Pleasant Surprises

Fahmida comes decked up to celebrate her marriage anniversary

A joyous week-end with a couple of pleasant surprises.
First, we did not know it was Fahmida Khan’s wedding anniversary today. Soon after the exercises, we were preparing to leave for the morning show of Bala (see yesterday’s post) at a nearby cineplex when Bhaswati Bose received a phone call. “Wait, nobody should go,” she shouted.

Qadir Bano (c) comes with box of sweets

“Fahmida is coming. She is on her way.”
Before long Fahmida appeared, resplendent in an ornate red-and-gold outfit and broke the good news. “This is my 46th wedding anniversary,” she said with pride while handing out luddoos, biscuits and tetrapaks of a fruity drink. It made for a good breakfast snack for the movie goers. Pity, Fahmida’s

Litchi drink from Banoo Apa

husband was not present by her side this time.
The second big surprise of the morning was Qadir Bano materialising out of nowhere. The last we saw her was when she celebrated her son, Aarif’s exploits in a cricket tournament (ref post of December 15, 2018). All this while we were told that she was away, attending to some

At the cineplex for the morning show of Bala

“urgent work” in her ancestral home near Jaipur.
Today, Qadir revealed that she had actually been travelling all along and also spent nearly a month in Dubai. She came with a box of Rajasthani sweets to mark her return to the Club today.
If that were not enough, Banoo Apa topped up the celebrations with a glass full of litchi juice – her one-for-the-road treat to the movie goers. But the biggest joke of the day had to belong to Bijoy Gupta. He pulled up Shekhawat for wearing “Raj Kapoor-style trousers” dating back by 40 years for the movie outing today. It was another matter that those were a new pair of trousers Shekhawat was wearing for the occasion, but had forgotten to alter the length. So he casually rolled up the hems above his ankles hoping nobody would notice.
The biggest surprise of the morning though, was (guess what?) Santosh Tyagi turning up for the movie. This was the first entertainment break she allowed herself since the demise of her son in September – all after some serious persuasion from well-wishers in the Club.

Bihari Milwani:
Wow! We must celebrate 23rd as 'Big Laaf Party Day' as we have 5 birthdays and one marriage anniversary on 23rd!!!