Spousal Entitlement

Shekhawat is furious!

Lt Col Angad Singh (retired) today returned from Mohali to an opprobrious spectacle of finger wagging and much tongue lashing among members soon after the exercises. At the centre of the heated exchanges was the question of who were entitled to join the ‘picnic – cum – meeting – cum – lunch’ at Chhota Kashmir tomorrow.
As per a joint decision taken earlier, this Club-funded trip should be restricted to MEMBERS only and to the specific exclusion of all their friends and family members.

Angad is amused

Accordingly, many so-called ‘guests’ who were regulars to earlier picnics had to be refused. This, in Shekhawat’s opinion, was being unfairly rigid, especially where the wives of members were concerned. In his bid to reverse the decision, he raised a hornet’s nest with all members reminding him that “rule is rule”.
“But what is this rule that cannot be changed?” he asked flying off the handle. “Even the President of India’s rule can be reversed.

Shekhawat is unrelenting

Nothing is etched in stone?”
Significantly, the issue had to be come up on the eve of the trip and even more odd was the absence of any mention of taking along the husbands of lady members. Shekhawat was prepared to relent on the ‘rule’ to restricting children and grandchildren… even second and third wives, but insisted that one wife of every male member should have the bona fide right to join the picnic regardless of being a member.
“You frame the rule and then you twist the rule to suit your convenience,” Arun Patil alleged. “This is not fair,” protested Razia Khan. “One person cannot make and break rules at will. This is our Club and whatever is decided here has to be a joint decision. Everybody has to abide by that decision, whether he likes it or not.”
“If you people are so rigid, I refuse to go on the picnic tomorrow,” Shekhawat stomped away, leaving behind a huge question mark on the picnic – cum – meeting – cum – lunch at Chhota Kashmir tomorrow.
Jagmohan Papneja:
We make rules for our convenience, not to cause problems. If it is necessary to break a rule and it is not be objected to by others, in that case we can break the rule.