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| Confined to the China Hut |
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| Shekhawat leavesafter his morning spiel |
Result: The Garden was deserted and we had to confine ourselves to the China Hut for the exercises. Worse, attendance dropped sharply with Kiran Prakash, Rukhsana Khan, Bhaswati Bose and many others missing from action.
On occasions like this Bijoy Gupta tends to relapse into a silent stupor whereas Shekhawat becomes extra energetic and talkative. Clearly, Gupta hates the rains and never carries an umbrella. Today, he broke away from the exercises and sat quietly in a corner, complaining of muscle cramps.
In contrast, Shekhawat was gung ho about how well life has treated him after a childhood of near destitution and want following his father’s untimely death. Gupta had only to provoke him on why he wasn’t joining the group to the Andamans (ref post of November 25) leaving late night today.
Shekhawat promptly reeled out all the places he had visited as a navy man, the “fun” he had at the ports of halt and today, the various properties he owned in and around Mumbai. He was particularly excited about a holiday resort (in his name) near Lonavala, currently under construction.
“My son goes to the site every week-end to oversee the work in progress,” he informed. “It has a huge swimming pool and its speciality is that the wood used for building the residential complex has been imported from Russia. I will take you all there once it is ready. You don’t have to spend a single rupee.”
As for the Andaman trip, Nahid Khan left last evening with the group travelling by train to Chennai and thereafter, will be flying to Port Blair. She will be joined there by the others, including Bhaswati Bose and Zarina Khan, who are taking a direct flight from Mumbai tonight. Our good wishes go with them.
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