Born… or Hatched?

Another day of new beginnings – the Sindhi New Year, commemorating the birth of Jhulelal, the 10th century mystic and patron saint of the Sindhis. So here’s wishing the Aroras, the Babanis, Hari Naraiyani and all other friends the very best on the occasion: Cheti Chand jyon lakh lakh wadayun athav!
Today also marks Hari Singh Shekhawat stepping into his 71st year – which became a huge joke by itself. For no sooner did he mention this than he was cornered over his “actual” date of birth. As per Club records, the date given is April 27. The ladies were particularly curious and to the amusement of all, Shekhawat-ji had no explanation as to how it could conflict with dates on the Hindu calendar.
So he took another tack. He explained that at the time of joining service in the Navy, he had deliberately reduced his age by three years and since then, April 27, 1941 has stood as his “official” date of birth. This, he said, was the practice in those days when there were no birth certificates and nobody had any means of verifying anybody’s birth.
“But surely there was a date in your school certificate?” asked Monthi Serrao incredulously.
This stumped Shekhawat. At first he tried to wriggle out by saying that there was nothing authentic about his school records also. Then he revealed that since his intention was to reduce his age, he did not produce a school certificate. Then to further confuse everybody (main pic) he spun a story of his mother recalling a major cyclone hitting the village when he was born and accordingly, she fixed an arbitrary date of birth for him.
“Toh, final kya hua?” persisted Monthi-ji, by now completely confused.
Shekhawat-ji had no answer. In trying to clear the air, he had unwittingly landed himself in a mix-up and produced at least three probable birth dates, none of which made any sense. When realization dawned, he just laughed and laughed at himself, prompting everybody to tease him on whether he could at least be sure if he was born… Or was he probably hatched!?!
Renu Babani says:
Good one! And real confusion... looks like this morning. At least everyone was entertained and left the Garden in high spirits.
--Renu
Harish Wadhwa says:
1. I wonder how a man with otherwise such a clear and good conscience, can do that when he was young. Shekhawat-ji ka jawaab nahin! We enjoyed listening to all this as much as he enjoyed sharing it with us. God bless him with a long and great life!
2. My dear Arora-sahab, Kishor-bhai, Dilip-bhai, Motwani-ji, Hari-bhai and other Sindhi friends, "Cheti Chand joon tavahan sabhin khe lakha lakha vadhayun!" Matlab ki baat: I have heard you people make mithe chaawal (taheri) and kale chane? So who's getting them tomorrow? Jai Jhoolelal
--Harish

Party’s Not Over

The euphoria over the World Cup win might have dimmed a bit in the past 24 hours. But not the memory of some of those magical moments on Saturday night... to warrant a grand celebration at the Club this morning.
Initially, the treat was to be on Srichand Arora, Santosh Tyagi and Shekhawat (see post of April 2). But with India unexpectedly posting an emphatic six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka, eight more members volunteered to pitch in – turning the celebration (in Sitaram Hivarkar’s words) into a “maha-party” for the Club.
What’s more, it was Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian New Year’s Day. As an auspicious day for new beginnings and wishing one another well, it had to be a double dhamaka in the Chinese Hut. To top it all, Renu and Kishor Babani were back with chocolates from their week-long tour of Haridwar-Mussouri.
Sitaram-ji had composed a special song, in Marathi, for the occasion. With the barest musical accompaniment (provided by Sadanand Pawar and a plastic chair), he delivered a full-throated rendering of the ditty in his typical folksy semi-classical style. Not to be outdone, Rehana Sheikh joined in with rare patriotic zeal, “Suno gaur se duniya walo/ Buri nazar na hum pe dalo… hum hai Hindustani!”
Barring these sporadic outbursts, it was more a morning of rejoicing and revisiting the many “turning points” of that historic match which brought us the World Cup. “What a match it was!” exclaimed Arora-sah’b throwing up his hands – obviously still in a state of disbelief that India had actually pulled it off.
Earlier in the morning, he and Dilip Babani drove all the way to Jagruti, near Andheri Station to pick up the phapda-jalebis, dhokla, gulab-jamuns, jumbo kachoris... among other eats for the party. Somehow, we seem to have taken these two for granted (to the exclusion of all else) for this chore, every time a party is held. When complimented for their effort, both waved their hands dismissively. “This is teamwork,” Dilip-bhai added sportingly.
Well, that’s the spirit!
Dilip Babani says:
Today's party was very nice. We enjoyed the kachoris, jalebis, phapda, gulab-jamuns, kanda-bhajiya, kaju-barfi... All the members were present and made the party a grand success. Sitaram's song was also nice. Everybody's mood was very nice. In life, what else do we want, except happiness? We missed Harish though, on this very special occasion. Maybe he's out of town.
-- Dilip
Harish Wadhwa replies:
Dilip-bhai, actually nobody called me dil-se. So I missed the occasion. I was very much in Mumbai, but was not feeling too well in the morning. Some throat infection, so maaroed a phunti.
--Harish

PIC OF THE WEEK: 24

Is this how we scared the Sri Lankans yesterday... to win the World Cup?


