Right on time!

Welcome back, Qadeer Banoo

Sudden cloudburst catches everybody unawares

Shekhawat is getting big thrills these days on seeing everyone turning up on time for the exercises. Obviously he can still not believe that people (especially those known for late-coming) are capable of being punctual. So be it Bhaswati Bose or Monthi Serrao, Banoo Apa or Bihari Milwani, his eyes would pop out and he’d make an elaborate song and dance of their arrival before actually greeting them. It would start with clapping and “very good-very-good” and then would he wish “Jai Sri Krishna” or “Good Morning”!
All it took was a little straight talk from Srichand Arora last week (ref post of July 24) to bring about punctuality and put things in order. Now, come rain or sunshine, we are having a full house and everyone does the complete exercises (or almost) in right earnest. Even Mohar Singh and Bijoy Gupta, who used to dilly-dally around the Garden and deliberately delay their reporting for the exercises, are now showing up on the dot. The most surprising part is that after the first 15 minutes of grace time, no one ambles in.
The other big surprise was that Qadeer Bano showed up this morning with a box of sweets. We had virtually given up on her after she had gone missing for more than a year. Turns out that she was building a new house for herself in Jaipur (a bungalow, actually) and had to stick around there with her family to supervise the construction. She said the work is finally over and from now on, she’d stay put in her Mumbai home. She sounded a little apologetic for staying away so long without informing, but that was all very fine -- especially when she went on to prove that she still recognizes every member and remembers all our names!
We raised the customary 'fourth laugh' after the exercises to welcome her back.
Bihari Milwani:
Hum nahin sudhrenge!
Kiran Prakash:
It appears that the word 'langar', used by Arora-ji, was understood as 'anchor'. The Urdu meaning of anchor is langar. And therefore everybody got him/herself anchored to the Club. May this langar continue for ever. By the way, what happened to the JUMBO treat?