Winter Deserters

As the temperature dips, attendance at the exercises drops. This also happens to be the wedding season. With several members rushing out of town, the Garden has begun to look barren (pic alongside). This morning we were left with barely a dozen to hold fort. The rest appear to have deserted us.
It all began with Geeta Sardhana taking off for Vrindaban early this week. Almost immediately, Razia Khan headed out to Calcutta. Then Mrs Harbans Singh left, soon to be followed by Santosh Tyagi. Thereafter, it was the turn of the Babanis – Renu and Kishor. Harish Wadhwa left for Delhi. And now, by the week-end, Jagmohan Papneja and Nahid Khan would have also gone to Delhi.
Meanwhile, Shekhawat has come in for high praise for pulling off the impossible once again. Within a day of announcing the dates for the March 2013 trip (yesterday’s post), he has enlisted 18 members, 12 of whom have already paid the advance of Rs8,000 each. Even he is surprised at this response. Srichand Arora is now worried about a problem of plenty and has advised Shekhawat to be selective about those he decides to take on board.
There was also some talk of an outing to Borivli National Park in early December where we would stage what could perhaps be our annual Sports Day. Kho-kho, pakdan-pakdai, tug-of-war (this came from Hari Naraiyani), stapu, pitthu and all those childhood games we are out-of-touch with, will be played during the day in the wilds. For Monthi Serrao (left), who has been clamouring for "some activity" in the Club, this must come as music to her ears -- just that we could be surrounded by hungry leopards and cross-eyed gorillas as spectators.