All Men’s Picnic

Shekhawat with his Famous Four

A small but increasingly persistent group is pressing for an “all-men’s picnic” from the Club. Lest Shekhawat take it to be some kind of mischief, the members maintain that even if there are not many to join them, go they must – without a single female among them. Even spouse and spice are excluded. However, on an experimental basis, they would do a "local picnic" for starters and then perhaps venture on a full-fledged “phoren trip” overseas.
The well laid-out plan stems from the experience of those on the last three trips from the Club – Kerala, Gangtok and Mahabaleshwar.

Monthi Serrao celebrates her son
Ryan's engagement ceremony

According to them, it simply did not matter to the ladies where they were at any point of time and even now, after the trips, if any one of the ladies were to be questioned on the sights or places visited, she would draw a blank.
Moreover, a lot of time tends to be lost on the women, each with her peculiar sense of direction and timing. They were the ones to be losing their way everywhere and every time there was a delay, they were the ones to be late in catching up with the rest.

Mumtaz Jahan celebrates shifting to her new penthouse
with breakfast boxes and fruit juice

Then there was their shopping compulsions and the perennial ‘pee-poop problem’ during travel. If one lady gets down from the bus to answer nature’s call, half a dozen others would follow her and precious time is lost. Strangely, the problems increase in direct proportion to the distance from the Garden. Here, like all men, the same women have no need to frequent the loo, go out shopping or be on the phone constantly.
Srichand Arora pointed to another major problem. “Our constant fear in the course of any trip was what to do if a lady falls or hurts herself. Where to hold her? How do we pick her up?” Added Siba Prasad Maitra: “If a man falls or breaks a leg, we can always carry him piggyback to the nearest dispensary or medicare centre. We cannot possibly do that with a lady.”
But Kiran Prakash sounded a note of warning: Shekhawat will not agree to the all-men’s idea. “It will break his heart,” he said. And true to his prediction, Shekhawat put his foot down the moment he heard about it today. “Why you want to do this? Mera dil toot jayega. Whatever problems there are with ladies-log, leave that to me. Let me handle it!”
So one thing is certain: If and when the men’s trip gets going, Hari Singh Shekhawat will not be part of it.
Bihari Milwani:
Shekhawat ka dil bahut bada hai...
Renu Babani:
Congrats Monthi on her son's engagement. God bless them both always.
Kiran Prakash:
The male folk will have to move cautiously. In the event of any such conspiracy again, Shekhawat can rush to the National Commission for Women with the documents printed above to safeguard the interest of his loved ones.