Promised Land

Shekhawat pitches for Royal Hills again

The more Royal Hills eludes us (ref post of February 4), the more Shekhawat is determined to lead us there. So hell bent is he on making this picnic happen that he has turned totally deaf to protests from a section of the Club which sees no merit on “wasting a day” at the water resort barely a half-hour drive away.
Shekhawat has already failed on three previous attempts at making it to Royal Hills. The first time a group of 70 Nigerians gave him the heebie-jeebies by booking the resort for the same day we were to be there. On his second attempt, he discovered that 300 school children would invade the place, potentially edging us out. And on the third occasion, his health let him down as he had to be hospitalized for a critical neck surgery.
The picnic plans have since been kept in abeyance.
This time around, Shekhawat has fixed Sunday, April 3 for our rendezvous at Royal Hills. He realizes it is jinxed, but will not give up just yet.

We had a little guest, Yug, exercising with us

Significantly, he had collected money for the picnic in February and those who later lost interest had even been refunded their cash. But now, he is dangling a carrot, lest there be any further dropout. “For once, the picnic will be heavily subsidized by the Club,” he announced today, hoping that should be incentive enough for some so-called fence sitters to join in. On the contrary, he had a new detractor in Zarina Khan declaring that even if she were to be taken there free, she would not go. With her, there are others like Bijoy Gupta, Nahid Khan and Swati Punjabi who are equally reluctant on “going to the same picnic spot” again.
Fact is, Shekhawat took the Club to Royal Hills in August last year and the experience has been positive all-round. It is a neat, compact place – essentially a water park comprising a swimming pool with a spacious air-conditioned dining hall alongside. Being a tiny resort, it does not attract large hordes of unruly picnickers and is able to maintain fairly decent hygienic standards. The food served is wholesome – absolute value for money, both in terms of quantity and quality.
Small wonder, Shekhawat cannot see any place beyond this resort.