Laaf by the Sea

VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD, HEY!!!

At 7:00 a.m. sharp, four cars left the Garden gate and in less than 15 minutes, deposited its' 20-odd passengers on Juhu Beach. The weather was pleasant – dark and cloudy, but quite breezy and more importantly, the sea was in high tide.

Exercises in progress

The waves rolled onto the shore, stopping short of the circle we had formed for our exercises this morning.
“Wah!” Sitaram Hivarkar exclaimed.

Salutations to the sea

“How often do you get to enjoy such wonderful weather? We are so close to home and never before has it struck us to come here in the morning. We must come here more often.”
Indeed, this was a world by itself with beautiful young men and women (some with handsome dogs) jogging and walking past, skirting around and giving us the thumbs up in acknowledgment of our presence.

All fun and games...

An elderly couple (obviously foreigners) stood by watching us as we went through the regular drill of laughter and free-hand exercises. A young lady in leotards half-way joined us, but was dissuaded by her companion.

Lavish breakfast spread

Soon another woman, amused by what we were doing, interrupted her walk, clicked photographs on her mobile and sped away.
Srichand Arora conducted the exercises, but could not stay long as he was committed elsewhere. That was when the picnic baskets were opened, courtesy Mallika Kagzi and Razia Khan – ladles of lip-smacking keema with different types of bread, two varieties of veg noodles, packets and packets of biscuits, hot tea, fresh fruits, cold drinks… properly served in paper plates and cups with paper napkins and hand sanitizer. What more could we have asked for?

Mallika Kagzi is helped out of water

Santosh Tyagi and Nahid Khan

Building sand-castles?

Thanksgiving, for a morning well spent

And then the fun began. Santosh Tyagi announced she’d be getting in the water. “What is the point of coming to Juhu Beach if I don’t wet my feet?” she reasoned.One by one, all the ladies followed and the “wetting of feet” turned into an orgy of tomfoolery and madness out in the sea – the ladies gamboling raucously like kids what with Bhanu Appa singing her lungs out, Santosh breaking into smart Michael Jackson moves, Bhaswati and Razia screaming and shouting while wave after wave lashed at them till suddenly Mallika, unable to hold herself, collapsed in a heap in the water. Luckily, no damage was done, except for a few bruised egos.A beach bum, standing at a distance, advised the ladies: “Amma log, you were not supposed to have gone out there!”
Jagmohan Papneja:
The visit to Juhu beach was a great experience. I hope this the start of many more such visits in future.