Casting a Spell

Laxmi Naidu cuts her birthday cake

Hypnotism is one of those rarefied areas in science that inspires naughty thoughts. You could charm your way into anybody’s heart, get a reluctant lover to dance to your tune, force your boss to grant an out-of-turn promotion, cast a spell on a bank manager to open his coffers to you, drive out of a car showroom with the latest limousine without paying for it… in short, get anybody to do anything at your bidding.
We had all been living under this misconception till Laxmi Naidu’s son, Rajiv showed up this morning at the Garden. A professional hypno-therapist, he had us spellbound as he cleared the air on the

Rajiv Naidu

common fallacies surrounding hypnotism, the benefits of self-hypnosis, past-life regression, the workshops he has been conducting and so on. “There are some 50 to 60 students training under me,” he revealed. “The idea is to dispel the many myths and misunderstandings people have about hypnosis.”
But first things first. Laxmi Naidu turned 70 today (“officially”)

Yusuf Rassiwala presents Laxmi her birthday calendar

and she was celebrating her birthday for the first time. “Where do people like us celebrate birthdays?” she quipped. “It’s all very fine for youngsters to make a big deal about it. For me it has always been like any other day -- a low-key affair. But this time my son insisted I should celebrate with everybody in the Garden.”
Apart from Rajiv, Laxmi had her grandson, Siddhant to be present on the occasion. The latter played the perfect host as he scurried around serving the batata-vada, dhokla and sundry eats washed down by hot, home-made tea.
The best part though, was Laxmi cutting her birthday cake, followed by Yusuf Rassiwala presenting her the Club calendar to a round of applause and much merriment. And as for Rajiv Naidu, watch this space. He has promised to hold a hypnotherapy workshop for us around mid-month. The exact date and timing is yet to be confirmed.
Kiran Prakash:
It was nice of Rajiv to join us in our celebration of Laxmi Naidu's birthday. Let us make it a practice to invite the families of members on occasion. Having a workshop with Rajiv on hypnotherapy will indeed be informative to all of us. In fact, I am keen to learn self-hypnosis.
Bhaswati Bose:
Why self-hypnosis? We should instead learn how to hypnotise members who are irregular so that they fall in line with the rest of the Club.
Lt Col Angad Singh (from Mohali):
It is heartening to note that Mr Rajiv Naidu is going to conduct a class for the benefit of our Club members. Mr Kiran Prakash can in turn teach other members who cannot learn the hypnotherapy now. I wish Mrs Laxmi Naidu a very happy birthday. Wishing her good health and a joyful life.
Kiran Prakash adds:
* Bhaswati-ji, you may hypnotise members who are irregular. But let me learn self-hypnosis for my own development. I am yet to learn a lot in life and if self-hypnosis helps me, I shall be ever grateful to Rajiv Naidu.
* Once again Happy Birthday and many happy returns to Laxmi Naidu.