Comfort of Numbers

Arun Patil conducts the exercises today 

Semblance of a full house

After a hot and dry Sunday, the ‘heavy rain' warning sounded by the met jokers has been downgraded now. This only proves what Bijoy Gupta had been saying since Saturday (see post) – that there will be no rain any time soon and that all the talk of flooding and drowning was nothing but a false alarm.
Still, Shekhawat looked worried early morning and debated whether to abandon the exercises today also if nobody turned up. “In that case, why don’t you conduct the exercises for a change?” Gupta prodded mischievously. “After all, you are an ex-military man and nobody can exercise better than you.”
Shekhawat was reluctant. He pinned his hopes on Arun Patil and Kiran Prakash – the two past masters at conducting the free-hand exercises from start-to-finish. All the others, including Nahid Khan, Yusuf Rassiwala and Razia Khan were on a break because of Ramzaan.
Soon Arun Patil showed up and Gupta got his chance. “Look here, what Shekhawat has been saying about you,” he exclaimed. “He says Arun is totally incompetent and incapable of conducting exercises. He says he can do it much better than you.”
Shekhawat did not bother to counter him and Arun was to realize that he was being taken on. In time Siba Prasad Maitra, Kiran Prakash, Dilip Babani and Bihari Milwani appeared and a semblance of full-house could be restored for the exercises.
Somehow, the question of numbers has become a major concern for the Club these days. Every time attendance drops (for whatever reason), the worst is imagined: that there would be a mass exodus and we would be reduced to bare bones. That absence from exercising costs the individual more and the Club less is seldom taken into consideration. We like to simply believe in the comfort of numbers.

Bihari Milwani:
Even Lord Varun, the rain god is fasting during Ramzaan. Once the fasting month gets over, he will descend with full fury.