Monsoon Mirth

The Garden presents a picture of placid calm

After more than 24 hours of ‘monsoon mayhem’ across Mumbai, the Garden today presented a picture of supreme serenity. But it was more like the lull before a storm. The met guys have predicted “heavy to very heavy rainfall” today and schools and colleges have been directed to stay shut.

Nahid Khan celebrates birthday with chocolates

Already, it was raining in spurts since early morning.
But none of this was to dampen our spirits. The ball was set rolling with Shekhawat rushing in from a sudden downpour and momentarily stopping by in the China Hut to wish the ladies, only to receive a mouthful from Sunita Jajodia for “drenching” her with his dripping umbrella. He scurried to where the men were seated and from a distance, started taking potshots at Sunita.
Before long, she, along with Santosh Tyagi and Nahid Khan moved up close and surrounding Shekhawat, began to rag him.

'Happy Birthday, Nahid Khan'  

Shekhawat had made the cardinal mistake of commenting on the bunch of house keys Sunita habitually tucked into her waist, even during the rains. “How does it stay there?” he wondered aloud. “Why does it not fall down?”

Checking Nahid's birthday calendar

Sunita blurted something about her ‘nada’ (drawstring) and realizing her mistake, tried to deflect the subject by reminding Shekhawat that he too clipped his house keys on to his nada. “How did you know that?” a surprised-looking Nahid asked Sunita, thus setting the tone for today’s morning madness.
It was Nahid’s birthday and she was at her mischievous most, much to Shekhawat’s intense delight. He hopped and clapped like a mechanical toy and with Santosh also chipping in with equally colorful one-liners, his day was made. Adding to the mirth was Jagmohan Papneja's straight-faced advice of ‘applying the right key for the right lock’. In between, Siba Prasad Maitra turned up only to have Shekhawat confronting him point-blank on his nada. Taken aback, he turned towards the ladies and mumbled something about an elastic waist band... Who says rains are a damper?