Breaking the Jinx

Nahid Khan celebrates with luddoos

Mallika Kagzi celebrates with nankhatai

Nahid Khan managed to celebrate her birthday today. Four days behind time, she abandoned the idea of samosas and tea and instead, settled for luddoos. Much as we expressed our happiness with a round of applause and good cheer, Nahid looked enormously relieved to be done with a birthday treat which was jinxed from the very start.
If the luddoos were not enough, Mallika Kagzi produced nankhatais to go along. She was away at Surat on a brief visit (her relatives are settled there) and this was her way of celebrating her return to the Club. The dry nankhatai and succulent luddoos made for a sinful combination – just what the doctor ordered to spike our calorie and blood sugar levels post-exercise.
Nahid’s birthday was last Friday, but at the behest of some seniors, she had to make way for Sitaram Hivarkar’s platinum jubilee celebration the same day (see post of June 20). On her wish list were samosas, tea and some savories. Arun Patil volunteered to source them for Saturday from a known eatery, but at the last moment the order was pushed to the next day because Nahid’s close friends were leaving town (post of June 21).
Next day happened to be Sunday and Arun had clean forgotten that it was a holiday. So a huge basket of freshly fried samosas and assorted crispies with hot tea arrived at the Garden in our absence and they were consumed by strangers – or so the eatery claims. Nahid (or for that matter, Arun) could not care less and demanded that the order be repeated for Monday, if payment had to be made.
On Monday, as luck would have it, someone at the eatery died. As a mark of respect, all the shops in the area downed their shutters. So once again, there was a no show for the now famous and long-awaited samosas. Fed up, Nahid took the best course in the circumstances. Without telling anyone, she picked up the first thing that caught her eye in her neighborhood market. And it happened to be luddoos from Bakers and More!
What’s more, all her friends were present today to cheer her.
Harish Wadhwa:
* All were present but me... Blog Monster, don't sprinkle salt on my wounds by publishing pics of such nice luddoos and nan-khatai being distributed. Zaalimon kuchh toh rehem karo hum jaison par bhi, jo aa nahi paatey.
* Belated Happy Birthday 'Bhai-jaan'!
Jagmohan Papneja:
* Nahid-ji, there could not be a better way to celebrate your birthday than with special motichoor luddoo. This is such an item which which makes a great treat at any time. Happy Birthday!
* Whatever you do in Surat, you cannot come away without buying nankhatai for your near and dear ones. That's exactly what Mallika Kagzi has done. I want to thank her a lot for this goodwill gesture and for her thoughtfulness towards the group.
Harish Wadhwa adds:
Why is Monthi-ji and Mrs Harbans Kaur so angry even if Grover-sa'ab is picking up two or three luddoos?. Everyone does it once in a while. Don't you too?