Deserted and Desolate

Holding fort in the absence of the Alibaug ladies

It was an all-men’s day at the Club – barring the presence of Urmila Sinha. All the other women had left for Alibaug (ref post of January 18) early morning.

Banoo Apa watches the
Mumbai coastline recede
in the distance

But more significantly, the Garden wore a desolate and deserted look through the exercises today.
Even strangers on the walking track stopped to ask why we were so few today. “Hope everybody is okay?” a gentleman remarked.
Shekhawat was in no mood to exercise. He wanted to declare a two-day holiday (till the Alibaug group returned), but was prevailed upon. Clearly, he did not find anybody motivating enough to stick on today.
Before long Shekhawat wanted to curtail the exercises by suspending the tai-chi round. This time Yusuf Rassiwalla intervened and Shekhawat finally agreed to follow the routine – just that he had no late-comers to give his flowers away.
Bijoy Gupta, Siba Prasad Maitra and Bihari Milwani were all absent today.
Meanwhile, news comes in of the ladies having made it to Alibaug, safe and sound. Qadir Banu had to back out because of a death in her family.
The others, including Rukhsana Khan and Fahmida Khan were on time at the Garden gate for the cab which took them to the jetty near Gateway of India. From there, they were to catch the ferry service to Alibaug.

On the ferry, cutting across the Arabian Sea, toward Alibaug