Picnic Fiasco

As usual, the exercises were conducted on schedule

It was business as usual at the Garden. Like every other day, people gathered at 7:00 a.m. to exercise and by 8:00 a.m., they were done.

Confusion reigns supreme over whether picnic is on

At 9:00 a.m. another group of members, dressed in their holiday best, trickled in through the gate only to discover there was no picnic to Chhota Kashmir today.
Clearly, the confusion arising out of Shekhawat’s harangue yesterday (ref post) had led to this fiasco.
Santosh Tyagi was livid. All of yesterday, she had been making frantic calls everywhere to confirm whether the picnic was on. Monthi Serrao too had drawn a blank.

Open-air Waiting Room

Arun Patil lambasted the “weak leadership of the Club” and Razia Khan, once again, went charging at Shekhawat for being kept in the dark. But one thing was certain: Since all of them had come prepared, they weren’t returning home just yet.
Earlier, at the exercises, Yusuf Rassiwala proposed that in view of the confusion arising from yesterday’s showdown, it would be better to push the so-called ‘working picnic’ to next Saturday, i.e. December 13.

'Are we going on the picnic or not?'

Later, it was also decided that it would no longer be a Club-funded picnic and the family and friends of members should be free to join. A nominal sum of Rs300 per head would be collected towards lunch and refreshments at Chhota Kashmir while transportation (whether by autorickshaw, bus or car) would have to be borne individually. And for the time the meeting would be on, the ‘guests’ would be requested to leave the members alone.
From Srichand Arora to Jagmohan Papneja to Sitaram Hivarkar, Dilip Babani and Ved Prakash Grover, this made sense. But Mallika Kagzi was hopping mad because she had come with a load of home-cooked food, assuming that the picnic was on today. “Either we go today or I will never go on any picnic,” was her ultimatum. So for her benefit, around a dozen members took off to Juhu Beach to consume the eatables. Mallika had saved the day.
Bhaswati Bose:
Rather, WE saved Mallika's day by emptying her container. All of us had a great time in the sand, surf and sun.