Leg-pulling Galore

If it was Shekhawat's day yesterday, today belonged to Yusuf Rassiwala (right). Showing up after a fortnight, the Club’s popular 'Kali Topi Waale Pandurang Baba' responded to Shekhawat’s call to get regular in his attendance and stop playing phunti.
Naturally, Shekhawat had to be his first target of leg-pulling, right from the word go. The latter committed the mistake of informing him that he would be away at Rajasthan for 20 days from May 12 as there were two weddings in the family to attend at his village. Yusuf-bhai, in all earnestness, advised him to avoid a certain banyan tree, or else he would come back like a zombie, as it happened the last time in October.
Shekhawat, very innocently took his word seriously and gave him a vivid description of the location of the tree (“overlooking a well, next to two toilets”) and its resident ghost. “But have you seen it?” Yusuf-bhai asked.
“Haan, main ne dekha,” Shekhawat answered confidently.
“Dekhne mein kaise hai?” Bhaswati Bose asked. “Aadmi hai ya aurat?”
“Dono hai, ladies bhi hai, gents bhi hai,” he said amidst laughter, leaving Kishor Babani to conclude that the spirit must be some kind of a “chudail and chuda” bisexual!
As usual, during the exercises, Yusuf-bhai started ribbing everyone (since he was made the ‘man in the middle’) with sporadic “namastes” and “good mornings”. Today, he raised his bar by complimenting Mrs Harbans Singh (above), “Aaj aap bahut cute lag rahi hain.” And when Razia Khan (right) lost her balance and fell on her back during the kissa kursi ka exercise, he exclaimed, “Dekho, mera bachcha gir gaya hai,” only to be corrected, “Bachcha nahin, baby kaho!”
So, thanks to Yusuf-bhai, Razia became “baby” this morning. The jibes and light banter continued in the same vein with Tara Chand, Mumtaz Jahan and Nahid Khan also joining in for good measure.
At the end of it all, lest anybody took offence, he made a general statement, “Dil pe mut leh, yaar” – which was promptly echoed by Nahid Khan.