held on schedule and we shall do even better than last time. Razia Khan is very much there with her super organisational skills to get the best out of every participant and make the event a grand success.
Anonymous:
Dear Kiran Prakash-ji, your event manager is not working as per your schedule. Please deduct one day's salary from her as a deterrent penalty.
Kiran Prakash replies:
Our event manager is working double-time. She is working even from home. She deserves two day's additional salary as reward. Please keep watching her and you too will admire her commitment and effort.

Day 1846

Pic of the Week

Blue Murder: A little longer and one would've been dead meat!

Mujhe meri Swati se bachao/ Mujhe meri Swati se bachao/ Akadti hai bigadti hai/ Hamesha mujhse ladti hai... --Anonymous

Thank God! You did not kill him Mom!!! --Malvika Punjabi

Swati-ji has beaten my back on the ground. This was part of the Chinese massage. I strongly recommend the same massage to all (male) members from her. Thanks Swati-ji. --Siba Prasad Maitra

Festive Air

Kajal receives her birthday gift and a warm hug from Banoo Apa

The mercury dipped by another notch this morning, but attendance shot up. Being a Saturday, many drop-outs of the week showed up – Prabha Kapoor, Sitaram Hivarkar, Mohan Kanwar Shekhawat, Sheela Mirani, Banoo Apa…
A festive air prevailed in the Garden with Srichand Arora and even the Chinese ta’i chi girls joining us later, after the exercises.
Most importantly, it was Kajal Babani’s birthday -- celebrated belatedly. For the first time we were unable to have the birthday desk calendar ready in time (her birthday was actually the day-before yesterday: see post) and we had requested her to drop by at her convenience for the presentation today.
Banoo Apa did the honors amid a round of applause, much cheering and showering of blessings on the beaming birthday babe.
Shekhawat however,

Yusuf R collects cash from Shekhawat and Monthi Serrao

nursed a grouse. He threatened to confiscate Kajal’s gift (seriously!) and at one point tried to make away with the calendar securely tucked under his shoulder, when he had to be stopped.
He simply could not come to terms with his picture not appearing even on a single page of the calendar. (This is rather unusual because Shekhawat is supposed to be omnipresent in Club photos.)
But how would walking away with Kajal’s calendar help in any way defies logic.
Before long, Shekhawat lost interest in the calendar (naturally!) and stood beside a bench, doling out cash. Yes, cash. To some he gave away five rupees, to some 700 rupees, others 540 rupees… Many received nothing at all. And the one collaborator in this act of selective benevolence was Monthi Serrao.
Arbitrarily they palmed off money to just about anybody who caught their fancy, not even taking a receipt (or signature) in return and refusing those whose face they did not like -- particularly those wearing spectacles.
Nobody had any clue what was going on.
Later, much later, it transpired that they were refunding cash to those who had overpaid for the last South India trip.