Mind Bending

Bijoy Gupta

Zarina Khan

For the past few days, Zarina Khan has been accosting Bijoy Gupta every morning in the exercise circle with a pointed question: “Who am I?”
“Zarina!” Gupta would presently reply, his face brightening with mischief.
This was needed. After years of interacting with her almost on a daily basis, Gupta had somehow

Bihari Milwani

taken to addressing Zarina as “Rehana”. Whether this was deliberate or a slip of tongue is hard to tell. But last week, Zarina decided to put her foot down. “I am not Rehana,” she yelled at a terrified Gupta. “Call me by my name, okay?”
Gupta would make this appear as a memory lapse, typical of the gaffes the elderly are prone to.

File photo of Banoo Apa with her hubby, Muhammed Farooq

At the other extreme, we have Bihari Milwani constantly reminding us of the infinite capacity of the human brain in retaining and processing information.
“We ought to raise a

Yusuf Rassiwala

fourth laugh,” he prompted us at the end of the exercises this morning. “Today is Banoo Apa’s wedding anniversary.”
A hush fell on the circle. How does he remember? People don’t remember their own birthdays and here is a man

Fahmida Khan (in red) treats us to gajar ka halwa

who is able to recollect someone else’s wedding anniversary and that too, when she is away at Lucknow. It's not just of that person, but the anniversaries, birthdays and whatnot of every member in the Club. And he is never wrong. Is he human after all?
Bihari gave us a clue about how he does it. “I can get mixed-up on recognizing faces, but with numbers and dates, I seldom make a mistake.” It was almost like saying that numbers pop up magically in his head and speak to him.
Now contrast this with Yusuf Rassiwala. He has no clue about his own wedding date, except that it was some time in 1973. “I think it was in December,” he said scratching his head.
“First week, second week… what?” Bihari tried jogging his memory, only to draw a blank. “Okay, what day was it?” he prodded. “Monday, Friday, Sunday… any idea?”
“No idea,” Yusuf R looked defeated. “If you tell me the day, I will give you the date,” Bihari assured.
It was of no use. Yusuf R had already given up.

Bihari Milwani:
Yusuf Bhai, please check with your better half the correct date and secretly tell me. I assure you that on the dot I will remind you so that you can buy a lovely gift for your sweet wife and bring a lovely smile on her face.

Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Bihari Milwani is a walking-talking computer. He has all the data in his hard drive to be divulged at an appropriate time.