Party’s Not Over

The euphoria over the World Cup win might have dimmed a bit in the past 24 hours. But not the memory of some of those magical moments on Saturday night... to warrant a grand celebration at the Club this morning.
Initially, the treat was to be on Srichand Arora, Santosh Tyagi and Shekhawat (see post of April 2). But with India unexpectedly posting an emphatic six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka, eight more members volunteered to pitch in – turning the celebration (in Sitaram Hivarkar’s words) into a “maha-party” for the Club.
What’s more, it was Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian New Year’s Day. As an auspicious day for new beginnings and wishing one another well, it had to be a double dhamaka in the Chinese Hut. To top it all, Renu and Kishor Babani were back with chocolates from their week-long tour of Haridwar-Mussouri.
Sitaram-ji had composed a special song, in Marathi, for the occasion. With the barest musical accompaniment (provided by Sadanand Pawar and a plastic chair), he delivered a full-throated rendering of the ditty in his typical folksy semi-classical style. Not to be outdone, Rehana Sheikh joined in with rare patriotic zeal, “Suno gaur se duniya walo/ Buri nazar na hum pe dalo… hum hai Hindustani!”
Barring these sporadic outbursts, it was more a morning of rejoicing and revisiting the many “turning points” of that historic match which brought us the World Cup. “What a match it was!” exclaimed Arora-sah’b throwing up his hands – obviously still in a state of disbelief that India had actually pulled it off.
Earlier in the morning, he and Dilip Babani drove all the way to Jagruti, near Andheri Station to pick up the phapda-jalebis, dhokla, gulab-jamuns, jumbo kachoris... among other eats for the party. Somehow, we seem to have taken these two for granted (to the exclusion of all else) for this chore, every time a party is held. When complimented for their effort, both waved their hands dismissively. “This is teamwork,” Dilip-bhai added sportingly.
Well, that’s the spirit!
Dilip Babani says:
Today's party was very nice. We enjoyed the kachoris, jalebis, phapda, gulab-jamuns, kanda-bhajiya, kaju-barfi... All the members were present and made the party a grand success. Sitaram's song was also nice. Everybody's mood was very nice. In life, what else do we want, except happiness? We missed Harish though, on this very special occasion. Maybe he's out of town.
-- Dilip
Harish Wadhwa replies:
Dilip-bhai, actually nobody called me dil-se. So I missed the occasion. I was very much in Mumbai, but was not feeling too well in the morning. Some throat infection, so maaroed a phunti.
--Harish