Wicked Wishes

Kiran Prakash (l) administers first aid to Gupta

Normal people usually pray for the good and welfare of all. We too have always wished the best for everyone and pray that we survive the exercises every morning in one piece. But after procuring the first aid kit yesterday, something changed.
Secretly, we have been eager to put the medicine supplies to use. Otherwise the whole purpose of putting together a medical kit would go waste. Wicked as this may sound, we were hoping and praying for a medical emergency to arise in the Garden so as to justify the first aid kit!
Our prayers were answered too soon. In a bizarre enactment of black comedy, Bijoy Gupta today presented us the perfect opportunity to inaugurate the first aid kit. He just could not bend down after the ‘bird fly’ exercise and holding his waist, kept staring at the ground suspiciously.
After a while, he made a face and headed towards a bench. “I can’t take the heat anymore,” he declared. “I’m going home.”
This was the moment we were waiting for. Kiran Prakash promptly galloped towards the Gate to retrieve a red bag of medical supplies from his car.

Nahid Khan (c) conducts exercises with 'dedh haath' 

Meanwhile, Shekhawat gave Gupta company – to be joined by Dilip Babani later. Gupta kept mumbling, “This is nothing but dehydration” and then suddenly, he woke up: “Has Kiran-ji gone to the market for me?”
Kiran Prakash was back and like Alladin’s genie, produced a bottle of Electral water for Gupta. “Keep sipping from this slowly and you will be fine,” he advised. The exercises were continuing. After a few minutes, Gupta looked pepped up and was trying some breathing exercises on the bench. But he did not return to the exercise circle.
On a happier note, Nahid Khan returned to conducting our exercises after a gap of two months. She had injured her left shoulder after a fall, but did not show any doctor. The pain persisted and when she consulted a physiotherapist, it was too late. Her arm had become immobilized.
Today however, we could see a marked improvement in her, even as she could not raise the arm fully. She had to lift it with her right hand – a comic situation at times during the exercises, thereby prompting Karuna Waghmare to remark: “Nahid is exercising with one-and-half hands!”