Childhood Replay

You could call it the ‘Kareeb hangover’ of the past two days (see posts). Or you could name it the ‘Dilip Babani-effect’. Or else, you could say that the mice were at play while the big cats were away.
In what appeared to be a defiant, yet hilarious expression of newfound freedom, the chatterboxes had a field day, talking and laughing non-stop as none of their ‘minders’ showed up this morning. There was not a dull moment and nobody was spared. The dreaded ‘k’-word came up at least a dozen times, particularly with Dilip-bhai (right) getting big kicks out of telling everybody, “Kareeb Mut Aaiyeh!”
Earlier in the morning, he had accompanied Shekhawat-ji to the Garden and brought up the subject (as he was not present yesterday). Shekhawat-ji’s explanation was simple: “We come to the Garden for an hour to enjoy. Who are they to tell us to remain within limits? We are all grown-up and responsible people. We don’t need to be told our limits. We know our limits very well.”
During the exercises, a spectre of Talibanisation was created with almost everybody coming up with a horror story of being pulled up for inappropriate dressing (“look what she's wearing”), which female shook hands with which male (“body nahin touch karne ka”), why somebody said something to somebody (“ghalat baat hai”)… Like tittering school kids, the ladies went on and on, disregarding Sunita Jajodia’s half-hearted appeals to “talk shaam koh”. She too was enjoying the fun.
Fed up of the incessant prattle, finally Razia Khan tried to enforce some discipline. “Girls,” she shouted from the middle. “Stop talking!”
“We are not girls,” Ramila Mistry yelled back. “We are woooooo-men.”
“No, we are girls,” corrected Mumtaz Jahan. “None of us has crossed 35 years.”
Dilip-bhai got his cue: “No, we men are 35. You all must be below 18 years!”
The dispute over age continued for a while amidst rousing laughter, till Nahid Khan (left) brought about a truce: “You boys are all under 18 and the girls are yet to be born!”
That made sense to Dilip and Co. The women simply don’t exist!