Change of Plans

Those expecting an invite to the birthday bash at Kailash Parbat today (ref post of July 11) were in for a disappointment. Shekhawat announced that the party has been deferred by exactly a week, to next Tuesday.
“You are invited to a buffet lunch at Kailash Parbat restaurant on July 24 at 12:30 pm,” he said.

Shekhawat (l) announces party scheduled for next Tuesday

“The party is being jointly hosted by eight members whose birthdays fall during this month. I’d expect only our members to be present.”
The eight members sponsoring the party are Banoo Apa, Naseem Khan, Bhaswati Bose, Geeta Latte, Yusuf Rassiwala, Razia Khan as well as Nahid Siddiqui and Khatoon Baig.

Santosh Tyagi

The last two are not July-borns, but want to pitch in nonetheless.
The announcement follows a formal booking made last evening at the restaurant by Banoo Apa. She, together with Bhaswati Bose and Dilip Babani, had gone to finalize the menu for the party (which shall be strictly vegetarian), the seating arrangements, ambience, etc.
Meanwhile, Santosh Tyagi turned up this morning

Bijoy Gupta (r) at his flirtatious best

to pay her annual subscription and in a sense, revive her membership in the Club. It seems that domestic compulsions had kept her away from the Garden for the past few months. Thankfully, she has realized that this was doing her no good and is now determined to be regular for the exercises. Or so she has promised.
On a lighter note, Bijoy Gupta shifted attention from Shekhawat and concentrated on a new lady who has been attending our exercises for the past few days. Much to her amusement, he said he knew her from the past and that they had spent many romantic moments “in the shade of trees singing songs to each other" in their youth.
Being a sporting kind, the lady could see the joke and played along. Gupta was at his flirtatious best and even as he did not remember her name now, insisted that she had left him heartbroken. Surely, it takes both presence of mind and a terrific sense of humor to keep such a conversation going on, indefinitely.