Power Play

Clapping under a tree -- defying Lord Varun, the rain god

How can you celebrate Ganapati (yesterday’s post) without the rains? Raining during the festivities is taken to be a sine qua non. It did not rain yesterday, but today the weather gods more than made up for it in the morning. They tried to disrupt our exercises, but we dug in our heels. At Arun Patil’s instance, we continued defiantly – briefly taking shelter under a tree towards the end. It was, as Bihari Milwani observed, Lord Varun versus Lord Arun!
Emboldened by his triumph over the rain god, Arun began to throw his weight around. Today his target was Nahid Khan, who, for some reason had been needling a meek middle-aged lady, Urmila Sinha. The latter is not a member, but joins us for the exercises

Arun and Banoo Apa pacify Urmila Sinha (c)

every day without fail. Since she is new, Arun has been taking pains in correcting her at every move, which, in Nahid’s opinion, is a total waste of time. She believes that the lady is a bird of passage and there’s no point paying special attention on her.
Apparently this morning, Nahid had said something hurtful to her and she, with folded hands, said she would rather not come to the Garden from tomorrow. It was a trivial matter which could be resolved on a one-to-one within minutes. But Yusuf Rassiwala, followed by Banoo Apa, stepped in to console her and then Lord Arun rolled in to put his weight solidly behind Urmila Sinha. Nahid had meanwhile disappeared. In effect, what emerged by way of damage control was an emphatic assertion of who’s the boss and why nobody’s opinion matters during the exercises -- least of all Nahid’s -- except Lord Arun’s.
Amused, Yusuf R tried to put the latter on check, but to no avail. “I am the master,” Lord Arun insisted.
“You may be master of the school,” Yusuf R retorted. “But I am the principal here!”
The poor lady beat a hasty retreat, confused as ever by the inexplicable power play.

Bihari Milwani:
I am glad that positive vibrations overpowered the negative vibrations and brought a big smile on poor Urmila.