Bad Boys?

Tense moments

Monthi Serrao unwittingly let the cat among the pigeons by declaring that old men in the Club have turned notorious. “Buddhe badmaash ho gaye!” she proclaimed without further elaboration.
The pronouncement would normally wash off like water on a duck’s back, were it not for Bijoy Gupta who promptly pointed a finger at Shekhawat. “Did you hear what she just said?” he chided. “You are the maha badmaash of the Club. Better mend your ways.”
Before Shekhawat could reply, Harbans Kaur jumped into the fray. “Not Shekhawat, it is you,” she accused Gupta. “Ever since you joined the Club, Shekhawat has become bad. He was not like this earlier. You are a bad influence on him!”
The question that arises here is, how bad is bad and who decides? Is cracking kindergarten jokes or fooling around such a bad thing? Or must everyone be expected to behave as though attending a funeral? How much liberty can one take among friends? Where do you draw the line?

Bijoy Gupta

Harbans Kaur

Most important, why is it so difficult to let elders (in their seventies and older) be themselves – especially when nobody is getting hurt?
Today’s incident was sparked off by Srichand Arora when Monthi and Harbans Kaur came in from the rain clutching a single umbrella. “Jodi aa gayi,” he remarked. Monthi heard ghodi – a mare, symbolically associated with Hindu weddings. The inference was not lost on anyone, till Harbans Kaur went up to Arora and advised him not to have any such pipe dreams at his age. “When men get old they conserve themselves,” she reminded him. “They don’t think of ghodis.”
That was when Monthi made the ‘badmaash’ comment and Arora slipped out of the scene, leaving Shekhawat and Gupta in the line of fire.
The issue here is not about good and bad or of assuming the high moral ground – ghodi or no ghodi. The problem lies elsewhere. Earlier we thought Sitaram Hivarkar was afflicted by it. Then Arora started showing similar symptoms. Now it has become an epidemic. Yes, we are all turning hard of hearing. Somebody says something and we hear something else. The rest is left to imagination!
Kiran Prakash:
Have you said something?
Bihari Milwani:
Yes, I have said something. Change your imagination and thought. When Arora-ji said 'Jodi aa gayi', why it was not misunderstood as 'Dauri (running) aa gayi'? It is the wrong thought in our mind which needs to be changed.