Reasons to Laugh

Santosh Tyagi (r) narrating jokes

Santosh Tyagi is well known for her deadpan humor; Shekhawat, for his frequent jack-in-the-box antics; Razia Khan, for her quick ripostes; Siba Prasad Maitra, for his innocent Bengali-Hindi gags; Harbans Kaur, for her subtle witticisms; Srichand Arora, for his ever-ready wisecracks and sharp jibes, Monthi Serrao, for being an inveterate foot-in-the-mouth artiste, Banoo Apa, for her comic one-liners and throwaways…
All of them are natural wits, enormously gifted and the real reason for us to REALLY laugh our heads off in the Garden. Nothing they do or say is scripted, rehearsed or thought out. Thinking obviously comes later. Much of what happens in the Garden is spontaneous, enacted on the spur of the moment, and more significantly, can never be repeated.

'Schoolboy' Gupta facing Mumtaz

Two incidents this morning illustrate this point.
Shekhawat was at his usual ‘peacock dance’ with Razia in the middle when suddenly he noticed Bijoy Gupta’s wife, Pushpa standing in the exercise circle.

Arora (rt) tries to 'rescue' Razia

Like the moth drawn to a flame, he headed straight toward her and started performing a little jig.
For a while, Gupta could not believe his eyes. How could Shekhawat be fooling with his wife in his very presence? So to avenge the humiliation, he turned to Mumtaz Jahan (a known Shekhawat ‘loyalist’) and for the duration of the exercise, with everyone cracking all around, started to mimic Shekhawat’s actions like a little schoolboy. Eventually Shekhawat had to drive him away.
The second incident was a take-off from Razia’s routine high-fives after the exercises every day. Everyone knows she has to begin with Santosh; but today, for some inexplicable reason, the ladies decided not to allow her. But Razia was determined and then the fun began. Led by Bhaswati Bose, the ladies caught hold of Razia and tossed her around, left and right, like a rag doll – just as long as she did not get to reach Santosh. Separately two ‘bodyguards’ kept Santosh out of the way. In all the jostling and mayhem, an utterly confused Arora made a valiant bid to rescue Razia, but failed. Then he did the unimaginable: All by himself, he started clapping and singing “Happy Birthday to You”. Instantly, all was quiet, and order restored.
Now a mystery hangs over us: Whose birthday was Arora singing for?
Bihari Milwani:
Arora was practicing for the birthday of Big Laaf club.