Silly Prank

A stupid announcement on the Notice Board raised everybody’s hackles this morning. It was a brief, three-line order – that henceforth no one would be permitted into the Garden before 7 a.m. – no reason, no signature, not even a letterhead… just “General Manager” typed in bold capitals at the bottom. But that was enough to set the proverbial cat among the pigeons.
Angry regulars protested against the ‘arbitrariness’ behind the order and threatened to stage a sit-in outside the gate tomorrow morning. Many started mobilizing support to break open the gate should they be prevented entry before 7 a.m. They reasoned that many early risers holding day jobs came in around 5 a.m. and were done with their exercises/ walk before 7’o clock. The garden watchman pleaded helplessness and said that he can only be following orders of the manager of the adjoining Celebration Club who had instructed him to put up the notice.
Nahid Khan was particularly agitated demanding who gave anybody the right to dictate terms on a “public garden”… only to be reconciled, like Nafisa Sayed to use a nearby park where a nominal entry fee is charged. Bapu Rane sagely observed that the idea was to discourage use of the Garden so that some builder could take over. But Shekhawat was not giving up easily. Quoting a Rajasthani proverb, he said that if you don’t let sleeping dogs lie, you are only purchasing trouble and he would see the end of it.
Eventually, it was Jagmohan Papneja (lead pic) who brought an end to it. Throughout the exercises, while we debated on the next plan of action, Papneja was on his cell phone making calls to the adjoining Club. In the end, he managed to get an elderly gentleman (side pic) to pay us a visit and soothe tempers. The latter came in, removed that offensive paper from the Notice Board and apologized, saying it was just a “typing error” which deserved to be ignored. Big deal!
Jagmohan Papneja:
Members were pleased at the timely action taken by Mr Kishen Lal Arora, a Managing Committee member of Celebration Club in restoring the timing of Garden No 4. His professionalism, courtesy, grasp of the situation and quick decision in handling the sensitive issue was quite admirable. Our thanks to the Managing Committee of Celebration Club.