Extended Celebrations

Monthi Serrao celebrates with Lindt brownies from Switzerland

Santosh Tyagi shares wonderful gajaks from Delhi

So Monthi Serrao is back, from Mangalore. Santosh Tyagi is back, from Delhi. And Mallika Kagzi is back from Surat. The ‘Big Three’ were conspicuous by their absence yesterday (see post) and their combined appearance this morning effectively led to an extended celebration of the New Year in the Garden.
Monthi’s greetings were accompanied by the famous Lindt choco-brownies from Switzerland, while Santosh distributed crispy gajaks from Delhi. Mallika wanted to get tea but realised rather late that she had run out of milk at home. Besides, she said she would not like to celebrate right now because her grandson in Surat had met with a serious accident, which was the reason she had to rush there overnight last weekend. He is now better.
And then there was Razia Khan, back from Pune. Her grandson, Zaiyyan too had a medical issue, his kidney stones having to be removed surgically. Things have gone off well and he is now out of pain, the relieved grandmother was happy to report.
That apart, what contributed to the festive cheer, was the unusually large turnout for the exercises this morning. Some young girls struggling with certain basic free-hand exercises closeby were invited by Arun Patil to join us. Members from the yoga group like Banoo Apa, Fehmida Khan and Naseem Khan have also started participating in our exercises. Together, our numbers swelled to 30-plus today – which is rather unusual on a chilly, winter morning.
In this free-wheeling, festive atmosphere, Sunita Jajodia brought in her unique brand of humour while conducting the laughter exercises. And then it was Srichand Arora’s turn in the middle to keep the laughter going by muddling up the free-hand exercises, partly by accident and mostly on purpose. In all, they made for a joyous and very entertaining start to the new year.
Jagmohan Papneja:
It's great to learn that the grandsons of Razia-ji and Mallika-ji are fast recovering. For these growing kids, soon things will be brighter and they will again experience all the fun and delight that life has to offer. May God bless them.