YOU BET, WITH AN EXPRESSION LIKE THAT, SRI LANKA WOULDN'T DARE CHALLENGE US AGAIN!
--Renu Babani

Yes, it is true that we are lions. This is 100% clear from the above picture and the Sri Lankans looked like bakris yesterday. How can bakris stand in front of lions? Lions always win and this was proved in the World Cup. Chak De India! No.1 INDIA!! No.1 IN THE WORLD!!!
--Dilip Babani

Dekho, RAVAN bhi dar gaya!!!
--Bhaswati Bose

Wow, what an expression to capture on camera! Can scare anyone. He should be our candidate to voice our needs to bureaucrats and politicians. I am just wondering if all is well at his home. LOL.
--Harish Wadhwa

Cricket Climax

The crazy build-up to the World Cup clash in the city this afternoon has finally caught up with us. All those who had declared last Wednesday that beating Pakistan in the semi-final at Mohali was as good as winning the final are now, once again fully charged. Like everybody else, they want India to defeat Sri Lanka also and actually lift the Cup.
Srichand Arora (below, left) announced that should India win, he would treat everybody to phapda-jalebi on Monday morning when we assemble next. “Chai meri taraf se,” Santosh Tyagi (below, right) volunteered. Promptly, Hari Singh Shekhawat (bottom, left) offered to bring crispy hot samosas to the Garden to celebrate. But should India not win the final, “party cancelled”, Arora clarified.
Earlier, Bapu Rane narrated how he tried to pick up a ticket at Wankhede Stadium yesterday, only to discover that the lowest-priced, Rs1,500 seats for the upper stands were being hawked for Rs100,000 in black. Till the day-before, Shekhawat’s son was being offered the same tickets for Rs60,000… and he was game for it, just that he arrived a day late. By then the price had shot up to Rs125,000!
Everybody had a story to tell, of the madness surrounding the event and how people (including family members) were prepared to splurge mindlessly… if nothing else, on Team India jerseys. There were jokes galore, the best one being an SMS forward: “India (Ram) married the World Cup (Sita) in 1983, but in 1996 Sri Lanka (Ravan) took Sita away. Now after 14 years of vanvaas, Ram meets Ravan and we all know the result.”
Then there were moments of rethinking with factors like no team ever winning the World Cup on home ground coming up. The fact remains, all our members have become cricket experts in the past few days. And true to their optimistic spirit, they raised an extra (fourth) laugh, loud enough to be heard at Wankhede, 25kms away.
Dan Sharma says:
Congratulations, India did win! The vanvaas was for 28 years, but the Ram-Ravan episode has relevance, in cricketing terms. Laaf a lot.
--Dan

April Fools

All Fools' Day. Or Bewakoofon Ke Din – in Nahid Khan’s words. So she said while explaining why Shekhawat had not turned up (till much later) when we started the exercises this morning: “Sirf bewakoof log aayein hain aaj!” By that token, there were 26 of us – 13 male, 13 female – all bewakoofs.
Yusuf Rassiwala was among them in what was jokingly described by some as his weekly “Jumma-Jumma” (Friday) appearance. But he had far more weighty issues in mind. A new movie, FALTU releases today and he wants us to catch it during the extended week-end. Tomorrow, is of course, out of question because of the cricket World Cup final. Sunday is an option and so is Monday, a holiday because of Gudi Padwa. He would book tickets at Cinemax, as usual for the noon show, subject to a consensus emerging tomorrow. The damages: Rs100 per head.
Billed as the “funniest comedy in town”, FALTU derives its name from Fakirchand and Lakirchand Trust University with Jackky Bhagnani playing its founder. This is a make-believe university where alternate education is imparted – from fashion to cooking to fitness to partying… The film is inspired by a recent Hollywood comedy, Accepted where a South Harmon Institute of Technology (SHIT) had been established. Arshad Warsi, Puja Gupta and Riteish Deshmukh play Jackky’s sidekicks in this Hindi remake.
The other weighty issue on Yusuf-bhai’s mind was the quarterly review of the Club’s membership, which is already overdue. Here, on the right, he is seen confabulating with the other seniors, Srichand Arora and Shekhawat. Three names came up, on which there has been a question mark for long, due to continued absenteeism – Hari Naraiyani, Pratap Bhatt and Ram Shankar Shukla. After a brief discussion, it was decided to wait and watch for some more time, before dropping their names.
The new membership list will be released shortly.
Dan Sharma says:
Wishing the best for India-Sri Lanka World Cup final. I will be watching it at 3 a.m. onwards (in the U.S.) on my laptop with limited bandwidth live streaming. Chak de India!
--Dan