And The Winners Are…

So the khatoon is out of the bag!
After a week of intense speculation, we have now come to recognise the “mystery woman” in our midst. She is none other than Khatoon Baig. And the ones to identify her correctly in this second edition of Pehchan Kaun (see post of last Sunday, May 1) are HARISH WADHWA and GEETA SARDANA (left). Both were declared winners by Srichand Arora (bottom left), who officiated as master of ceremonies in a short, but delightful session in the Garden this morning.
The picture you see below on the right is the original (untouched) ‘graduation photograph’ submitted by Ms Baig. The bindi on her forehead is a red herring. So it did not come as any surprise that a majority of the guesses went wide off the mark with non-Muslim ladies being the prime ‘suspects’. Mohankanwar Shekhawat came in for close scrutiny, followed by Ramila Mistry, Sunita Jajodia and Geeta Sardana herself. Some did pitch for Razia Khan and Mumtaz Jahan though. By and large, anybody with a presumably longish face and broad forehead in her teens came within the range of doubt. But for the two winners, nobody had imagined that Khatoon Baig could be the person.
However, it must be said that Monthi Serrao was among the first to be spot-on at identifying the lady correctly, but for some reason she did not want to post or SMS the name. Taking her word with nothing on record, could only invite needless criticism about favoritism. Also, Harish-bhai should be credited for his perceptive eye. Last time also, he had got to identify Yusuf Rassiwala correctly at first shot, but later changed his opinion. Geeta-ji went wrong last time, but now she was “101 percent sure” of herself.
Sadly Dilip Babani, the most enthusiastic “commenter” in this identification game did not show up this morning. Yusuf Rassiwala, Razia Khan and Mumtaz Jahan , among others, were also missed. Their presence would have added that extra zing to Srichand Arora making the announcements in his inimitable style, laced with natural wit and spontaneous humour.
P.S.: Ms Baig has recently had a cataract operation done. Hence the dark glasses you see in the lead pic.
Harish Wadhwa says:
Thank you very much Blog Monster, Arora-ji, Khatoon Baig-ji and members of our Big Laaf group for the recognition and prize. Ghar mehek utha unke uphaar se!
--Harish