Monsoon Tea Party

Yusuf Rassiwala (c) hosts today's tea party

It’s been ages since anyone hosted a party in the Club. There has been no major celebration, no birthday and no anniversary for the best part of August. And that, by Big Laaf standards is a very, very long time.
So when Yusuf Rassiwala declared that he would like to host a tea party for us on the week-end, i.e. Saturday, everyone felt elated. It would break the dry spell, we reckoned. He also clarified that there was ‘no occasion’ – no birthday, no anniversary… no nothing for the party.
But what was supposed to be a round of steaming hot tea at the end of the exercises turned out to be a mini feast.

Nassem (r) has returned from Ajmer Sharif

Breakfast was taken care of with an array of savories and bakery items including biscuits, toasts, fries and other goodies. In trade-mark style, Yusuf R played the perfect host by plying everyone with additional helpings, till rain

Banoo Apa inquires on Shekhawat while exercises continue

intervened and cut short the party.
If all this was not enough, Banoo Apa turned up (after a week) with a box of ‘imported biscuits’ to go along with the tea. (Yusuf R had personally summoned her from home.) And then, there was Naseem Khan with a packet of sweets from a pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif.
Earlier in the morning, Shekhawat presented us with a pleasant surprise by showing up in the Garden after a four-day absence (ref post of August 27). The surgery and skin grafting on his chest has been pushed to September 17 – at Ashwini, the naval hospital in Colaba. The good news is that the tests conducted on him (blood, X-ray, ECG, 2D Echo, etc.) have revealed nothing alarming.
Shekhawat wanted to join us for the exercises (as he was “feeling better”) but was advised to take it easy today. Still, he jumped up whenever he could and even insisted on locking horns with his bosom pal, Bijoy Gupta. For the rest of the time, he remained aloof, keeping to himself on a stone bench at the far end. Clearly, he is seized by boredom.

Karun Sharma:
This was a very good break after celebrating so many birthdays in the month of July. Tea and biscuits were plenty in number and variety. Life is good with the Big Laaf family.