Birthday ‘Season’

Happy Birthday, KHATOON BAIG!

Khatoon Baig today rang in the Club’s so-called ‘birthday season’ with pedas and samosas. The day-after tomorrow, Sunita Jajodia and Mallika Kagzi will celebrate their birthday – soon to be followed by Sitaram Hivarkar, Kiran Arora, Nahid Khan, Mohankanwar Shekhawat and Ved Prakash Grover. They were all born this month, in June.
July is equally packed with birthdays and so is August. In fact, by October about 80 per cent of our members would have celebrated their birthdays and thereafter, the celebrations would taper off. In December a lull will set in for six months – though briefly interrupted with half-a-dozen January- borns making merry in the new year.
The birthday season is marked by heavy cloud cover (if not rains), near-full attendance and much revelry. Many creepies and crawlies would emerge from under the ground. And many hitherto not-to-be seen faces would also surface, grinning from ear to ear.

Yusuf Rassiwala conducts the exercises

The dull monotony of marking time every morning in the Garden would suddenly be broken… though the extra kilos and calories from the sumptuous treats cannot be discounted.
Today was no different. Dark, monsoon clouds hovered over the Garden as Khatoon made her appearance with a huge bag of goodies.

Santosh Tyagi also returns

Yusuf Rassiwala was already there, having just recovered from a nasty viral attack and in what was an event of sorts, took to the middle for the first time in more than six months. Monthi Serrao had returned from Bangalore and even Santosh Tyagi showed up, though looking terribly feeble and downcast. Yet another surprise was Harish Wadhwa, returning to the circle after almost a year. Bijoy Gupta for once, stayed put right through the exercises... Half way through the exercises, we were 25-plus and still counting. Seeing the unusually large crowd, Mumtaz Jahan abandoned the yoga camp close-by and came running to check what was going on. Khatoon panicked. Clearly, she was not prepared for such a huge turnout eager to wish her ‘Happy Birthday’. So she quickly left the exercises with Arun Patil to procure additional stocks of pedas and samosas. It was a wise decision because when she returned many more 'guests' had joined. Happily, there was enough to go by when the celebrations began.
Once again, many happy returns of the day, Khatoon Baig!
Jagmohan Papneja:
May your Special Day, Madam Baig, BE Filled with happiness / Wrapped in pleasure / Brightened with fun / Remembered with samosa and peda / and Enriched with hopes. Happy Birthday.
Harish Wadhwa:
* It is nice to be treated on the very first day of your return after a long phunti. Well, I did not expect it, but was treated by Khatoon-ji on her birthday. Happy Birthday once again.
* Beautiful Thought of the Day words. When you are young, you want to do everything, while as you grow up you accept your limitations and take pauses.
Renu Babani:
Happy birthday, Khatoon-ji. I'm sure you had a wonderful birthday.