Tit for Tat

Shekhawat tries dodging Kiran Prakash

Kiran Prakash follows relentlessly 

Shekhawat met his match in Kiran Prakash this morning. For the past couple of days, the latter had been observing how late-comers were treated to a unique form of 'gandhi-giri' with Shekhawat presenting them a white flower (ref post of November 19) the moment they arrived. Today Kiran Prakash decided to turn the tables on him.
Now, Shekhawat can never be faulted for coming late. He is by far the most punctual member of the Club, being

Air of bonhomie in the Garden

invariably the first to show up at the Garden – that too, a clear half-hour before the start of the exercises. So Kiran Prakash hit upon a rather strange idea of cornering him for being the first to leave the Garden AFTER the exercises.
To be fair, Shekhawat must return home at a certain time every day for his morning dose of medicines and breakfast, as per a schedule prepared by his doctors. Much as he would like to, he cannot afford to hang around for too long in the Garden like the rest of us. But this is something nobody wants to understand because everybody values Shekhawat’s company.
Today, all that Kiran Prakash was asking for was 30 minutes of Shekhawat’s time post-exercise, after which we would all disperse in the normal course. In fact, others like Yusuf Rassiwala and Bijoy Gupta had also tried holding Shekhawat back and failed. What nobody had tried though was to embarrass him with a white flower the way Kiran Prakash did this morning.
At first Shekhawat looked surprised and confused. He refused to accept the flower. He tried to dodge his way out but at every point, his path was blocked by Kiran Prakash proffering the white flower. Soon it turned into a little game, much to everybody’s amusement. Wherever he went, Kiran Prakash followed, relentlessly. Finally, Shekhawat found refuge on a bench, pretending to have run out of breath, completely.
Within seconds, he made good his escape!

Bihari Milwani:
Funny how Shekhawat, being an ex-Navy man, was running away like a coward. This, on the anniversary of the Mumbai Terror Attack when terrorists came via sea...