Summery New Year

THE FIRST EXERCISES OF 2016

After a brief wintry spell last week, it is turning out to be hot and humid again in Mumbai. We have not had to sweat it out yet, but the stillness in the air and with the morning temperature hitting double digit, many were complaining of breathing problems during the exercises.

New Year greeting... Mallika and Monthi

The day temperature is likely to cross 35 degrees Celsius, according to newspapers.
The freakish weather notwithstanding, we had a full house this morning – more so, because of the Club’s annual tea-‘n’-biscuits party meant to usher in the New Year.

Ajit Chaudhury relates his ordeal

Prabha Kapoor supplemented it with toffees while Swati Punjabi added a meaningful twist to the celebration by distributing ball-point pens to all. She is on a mission to make us all literate by the end of 2016.

Swati Punjabi gives away ballpens

Jokes apart, Ajit Chaudhury made a surprise visit to explain the reasons for his absence during the past month or so. Indeed, we had been missing him and his wonderful family (of son Akshat, wife and parents) who had become an integral part of Big Laaf. Little did we know that a series of medical mishaps had overtaken the family, one after another. “It was a harrowing time for all of us,” he narrated. “I was caught between the pathological lab, my job in the bank, doctors’ appointments…” And if these were not enough, he had to contend with a major burglary at his ancestral home in Bihar.
Let us hope and pray that Ajit is able to put all this behind and that the New Year brings happy tidings for him and his family. They don’t deserve to suffer. Nobody does. So this is wishing you all that 2016 turns out to be the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ everybody is talking about.

Hot, home-brewed tea for all

Prabha Kapoor gives toffees

Biscuits to go with tea

Bihari Milwani:
* In a hurry we forgot to raise a fourth laugh to wish Happy Birthday to Ms Shiela Mirani.
* Wish you all a very Happy New Leap Year. May you all prosper by leaps and bounds.

Welcome 2016

Farewell 2015

GOODBYE 2015

The sun rose today for the last time in 2015. The Garden was bathed in a mellow, golden light as we assembled for the exercises, buoyed by a feeling of joy and triumph – joy, because it was Siba Prasad Maitra’s birthday; and triumph, because yesterday (ref post), we could obtain the seemingly ‘impossible’ permission to hold our Annual Day function in the China Hut on January 16, 2016.
All morning everyone was singing paeans of praise for Hemant Nair, the Celebration Club bossman under whose purview our Garden falls. Clearly, news of the delegation that met him yesterday and the outcome of that meeting had already reached many members. Still, Shekhawat formally briefed us on how it had taken "all of 10 seconds" for Nair to give his nod and what remains now is making a written request from our side to him.

Shekhawat briefs us on yesterday's meeting

As Big Laaf president, Srichand Arora said he would draft the letter today and complete the necessary formalities.
Effectively, this means that we will NOT have to pay for using the China Hut and NOT look out for another venue to hold the Annual Day function. (At one point, there was a very real possibility of shifting location to Chhota Kashmir in Aarey Milk Colony!)

Maitra receives birthday calendar

The permission however, comes with the rider: Eatables and beverages will not be allowed inside the Garden. We will have to make do with packaged food, to be consumed outside.
Maitra showed us how to make a celebration of this when he distributed food boxes after the exercises as his birthday treat. Always cheerful and today, doubly so, here is one man who is as much admired as he is adored –

The welcome cuppa 

Tara Chand blesses Maitra

so much so that there are many among us who drop by only when he is there and cannot but hang on to every word he utters. All those fan boys and girls were around today, wishing him the best and many, blessing him. Even Mallika Kagzi insisted on giving him ashirwad and landed several thumps on his head. And who can forget that look of awe and disbelief in the eyes of Banoo Apa as Maitra warbled a couple of Bengali numbers for her benefit? Sadly, he had to leave in a hurry because it was a working day for him. May our ‘birthday boy’ remain forever cheerful like this and bring cheer to everyone around for all time. Happy Birthday, once again, Mr Maitra!
Bihari Milwani:
Request all members to strictly adhere to the condition imposed and not eat in the Garden. This is good for us also as otherwise, some other group may spoil the Garden on a flimsy excuse.

