Festival Fatigue

Being served rasogolla by Kajol at theTulip Star puja  

It’s been three days and already the Dussehra festivities have taken its toll on the Club. Barely a dozen members turned up for the exercises this morning. Siba Prasad Maitra, Bihari Milwani, Bhaswati Bose, Geeta Latte, Banoo Apa, Kajal Babani and many others were missing from action.
Among those present, Kiran Prakash and Bijoy Gupta betrayed signs of fatigue and sleep deprivation – obviously the effects of keeping late nights.
But then, it has been an incredibly busy festive season. Apart from Muharram coinciding with Navratri and Durga Puja, there are entertainment shows galore in almost every neighborhood.
The overtly pious are observing fasts and attending mata ki chowkis and night-long jagratas in celebration of the Mother Goddess.
There are also the footloose and fancy free, happily pandal-hopping every night when the traffic thins out.
Banoo Apa and Bhaswati did not show up presumably having tired themselves out after a Meet Brothers show last night

Bijoy Gupta confronts Nahid Khan on Laxmi's identity

at the Durga Puja celebration in Tulip Star Hotel, thanks to the passes Maitra had organised (ref previous post). In fact, this is one venue that has become almost second home to many, what with the sumptuous bhog served for lunch by Bollywood’s famous Mukherji family (that includes stars Kajol and Rani Mukherji) every afternoon. The other filmi ‘crowd magnet’ is the neighboring Lokhandwala Durga Puja hosted by yesteryear playback singer Abhijeet.
Significantly, Bijoy Gupta steered clear of all this starry madness and settled quietly for a Ramlila show near Versova last evening. And this morning he delivered a shocker. He accosted Nahid Khan to inform that he could easily detect Laxmi Hadimani through all her make-up and mannerisms as she played Lord Ram on stage. Nahid insisted that he was mistaken since Laxmi was with her till late evening yesterday, shopping. But Gupta was not convinced. He kept arguing that Nahid must have been day-dreaming or else, she was with some other woman!!!
Turns out the person playing Ram in yesterday’s Ramlila was a fair-complexioned, haughty female with a heavy voice, dressed as a handsome young man – befitting the persona of Lord Ram.

Geeta Latte:
Wah, kya baat hai, Kajol! 👍