On Schedule

Angad Singh (c) makes a point

The Annual Sports Day will be held on February 23, as decided earlier (ref post of February 10). A concerted move to scrap the event was overturned by majority opinion at an impromptu meeting summoned in the Garden today.
This follows certain misgivings brewing in a section of the Club over any disaffection that the event might generate. As Nahid Khan, one of

Bijoy Gupta

the opponents of the sporting event pointed out: “What is the use of doing something that causes a rift in the Club instead of bonding us together? Better to cancel the Sports Day this year.”
However, with a view to accommodate differing opinions and make the event even more inclusive, certain new contests were introduced today in place of those that were felt to be physically too demanding or a risk to life and limb.
For instance, instead of the ‘reverse walking’, which was found to be “risky” for some, there will now be a ‘slow walking race’, whereby contestants will have to walk with a couple of books balanced on the head.
Likewise, ‘threading the needle’ has been substituted by an equally funny, but less strenuous (on the eye and nerves) contest. ‘Blowing the balloon’, ‘spoon race’ and ‘musical chairs’ are being retained and the number of prizes for each event stands reduced to two.
Bijoy Gupta though, was to have the last word. He saw no sense in a “bunch of doddering old people” being made to compete for a cup as though their life depended on it. “Better give away cups to everybody. And don’t have any name inscribed on them so that if anybody returns a cup, it can be used again the next year,” he suggested.