Surround Sound

Keeping count during the tai-chi round

Rukhsana Khan has, for long, held the distinction of being the loudest among us while counting during our tai-chi round. No one can outshout her in the Club. Naheed Siddiqui attributes this extraordinary feat to Rukhsana religiously gobbling two hard-boiled eggs daily, before coming to the Garden!
Whatever the truth behind this, Bijoy Gupta has taken Naheed’s word seriously. For, he too now believes that it is impossible to deliver a full-throated shout until your stomach is full.

Movie Poster: Stree

So when a painfully shy and soft spoken Urmila Sinha was doing her count during the tai-chi round today, Gupta pounced upon her: “How many times have I told you to eat something before coming to the Garden? How can you count on an empty stomach? We can’t even hear you.”

Movie bugs plan today's outing

The sudden outburst startled Urmila, instantly sending ripples of laughter all around. Arun Patil took over, followed by Banoo Apa also doing what she called a ‘full-belly” count. When it was Bhaswati Bose’s turn next, Yusuf Rassiwala opined that she had been starving since last night. “She is dieting,” Siba Prasad Maitra corrected him.
Quite clearly, the emphasis of the tai-chi exercises has shifted to volume control in a competitive surround sound scenario. Everybody is expected to raise their voice during counting to level with the loudest in the circle and in a peculiar way, reveal personal dietary habits. How this pans out shall make for good entertainment and much hilarity in the coming days.
Meanwhile, a delegation is setting out to watch Stree, the current blockbuster in town. Billed as a “horror comedy”, it has Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor in the leads and credits Amar Kaushik, a newbie as director. Shekhawat, Yusuf R, Bhaswati, Santosh Tyagi, Banoo Apa and Gupta, among others are heading to PVR Icon (Infiniti Mall) today for the noon show.

Bihari Milwani:
The best and surest way of making loud sound is smoking. It is my personal observation that those who smoke have a very loud voice. Further, vegetarians can’t have eggs but they, as well as non-vegetarians, can smoke. Thirdly, how can Gupta-ji suggest anyone to have eggs during the shradh period?