Changing Dynamics

The sky was overcast. A gentle breeze wafted through the Garden. It was unusually pleasant this morning. And yet, attendance was poor with many regulars, including Razia Khan, Gopvinita and the Babanis pulling off a no-show. Nahid Khan wondered aloud if they had all migrated en-masse to Rajasthan to join Shekhawat for the week-end.
But there was Srichand Arora (above, in striped T-shirt) holding fort and keeping things going. Today was his day. Clearly, he realizes that we look up to him as a Club guardian and has taken upon himself the responsibility of making sure that the exercises are conducted every morning without fail.
He was his usual jovial self, not missing an opportunity at pulling up someone for not laughing out loud enough or berating another for being absent-minded, or advising an elderly lady member to stop smoking bidi-cigarettes as she was coughing too much… If there was anyone who could counter his wisecracks, it was Nahid Khan (left) – to the point of once commenting cheekily, “Aap zyada nahin, thode-thode budhdhu ho!” Arora took it sportingly.
Still, the mood was subdued, a far cry from the lively and usually noisy sessions we have with a full house. Sitaram Hivarkar (right) apparently liked it this way: “Achcha hai, aaj shanti hai”. For Arora though, this was no fun. He stopped the exercises momentarily at one stage and in typical A K Hangal style, intoned: “Aaj itna sannata kyun hai, bhai?” At the end, when it came to raising the war cry, he designated it simply as the Lioness Laughter Round. “How can four lions be any match to fourteen lionesses?” he reasoned.
True. The “lions” appear to be bigger casualties this vacation time.