Balmy Weather

Santosh Tyagi (centre) gets into her groove

This is turning out to be the worst May in a long time. The morning heat has become punishing. The sun rises early and beats upon the Garden with rare ferocity when we are just about in the middle of our exercises. Not even a leaf stirs in this ethereal stillness and by the time we are done, dripping wet, we actually smell the vapours rising from the ground. Mangled pigeons and crows dying on the streets are a common sight.
Small wonder attendance has dropped drastically these days. Just a few mad men among us are still leaving the cool comfort of air-conditioned bedrooms in the mornings, only to be properly tanned and baked in the blazing sun.

Shekhawat leaves

But today, for a change, there were more women than men and Shekhawat could not resist proclaiming that “the jhanda (flag) of ladij log shall fly high”. Probably this was because of the week-end when the numbers usually swell. Even then, we were only 13, split at five men to eight women.
A surprise presence was Santosh Tyagi. She was showing up after 20 days, having lost four kilos and a load of stones from her gall bladder. She assured us that the operation was successful, but it has left her feeling weak and feeble. Being a vegan and diabetic, she cannot take chances with normal energy-giving food, except for apples and green salads. In any case rich and heavy foods are a strict no-no -- at least till such time her digestive system stabilizes. Nevertheless, it did not take her long to get into the flow of things and as in the past, she regaled us with jokes after the exercises. She also played the proverbial Mother Goose as she sat with her brood of female chatterers under a flowering tree, long after the rest of us were gone.
Indeed, it was nice to have Santosh back in our midst. But we will now be missing Shekhawat. He has a flight to catch to Jaipur to attend the ‘prayer ceremony’ of his younger brother who passed away earlier this week (see post of April 29). This is one journey that can break the best of us, but Shekhawat has recovered remarkably well after the initial shock.
We look forward to his return on May 13.