Punishing Humidity

Sitaram Hivarkar returns

Sitaram Hivarkar finally made it to the Garden (ref post of September 26). But it was a bad day to show up. A brief downpour last night had turned the morning air heavy with humidity. It had become near impossible to exercise – so drained out were we. Never before – at least, in living memory – had we been literally reduced

Invoking the sun god on a humid morning

to a pulsating mass of sweaty bodies, desperately gasping for breath.
Yusuf Rassiwala suggested that we rather disrupt the exercises and migrate to the China Hut en masse to exercise under the fan. As expected, Arun Patil vetoed the idea. But had we moved out, we would have got to meeting Sitaram inside the hut and saved him an arduous 20 minute extra walk to the spot where we were exercising.
“It took me almost an hour to walk down from home,” Sitaram said. “I needed to take a breather in the China Hut as my knees were giving way. After an autorickshaw accident last year, I am no longer able to walk as before. The pain is excruciating. Much of the time at home, I have to remain supine on a bed.”
Still, like the good old days, he led the prayers this morning and even managed to perform a few tai-chi numbers with us. We raised an extra laugh to formally welcome him back. “Now that I have shifted here, I shall be regular for the exercises every morning," he promised. “This is like another home-coming.”