Utter Confusion!

The picnic plans for Lonavala have gone haywire. Shekhawat-ji (right) informed this morning that the bus which was to take us to Sion on September 25 for the Rajasthani cultural programme (see yesterday’s post) at Shanmukhananda Hall has been overbooked. It seems another bus was arranged, but that too is full. It is up to us now how we’d like to reach Sion, should we be still interested.
Shekhawat-ji is of course, interested. Anything concerning his home state excites him. And here, the chief minister is supposed to be coming. So on his own Shekhawat-ji pushed the picnic date for Lonavala from September 25 to the following week-end and booked a bigger 40-seater bus for Rs 15,000 (the earlier one was a 20-seater for Rs 10,000). Now he realizes that by mistake, he had booked the bus for October 1, instead of October 2. All along, he was under the impression that October 1 would be a Saturday – till Nahid Khan corrected him this morning.
Caught in a double-bind, Shekhawat-ji is at a loss as to what he must do. The bus issue can be somehow sorted out, but he does not know whether to go for a 40-seater or a 20-seater and more importantly, what date he must now give. He wants to go for the Rajasthani programme also on September 25… if only his friend Jagmohan (who had organized the trip) did not let him down. He even suggested that everybody take the Harbour Line local train from Andheri for King’s Circle station. The idea was promptly shot down. Bundling members into separate cars was also found impractical.
As of now, the initial plan for the Lonavala trip on September 25 stands. How Shekhawat-ji ties up the loose ends remains to be seen. He is a past master at this. Bigger issues have cropped up in earlier picnics and somehow, he gets to resolve all of them at the eleventh hour. Everything falls into place miraculously and nobody gets to know that there ever was a problem. That’s where organizing skills count!

Bhaswati Bose says:
I hope we make it to Lonavla on the 25th. If Shekhawat-ji's home state excites him, so does mine. And I will be visiting MY home state in the first week of October. I cannot cancel my airtickets. So count me out if the trip is postponed.
--Bhaswati

Renu Babani says:
I understand what you say, Mrs Bose. The final decision is that we are going on the 25th, as planned. These hitches do occur, but everything falls into place eventually. Mr Shekawat has the experience of handling any situation and somehow deals with it!
--Renu