Bench Strength

The best thing to come out of the Kashmir trip is the creation of a sizeable bench strength for conducting the exercises. We no longer have to be dependent solely on the ‘stalwarts’ comprising Srichand Arora, Nahid Khan, Yusuf Rassiwala and Razia Khan. In their absence, a new generation of instructors has emerged and they have proved their worth over the past few days. They constitute Ramila Mistry and Jagmohan Papneja in the main with Bapu Rane, Pratap Bhatt and Dilip Babani bringing up the rear. Any of them should be capable of filling in and conducting the exercises in times of crises.
The biggest ‘discovery’ though, was Papneja (top pic). Not known to many, he had been “taking classes” in the Garden long before most of us joined the Club. So it came as a pleasant surprise this morning when he took to the middle like fish takes to water and conducted the exercise with full confidence and elan – not a moment of faltering, no gaffes, no missed calls… Just once at the beginning he had to be told to slow down a little and thereafter it was smooth sailing, like he was on a song.
While he was at it, Arun Patil showed up. He was away at Kashmir as part of a film unit and clearly, could not touch base with our group there. Turned out that it was on the day he dangled Shah Rukh Khan from a rope on a bridge at Pahalgam that Shekhawat & Co landed at Srinagar. As he explained (bottom pic), it was too much to expect the group to then dump their luggage and immediately rush to Pahalgam to catch up with the shoot -- all for the sake of a photo-op with SRK.
Anyway, Arun was full of stories on Kashmir, the wonderful weather there and the people he encountered during his ‘paid holiday’. Surely our group must also be having a swell time there. They better be, or else...
Harish Wadhwa:
Happy to see Arun back with apple-red cheeks. It seems he had a great time enjoying the scenic beauty of Kashmir and the wonderful weather there. He was charged up with stories of his trip.
Renu Babani's PICSPEAK:
* "I am not new to this. I know what I am doing, just follow my lead."
* "You looking at me, trust me, I'm harmless!"