Another Casualty

Shekhawat cuts a forlorn figure,
watching us from a distance

It was Shekhawat’s turn today to fall ill. In an uncanny replay of yesterday’s incident, he buckled in pain midway through the exercises and spent the rest of the morning on a bench, grimacing at intervals. He could barely stand up. Unlike Bijoy Gupta, he needed to be dropped home by autorickshaw.
It is well known that Shekhawat has been nursing a peculiar problem of unhealed sutures on his chest, post

Urmila Sinha (l)  treated us to a variety of sweets

his bypass surgery five years back. It remains unattended, partly because the sore is fairly deep-seated and involves another complicated surgery. At age 79, Shekhawat feels inhibited going through the ordeal and prefers to rely mainly on prescription painkillers.
Surprisingly, through periodic check-ups, doctors did not dissuade him from adopting this line, but warned him about shooting pain off and on, should he over-exert himself. He is supposed to ensure that the skin in the affected area is not stretched and more specifically, never to extend his arms out wide.
But being the excitable person that Shekhawat is, he gets easily carried away in our company, throwing all caution to the winds during the exercises. Today also, he kept jumping around like a playful child and even kept up the ritual of presenting late comers with rotting white flowers (ref post of November 19)… till tragedy struck.
Gupta kept telling him to be restrain himself, but Shekhawat did not listen. In the end, he had to pay the price.