Cheeky Ladies

Nobody is amused at Sunita's cheeky remark

Hari Singh Shekhawat returned to the Garden after 11 days, his cataract operation over. We expected to see him in regulation dark glasses – looking like an undercover agent… or better still, an underworld don. But he denied us the privilege. Instead, he looked perfectly normal and ordinary in everyday spectacles, except for having to wipe his right eye every two minutes.
“I don’t know why this eye keeps watering,” he complained to Santosh Tyagi and Sunita Jajodia sitting together. “The doctors tell me it is normal. Some gas they had pumped into my eye will take time to recede.”
“Gas? Why should anyone fill gas into your eyes?” Santosh asked, bewildered.
Before he could reply, Sunita had the answer: “This will keep his eyes from straying!”
Shekhawat ignored her: “The gas has cleared from the top half of my eyeball,” he told Santosh earnestly. “So I can now see your upper half, around your head and shoulders. But I cannot see below that?”
“Good,” Sunita interjected again. “What will you do by looking below?” Instantly she bit her tongue but kept on laughing, pretending she had said nothing.
A year back, a conversation like this would have been unimaginable.

Does an altercation really matter to anybody?

We took liberties, but knew where to draw the line. Nowadays, in a no-holds-barred situation, nobody raises an eyebrow at an embarrassing slip of tongue or a deliberate exchange of innuendos, even when a lady playfully punches a naughty old man. And when Nahid Khan today announced that she’d be gone to Lucknow the day-after and Arun Patil pleaded, “Abhi na jao chhod ke…”, the rest of the group joined her happily singing, “Dil abhi bharaa nahi!”
It was electrifying. Clearly, familiarity over the years has fostered such frankness and innocent fun – much like kindergarten kids unconscious of their gender, basic decorum or politesse. In a sense, this also reflects our collective maturity as a Club. So what if Arora were to scold Geeta Sardhana for some reason, or that Ram Shankar Shukla is variously called ‘Qutb Minar-ji’ and 'Gurukul-ji', or that Nafisa Sayyad has to regularly poke fun at Arora... Nobody takes such things to heart. We live life only once and we are already in a glorious space.