Brave Ladies

Breezy morning. Slight chill in the air. Yusuf-bhai (left, above) took charge, much to Sunita-ji’s (right, below) consternation. She prefers having Nahid Khan or Arora-sah’b in the middle as neither “wastes” time. Yusuf-bhai typically tends to take things easy, exchanging pleasantries and thereby delays her going back. She has some time-bound commitments at home which compel her to abandon the second session of the laughter round every day.
For the rest of us, a little dalliance here and there is welcome any time. Nobody really minds the many interruptions, whether it is to discuss a certain song or engage in a bout of serious leg-pulling. The ladies enjoy this the most. They are always looking for an excuse to break out from the humdrum of exercising. And Yusuf-bhai provides those opportunities in ample measure while putting us through our paces.
Today, for a change, a strange discussion broke out on Man and God – the trigger being Anup Jalota’s voice that kept insistently erupting on Kishor-bhai’s phone. An irritated Nafisa Syed (left, above) requested that some other music be played. While Kishor-bhai went about changing the phone chip, Razia Khan commented that devotional songs of all religions ought to be respected and she herself had a good collection of popular bhajans at home. Mumtaz Jahan (right, below) added that she used to sing bhajans at one time because, to her, it made no difference how the Supreme Power was addressed. “Oopar wala toh ek hi hai,” she reasoned.
It was an enlightening discussion between a group of progressive women, which took the rest of us by surprise. In these volatile times when discussing religion amounts to waving a red rag before the proverbial bull, here were some brave ladies giving vent to their opinion with all sincerity and conviction. Nafisa, as usual, had the last word: “Oopar wala ek hai, par insaan toh alag-alag hai.”
How true!