Inside-Outside

Missing the action on the 'other' side

For the first time half of us did the exercises inside the China Hut and the other half, just outside. This peculiar bifurcation was prompted not so much by a lack of space as by the vagaries of nature. Many took their chances and stepped out in the open, in spite of intermittent drizzling and the skies threatening to descend on the Garden any moment.
Luckily that did not happen. Everybody survived the morning without getting drenched.
Those who were inside comprised mostly ladies who trusted Shekhawat more than Mother Nature. The ones outside, in a rare display of machismo, braved the elements and refused to enter the 'Ladies Compartment' (as the China Hut was today called) even as the drizzle intensified at times. Their main bonus was that they could breathe freely the fresh morning air and did not have to put up with the squalid and claustrophobic stuffiness of the China Hut.
The sharp contrast in the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ was heightened by the absence

Srichand Arora

Razia Khan

of any interaction between the two sections, let alone the usual exchange of jokes and wisecracks. Srichand Arora was there today, having returned after a long hiatus, and he chose to keep the company of his own gender. As a result, his typical one-liners were lost particularly to Shekhawat, much as he kept craning his neck out to catch a few words floating in the air.
Likewise the outsiders were deprived of the sniggers and titters of the ladies, centered on two playful kittens bent upon making Razia Khan’s life miserable. As we all know, Razia is allergic to felines and here there were two of them leaping about and running between her legs with a vengeance. In the whole big China Hut with so many ladies around, they did not find anyone else to target. It was clear that Razia’s heart was in her mouth every time the kittens darted towards her. Her nervousness and efforts at dodging them became a recurrent theme for mass entertainment right through the morning.
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
When members of both sexes are together, everything becomes enjoyable. If they are segregated by gender, you do not enjoy as much -- particularly the jokes. Stay together and make every session not only enjoyable, but healthy as well.