'Student of the Year'

Urmila Sinha (l) is felicitated by a white plumeria  

Urmila Sinha was today adjudged Student of the Year, 2018-19. Shekhawat, in his capacity as a chairman of Big Laaf, presented her with a stalk of white plumeria amid a round of applause from all present.
The impromptu ceremony was accompanied by some fresh pedas Fahmida Khan had brought on the occasion.
Coinciding with the Children’s Day celebrations nation-wide, today’s felicitation was in recognition of Urmila’s record of exceptional dedication and commitment to our daily regimen from the time she joined the Club. She is a relative newbie and as is well known, has been not only regular but unfailingly punctual, come rain or sunshine.

Karun Sharma conducts the exercises today

We do not need to check the time when she shows up every morning and only thereafter, do our exercises begin.
In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, we had a new ‘teacher’ to conduct the proceedings this morning.

Fahmida Khan (r) celebrates with peda

Karun Sharma has of course, assumed charge of the exercises a couple of times in the past. But that was long, long ago. Today’s session was not only a refreshing departure from the routine, but more importantly, a measure to train new ‘teachers’ for the future.
Such training has increasingly become a matter of concern for the Club. For far too long, have we been relying on the two Khans, Nahid and Razia for conducting our free-hand exercises and in an emergency, Yusuf Rassiwala has also stepped into the middle. But today, by a rare coincidence, none of them were around.
True, there are old timers like Shekhawat who are quite knowledgeable as they have been doing the same exercises since the inception of the Club. But knowledge alone does not make a good ‘teacher’. You need a lot more to take a group along. In that respect, Karun Sharma redeemed himself appreciably.

Karun Sharma:
It was good to reconnect after a very happy six days spent with my engineering batchmates of IIT, BHU at Lucknow. Big Laaf is truly my 'home town family'.