In Fits and Starts

Kiran Prakash conducts another meeting for the Annual Function

It’s been a fortnight since the Club took the decision to hold its Annual Day function on January 16 and things have been moving in fits and starts after that. Now, with just about another fortnight left, Kiran Prakash made a valiant bid yet again (ref post of December 23) at mobilizing members for the event and called a meeting after the exercises to finalise matters.
As it turned out, the discussions that followed proved to be placing the proverbial carriage before the horse. Midway through the meeting Shekhawat revived the question of deciding on the venue and whether the Celebration Club (which is the custodian of the Garden) had granted us permission to hold our function in the China Hut.
Of course, we have an alternative, as suggested by Siba Prasad Maitra to use the facility in his housing complex for a nominal rent of Rs500. But that option was voted out by a show of hands earlier in the morning. Clearly, most members were averse to leaving the premises of the China Hut –

Mallika holds aloft the new tea flask

the venue of our last Annual Day function on April 2015.
After prolonged discussions it was decided

Show of hands over fixing the venue

that a small group representing Big Laaf would call on the secretary of Celebration Club today itself at 12:30pm and apprise him of the situation. The delegation would comprise the two chairmen (emeritus) Yusuf Rassiwala and Shekhwat as well as Kiran Prakash, Monthi Serrao, Swati Punjabi and Dilip Babani among others. It was felt that only after getting the green signal from Celebration Club would we proceed with preparations for the Annual Day function.
Nevertheless, for the record, there were some interesting points that came up in the first half of meeting. The most fascinating one was mooted by Monthi who described a classroom situation (for the function) with all of us playing ‘students’. Shekhawat was so bowled over by the idea that he started clapping hysterically when Monthi declared that she would play the ‘teacher’. Later, she added, she would perform a ‘step dance’ also.
Kiran Prakash:
We met the Secretary of Celebration Club this afternoon. He had no objection to our holding the Annual Function on Saturday, January 16, 2016. He only wants a request letter from us giving details of the proposed programme. He has also requested us to hand over food packets, etc. to members as they leave the Garden and not to consume the same within the premises.

Big Breakthrough

Mallika Kagzi (seated) spells out her conditions for getting tea

Trivial as this may appear, our problem of having tea in the Garden has been sorted out. Mallika Kagzi has very kindly acceded to our plea to accept PAYMENT for the tea she gets for Club members on request, especially in these cold wintry mornings.
She however, put forth one condition: The Club should provide her a "nice" thermos flask.
The first to jump at this was Siba Prasad Maitra. This morning he requested her for the tea he intends treating us to on his birthday the day after tomorrow. Ordinarily Mallika would have volunteered with hot home-brewed tea (as she has been doing in the past), but now she will have to accept payment from Maitra for this favour.
Earlier in the morning, Santosh Tyagi had wanted to give us tea along with the biscuits she had brought from Delhi. She did not want to bother Mallika and had relied on the tea vendor close to the Garden who had been catering to us, off and on, for the past several years. This morning he refused.

Santosh Tyagi treats us to biscuits

He said that unless we obtain permission from the watchman at the Garden gate, he cannot send us the tea. Twice in the recent past, he had been

Khatoon Baig

refused entry in the Garden, he explained.
Santosh did not want to kick up a row and we all settled for having the biscuits without tea. It was humiliating and left a bad taste – more so, since the issue of lifting the restrictions on food and beverages (ref post of December 10) is yet to be formally taken up. That was when a collective decision was taken to no longer be at anybody’s mercy and that we would have our celebrations as before and collectively face the consequences.
In an unrelated development, we hear that Khatoon Baig is going through a terrible time because of asthma. She hadn’t quite recovered from the hospitalization in Hyderabad (ref post of December 2) and given the cold wave and pollution levels in Mumbai, her condition had badly aggravated. She was hospitalized again – at Kokilaben for a week and last Saturday, we are told she was discharged in a relatively “stable” state. The worst is over, but she is still in distress. Let us all pray for her.