Garden Paradiso

Sultry weather notwithstanding, the Garden presents a panorama of some of the most fascinating and silliest acts humans are capable of.

Contortionist gets in his act

Performing a headstand

From playful kids running helter-skelter to sane people walking backwards to the downright retarded vigorously punching holes in the air to several middle-aged women in their bedclothes playing pakdan-pakdai… we have seen them all.
We have also seen many May-December romances blossom and wither away like the beautiful flowers in the Garden. From time to time, we have had monkeys and crows calling on us, apart from fake godmen and health gurus proffering unsolicited advice.

A writer in their midst

Assorted actors from the neighborhood have also joined us for the exercises, entertaining us along the way… but they were all birds of passage.
Of late, we are having to put up with a bunch of acrobats who look to have escaped from a circus. Every morning they greet us like delirious animals doing cartwheels, somersaults, backflips and headstands.

Mallika is terrified

They know we are incapable of matching them even half-way and yet they persist, just to show off. Why else do they not go to any other part of the Garden, far away from us?
What’s more, one of them looks to be a writer. Surrounded by all the mindless activity, he sits down cross-legged on the grass, fully composed and pens a treatise – or is it a film script?

Amused onlookers

How he draws inspiration from the madness around, he alone knows.
The latest is a young man who plonks himself squarely on the platform overlooking our circle. Mallika Kagzi is mortally scared of him. He strikes a serene Buddha pose, suddenly breaking into a long-drawn Ommmmm, Ommmmmm… That very instant, Mallika would flee 50 feet away, as though chased by a bellowing bull. The intonation is so ear shattering that it can wake up babies five blocks away! Only when this bull horn stops would Mallika retrace her steps delicately.
But then why make fun of others? We ourselves are a class beyond compare – be it in the way we conduct ourselves or the green uniform we wear on Wednesdays or Shekhawat’s human train at the end of the free-hand exercises… A young couple hid behind the shrubs and quietly filmed our crazy antics today. Surely, it’s a mad, mad world out here. And inadvertently, we have become part of it.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
The antics of these youngsters remind us of our childhood. They are lucky to have a garden to enjoy themselves in. We were denied all these facilities. In the villages we had fields to play about or mango groves. We feel happy now to see children playing, lovers making love, writers writing some script and on top, we find a worthy member getting scared when someone exercises his vocal chord by uttering "OM". Where do you get so many things at one place? Lucky guys.
Bihari Milwani:
All these people are performers in very unique ways so as to give us reasons to laugh. Otherwise someone may call us Mad Laughter Group. Cheers to these people.