Sleeping Member?

Can we admit her as a member? 

The jury is still out... waiting for the verdict

Today was Tabassum Salmani’s birthday. Better known as Mohammad Gulzar’s wife, she is one member who rarely, if ever, shows up at the Garden. Today also she was nowhere to be seen. (Reportedly, she does not believe in celebrating birthdays.) Yet, in keeping with custom, we raised a fourth laugh for her and Shekhawat made a call on our behalf to wish her many happy returns of the day.
Tabassum is not the only member to be irregular. Many others, including Laxmi Hadimani, Sadanand Pawar and Nahid Siddiqi have rarely shown their faces for the exercises. In fact, there are at least a dozen such ‘sleeping members’ who have nothing to do with the Club or the exercises.
But then, this is nothing unusual. In all Clubs everywhere, a good 20 to 25 per cent of the members exist only in name, but are hardly ever seen. Nobody expects 100 per cent attendance, just as it makes no difference to the ‘sleeping members’ if they are to be weeded out.
So when the question of Swati Punjabi’s admission to the Club came up today, the insistence of some members that she be present daily for the exercises caused quite a stir. She explained that she would be happy to pay her subscription money, but cannot guarantee her presence for the exercises daily.
For Shekhawat, Arora and other seniors, this was undesirable, but since Swati has been an active participant in all Club activities, they conceded to her request. However, according to Harbans Kaur, Monthi Serrao and other ladies, anyone not interested in the daily exercises has no right to be a member and the Club must not admit such people for the sake of (subscription) money only.
Significantly, the trigger behind this dispute was Swati wanting to give a treat tomorrow, if only to compensate for the treats she has been having as an invitee in the past. Yusuf Rassiwala politely advised her to be become a member first because we cannot otherwise accept treats (from 'outsiders').
As things stand, Arora will bring the membership form tomorrow and Shekhawat will collect the money and only thereafter will Swati be ‘entitled’ to give her treat. The other niggling point (that has not occurred so far) is that we have already hit the 50-member ceiling on membership. So technically, Swati will have to be placed on a Waiting List till such time someone makes way for her as a full-fledged member.
Siba Prasad Maitra:
Saw the list of 50 members, but have never seen all of them on any day during the exercises. There could be a lot of fun with all the members present on the ground.