Happy Complement

Zarina Khan

The rains have receded for the time being. But the monsoon isn't altogether over. According to the met people (and Tara Chand Seth) we can expect another spell of heavy downpour before September is out.

Preparing the plates

Till then, we are putting up with excruciating levels of humidity and without even a hint of breeze, the morning exercises have become an ordeal.
Yet, attendance in the Garden shot up today. With many habitual absconders showing up after ages, we had a happy complement of 30-plus breaking into sweat toward the end of the exercises. It was a pleasure to reconnect with the likes of Mumtaz Jahan, Vandana Kankanwar and Rakhee Bansi – people who are otherwise too busy to take time out to drop by. But then, as we were to learn later, they had been specially

It's party time, once again!

invited this morning by Zarina Khan who was celebrating her ‘promotion’ to a great grand aunt (ref last post). It was a party we were having after a long time – the last one held almost a month back with Nasir Putani Shah’s birthday-cum-Independence Day bash (ref post of August 15).
For a change, Zarina did not come up with her fabled bread-pakoras from home today and instead, laid out a delightful assortment of fries and salties from the market. Bottled yogurt came in as a refreshing substitute for hot tea and as Fahmida Khan, Pushpa Gupta and Kajal Babani took charge of the plating and distribution, everybody had a blast.
“I wish I could have invited you all home for a proper feast,” Zarina reflected. “I have always wanted you people to sample my cooking. But then, my fear is that you’d get bored because there is nobody at home, but my son to talk to. Had my husband been alive today, I’d have gone all out. He was such an outgoing person… you’d have really enjoyed his company. I miss Khan Sah’b badly.”