Bizarre Beliefs

BARREN GROUND: Shrinking numbers for the exercises

Shekhawat did not come today. As if on cue, many others did not come today. In fact, most of those who came yesterday (when Shekhawat was present) were absent this morning, leaving us with barely a half-dozen for the best part of the exercises. Towards the end, a few more joined us but the numbers could just about touch double-digit.
This only establishes a growing belief in the Club (see yesterday’s post) that there exists a telepathic connect between Shekhawat and some members. As Srichand Arora put it, “The chumbak (magnet) was missing today”. How else can one explain that when Shekhawat was present yesterday, we had an almost full house of 20-plus?

Hari Singh Shekhawat

Razia Khan, Nafisa Sayyad, Dilip Babani, Ram Shankar Shukla, Kiran Makhria, Sunita Jajodia and many more, they were all there. Today they were all absent. Weird as it may sound, they must be blessed with some kind of an ESP (extra sensory perception) that tells them in advance whether Shekhawat would show up in the Garden or not!

Sitaram Hivarkar

Another bizarre belief gaining ground is that when we are in diminished strength, the crows take the place of absentee members. Today we had nearly 20 of them huddled in a group and waiting patiently for us to finish with our exercises. Yesterday, they were fewer in number. Geeta Sardhana feels they visit the Garden “to have their own club general body meeting”, but Monthi Serrao corrected her by pointing out “they are having a party” – now that we do not have as many parties as we used to. After April when the ‘dry spell’ of birthday celebrations would be over, the crows would disappear. But there's Jagmohan Papneja’s theory also that the crows are harbingers of a weather change.
The good news though was Sitaram Hivarkar’s return after a prolonged spell of illness. He was keeping indifferent health and as he said, had developed a bad throat infection. His voice is still feeble, but he promised to keep his daily appointment at the Garden now on.
Bhaswati Bose:
Today's Thought of the Day is appropriate. It is election time and there are many monkeys around!
Harish Wadhwa:
* Thought of the Day: Yes, we display four and not three personality attributes in public life. Three are shown by our hands and one commonly by our feet.
* Get well soon, Sitaram-ji. Our prayers are with all who have not been keeping good health of late.
Jagmohan Papneja:
Only human beings are capable of ESP communication. Special persons are so empowered. It is interesting to note that some persons in our group possess such qualities.