One Upmanship

Shekhawat (ext left) conducts today's exercises 

After Karun Sharma yesterday, Shekhawat conducted the exercises today. Clearly, whatever anybody could do, Shekhawat can do better. Or so was he made to think by none other than his best frenemy Bijoy Gupta. (Else, Shekhawat would have been the last person on earth to step into the middle.) Karun was present all through, silently watching the fun.
At every stage, Gupta kept flattering Shekhawat saying that only he was capable of conducting exercises the way a chairman should. “Today you have proved to be the real boss of Big Laaf,” he said. “Otherwise, everybody would have still taken you to be a fake chairman. Keep it up!”
Shekhawat was so taken in by those encouraging words that he accelerated the exercises to a point we were all running out of breath. At first Rukhsana Khan complained and then Bhaswati Bose and Banoo Apa. Somehow, Shekhawat seemed to enjoy rushing at breakneck speed.

Karun Sharma (ext left) treats us to jumbo dryfruit luddoos

After all, he had a point to prove: He was the chairman!
There was another reason for Shekhawat to hurry through the exercises. Were he not stuck to the middle, he would have been at liberty to play the fool as he usually does. He could have pranced about at will, indulged in some crazy antics, joked around, or simply broken away from the exercises to chat up someone on the bench.
Today, he could do none of these. Even when he saw Gupta walking away (without permission) to talk to a lady on the walking track, Shekhawat had to remain a mute spectator. The moment Gupta returned to the circle, Shekhawat stepped on the gas again and declared with a vengeance that we were all on his “Jaipur Superfast Express”.
In the end, we were rewarded with the most extraordinary luddoo any of us has ever had. Karun Sharma was at Lucknow recently for a reunion of his college alumni and on the way back, he thoughtfully picked a box of this divine delicacy for us. It takes time to eat as it is studded with almonds, pista, dates, walnuts and the world’s dry fruits – sweetened not by sugar, but raisins and dates. A single luddoo is a meal by itself. And we got two – one for the road, obviously.