Food Karting

Shekhawat gets the first choco bite from his wife

The food cart rolls on. As readers would notice, June-July is a particularly propitious time in the Garden for foodies and all exercising and diet control be damned. The best part is that the stuff arrives when least expected. So if it were the surprise nankhatais from Mallika Kagzi yesterday -- not to mention, Nahid Khan’s belated birthday treat of luddoos -- today it was Shekhwat’s turn to come up with chocolates out of the blue.
It was actually Shekhawat’s wife, Mohan Kanwar’s birthday celebration, pending since June 21. On that day, she had to catch her doctor early morning at Colaba, leaving us all high and dry in the Garden. Fact is, we have all become utterly shameless in these matters and had since been pestering Shekhawat for the forgotten treat. He good-naturedly smiled without committing and just as we gave up, he showed up with a box of chocolates today.

Ram Shankar Shukla on May 29

“My biwi’s birthday!” he announced triumphantly.
Surprise of surprises, the ‘biwi’ also showed up -- immaculately dressed in grey chikan saree with matching danglers, a delicate gold chain glistening around her neck, colorful bangles and designer glasses. This was the first time we were seeing Mrs Shekhawat so prim and propah in the Garden. And to everyone’s delight, she gave dear hubby the first bite of a chocolate.

Santosh Tyagi: Show must go on! 

It was an endearing moment, instantly sparking off a round of playful one-liners and jibes, all in good humour.
Amid this warmth and bonhomie, Santosh Tyagi struck a note of alarm when she suddenly held her waist and buckled on a bench. She grimaced in pain. Turned out that she had been laughing so much continuously that she got an abrupt catch in her stomach – apparently an after-effect of the gall bladder operation she had undergone recently. Before long, she gathered herself and regaled us to a couple of jokes with Jagmohan Papneja and Harish Wadhwa pitching in for added effect.
If there was one person we were missing in all this, he was Ram Shankar Shukla. He has been a regular for the exercises and more importantly, a voice of reason for the Club. The last was saw of him was almost a month back, on his 79th birthday (see post of May 29). He was very ill then, barely able to stand upright; but had come to the Garden only to celebrate his birthday. He had to be escorted back home and after that, there has been no news of him. Repeated telephone calls have yielded no response. Will someone somehow please check if all is well with him? A month is too long for this gentleman to be away.