Condolence Visit

Ramila and others commiserate with Shekhawat

Dark morning. Overcast sky. But no relief from the overpowering heat and humidity. A giant movie billboard overlooking the Garden on the main road mocked at us. ‘Hawaa Hawaii!’ it said. There was no hawaa, nor hawaii today.
In all the sweaty stickiness, Ramila Mistry strode in, a wide-brim, beige sun hat perched on her head. Owing to her arthritic knee, she was not attending the exercises for some time and had missed the news about Shekhawat’s younger brother passing away. She said she learnt about it only last evening. So she had come to express her condolence and pay her respects to the departed soul.
But Shekhawat being Shekhawat was so thrilled upon seeing her that the moment she joined the exercise circle he jumped and greeted her with a flourish: “Kem chho, Kokila-ben?”
“Ramila-ben,” she corrected him, stern and aloof.

Get well soon, Razia Khan!

But Shekhawat was not one to be put off easily. After some time, he cut across the circle and again, with a flourish took his cap off and presented it to Ramila. “Let us exchange caps,” he said, almost plucking the beige sun hat from her head.
By then, Ramila was already into the flow of things and sportingly gave him her hat and took his cap. But before Shekhawat could put on the hat, all the ladies screamed, “There’s lice in it, watch out… lice!”
That was enough. The brave navy man, who had once defended the nation’s maritime borders, studied the hat for a moment and exclaimed, “Arre baap re!” Ramila was only too happy to get her sun hat back and returned Shekhawat’s cap. Much later, after the exercises had concluded, could she get the chance to express her condolences and explain the purpose of her visit.
Meanwhile, word has just come in about Razia Khan being in a very bad shape. She was last in the Garden on May 7 (see post) when she distributed rosogollas from Calcutta. Since then, she has been down with fever and flu. Her throat infection is now so serious that she cannot even speak a sentence without breaking into a bout of racking cough.
She promises to return to the Garden when she is better – hopefully, next week.
Srichand Arora:
Get well soon, Razia-ji. You are really being missed in the Big Laaf group.
Harish Wadhwa:
* Get well soon Razia-ji. The shaayar is missing among us.
* Ramila-ji, long time no see. Hope you are keeping fine. Maybe you should also see the doctor who is treating Kiran Arora-ji. Don't live in pain.
* By the way, acche din aane wale hain, sab log wapis garden mein aane wale hain.