Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is not easy – especially for someone who answers to the name of Hari Singh Shekhawat (right). He will be away for three weeks at his village in Rajasthan where he has two weddings in the family to attend. He is boarding the evening train today from Bombay Central.
Kishor Babani threatened to show up at the railway station with a retinue of 15 well-wishers from the Club to see him off. Although made in jest, the message was not lost on anybody. For Shekhawat is one member for whom life revolves around the Club and everything in the Club revolves around him. It is hard to find another person who is so completely involved in the day-to-day activities at the Garden. In fact, he has come to represent the face of the Club for all intent and purposes.
So it was hardly surprising that while bidding goodbye, he should appeal to everybody to be regular with their exercises and not play phunti in his absence. On their part, members advised him to take care of his health and as Srichand Arora put it, desist from eating outside food. The allusion was obviously to “the something suspicious” fed to him on his last visit to the village in October 2010, from which he had taken time to recover. A few lady members mischievously warned him against walking under peepal trees in the village, lest some lonesome chudail should descend and possess him!
Earlier in the morning, Sunita Jajodia (left) was in delightful form as she tried in vain to get the exercises started before time. When everybody assembled at seven sharp, she refused to join – sulking and grumbling to herself on a bench. It was hilarious watching Arora cajoling and pleading with her… to the point of himself refusing to join the exercises until she got up. Finally, she relented.