Prelude to Party

Bijoy Gupta (l) distributes tilgul laddoo to mark Makar Sankranti

Today was Makar Sankranti – a festival that celebrates the solar cycle, whereby the sun transits into Makara or the constellation of Capricorn and in effect, marks the beginning of shorter nights and longer days. In simple language, this means we are not done with winter yet.
Why this phenomenon needs to be celebrated is anybody’s guess. But Bijoy Gupta, of all the people, wanted to make a meal of it and generously handed out some jaw-breaking tilgul luddoos early morning. True to tradition, he even managed to mutter “tilgul dhya, goad-goad bola” much to everybody’s surprise.
Shekhawat was not impressed though. He raised the bar by announcing a sit-down dinner in the evening at his house and only those present today for the exercises were invited. “I am not calling anybody else,” he said emphatically. “I will not make phone calls this time asking people to come. Those absent today will miss the party. I cannot help it... it is their bad luck."

Shekhawat (r) invites everyone personally for the dinner party

Gupta could not believe his ears. “You mean you are really throwing a party?” he asked Shekhawat. “Are you serious? Or are you going to make a fool of us when we land up at your place? I cannot imagine you would eventually invite us home for dinner.”
Shekhawat fished out a piece of paper from his pocket and showed Gupta what looked like a dhobi list. “See, this is proof,” he said when Gupta asked what he was to make of a listing of aloo-baigan, tamatar, sabji… Apparently, those were the grocery items Shekhawat was to order for today's dinner party.
The other subject of concern, as raised by Nahid Khan, was the building lift, supposed to be under repair (ref post of January 11). Shekhawat informed that it was still out of order and suggested that we could either take the staircase up five floors or else, get to the adjacent building, take the lift to the top floor and then make our way by jumping across a wall on the common terrace.
By the way, Shekhawat’s grandson, Shlok is leaving for London the day-after-tomorrow late night, i.e. January 18.

Patriotic Calling

Taking a call on celebrating Republic Day this time 

The question of whether to celebrate Republic Day this year was resolved today, the general consensus being that we shall report to the Garden for the flag hoisting ceremony as usual, even as January 26, 2020 happens to be a Sunday.
Till now, a section of the Club was of the opinion that we celebrate Republic Day on its eve – or perhaps, a day later – as is the practice of several schools and commercial establishments in the city. Others suggested that we scrap the celebration this year since we had done so on a couple of occasions in the past.
“How does it matter if we are to come to the Garden on a Sunday?”

Sitaram Hivarkar

questioned Banoo Apa, settling the matter. “I would definitely like to come. It is our Republic Day and we ought to celebrate on January 26 regardless of whether it is a Sunday or not.”
There could be no further discussion after this. As per our custom, we shall assemble at about 8:00 a.m. and after raising the tricolour and singing the national anthem there will be a march past (around the Garden), followed by light refreshments and distribution of sweets. An exception may be made on holding the exercises that day.
Meanwhile, we have been informed that our senior member, Sitaram Hivarkar is in a critical condition at Bellevue Hospital, Andheri. He suffered a severe head injury after slipping on the floor (of his house) yesterday and this is said to have affected his nervous system. Further details are awaited.
Let us hope and pray that he recovers soon.

Bihari Milwani:
We should celebrate Republic Day on all the three days i.e. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. After all, it is the 70th Republic Day and we should celebrate with great fervour.

Third Time Lucky?

The Alibaug trip has not been scrapped entirely (ref post of January 7). A third and final bid to this scenic resort town off-Mumbai coast is being made by the ladies of the Club for January 20 and 21, failing which the trip will be abandoned.
A decision to this effect was taken today morning and as proof of

Briefing for members of the all-women's group to Alibaug 

their commitment and will power, the ladies have paid a 50 per cent advance for booking a holiday home for the two days. In case they fail to show up, the advance shall be forfeited.
The Alibaug trip, which has become somewhat of a life-time mission for the ladies, has already suffered two setbacks. The first time it was the Bharat Bandh (ref post of January 8) and on the second attempt, it was plain bad planning (ref post of January 10) that left them high and dry.
This time around, by way of abundant caution, a firm booking has been made and that too, a clear one week in advance. Furthermore, instead of a hotel or resort, they have gone for what seems like a ‘home stay’ in a private cottage by the beach.
Consequently the place does not come with the trappings of a luxury hotel, but offers standard rooms with twin-sharing facility, badminton court, room service, etc. A kitchen with in-house help would be available for cooking (should anyone choose to)… all this for less than half the price of what the ladies had earlier settled with a hotel. Going by positive reviews on travel sites and given that this is just for a one-night stay, surely, they could not have bargained for more.

Bihari Milwani:
At last, Bhaswati has done a surgical strike. She will be hijacking the ladies of the club and keeping them in a cottage!

DAY 3011

Pic of the Week

Postcard from Times Square, New York

Sitting alone without wife in Times Square? Very bad. Next time tell us in advance. We will organise a trip to the U.S. --Bihari Milwani

Exhausted!

Shekhawat (ext right) is cornered for a party

After an unusually tumultuous week, most members took a break today. Banoo Apa, Bijoy Gupta, Rukhsana Khan, Bihari Milwani, Saeeda Sayed… were conspicuous by their absence. The freeze in the air also contributed to the low turnout. As a result Shekhawat was left holding all the flowers he had collected for late-comers.
Shekhawat walked into another trap of his own making. A couple of weeks back, he

Urmila Sinha shares cut fruits

announced that he would like to invite all Club members home to meet his pota (grandson) Shlok, who is here from London on his winter vacation. It would be in the nature of a meet-and-greet followed by dinner hosted by a proud grandfather.
“The only hitch is that the lift in my building is out of order,” he said. “It should get repaired any time now. Till then, our only option is to take the stairs up five floors... and that can be very exhausting. I suggest we’d rather wait till the lift gets repaired and then we can have a proper party. We still have time because Shlok’s return ticket to London is booked for January 18.”
Today, Nahid Khan reminded Shekhawat of his “pending promise” and asked whether the lift could be repaired. When he replied in the negative, Zarina Khan jumped in to suggest that “there were other places away from home” to host a party. In other words, she was asking for a party in some hotel/ restaurant.
Shekhawat instantly developed cold feet. He tried to wriggle out on the pretext that his family members (and particularly his son) would have to take time out and he needs to check their convenience. “Instead, why don’t I get some food packets and distribute them in the Garden?” he asked. “I think that is a better idea.”
The suggestion was met with pin drop silence. That said it all.

Bihari Milwani:
We can have the dinner party in Mr Shekhawat's building ground like the way we did for our New Year party (in the building compound of Mr Maitra).