In Style

Birthday boy Shekhawat with guests

Whenever Hari Singh Shekhawat celebrates, he does it in style. Barely a month back, he hosted a massive breakfast bash to celebrate his 55th wedding anniversary (ref post of March 14), inviting almost the entire Garden. Today, for his ‘phapda-jalebi’ birthday party, he got not only a full house, but also Niloufer Rassiwala, Kiran Arora and Pushpa Gupta –

Mrunilini Patil

ladies who ordinarily do not attend anyone else’s party/ celebration in the Garden.
Even Yusuf Rassiwala was surprised to see his wife coming in towards the end of the exercises to attend today’s party. “Shekhawat must have phoned her separately,” he hazarded a guess. “Otherwise she is not one to leave her housework behind and come here early in the morning…

Banoo Apa confirms dates of Shab-e-Meraj

no matter how hard I keep persuading her.”
If that is no measure of his popularity, Shekhawat managed to get Marathi filmmaker Mrunalini Patil to distribute complimentary passes for an evening show of her latest film, Kaay Raav Tumhi at the Cinemax cineplex. A satirical love story based on the Hindi comedy Shaukeen, it features Satish Pulekar, Ravindra Mahajani, Yatin Karekar and Niyati Joshi in the leads. “Go enjoy, it’s my birthday today,” Shekhawat declared flamboyantly.
On one count though, Shekhawat’s plans seem to have run aground. He had scheduled the Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani trip for May 13 to 15, but now, it appears that the dates coincide with Shab-e-Meraj, an important religious observance on the Islamic calendar. This would automatically eliminate a sizeable chunk of members from his contingent. Banoo Apa had even brought an almanac to the Garden to confirm the dates. So as things stand, Shekhawat is left with no option but to reschedule the excursion to a later date. We should get to know about this soon.
Harish Wadhwa:
Happy Birthday, Shekhawat-ji. Many, many happy returns of the day.
Bihari Milwani:
* Shekhawat-ji, the next time panditji se mooharat nikalke picnic ka programme banana.
* Dear Shekhawat-ji, did Arora-sa'ab give you your birthday gift i.e. calendar? If not, please demand it tomorrow and give us a birthday party again.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Happy Birthday, Shekhawat-ji. Well celebrated. Keep it up. Wish you many more happy birthdays.