Vexing Question

Pushpa Gupta gets her birthday bite from hubby Bijoy

Why do people do hurtful things they can only be ashamed of?
This was the question many members were asking when Pushpa Gupta today celebrated her birthday in the Garden. As she laid out the eatables on paper plates, a certain member (name withheld) butted in and tapping the packages, demanded to know where she had procured them from. Pushpa named a certain eatery. The man then moved on to the next package and in front of all of us, again asked: “And where is this from?”
“The same place you had told us to get,” Pushpa replied meekly.
“Oh no, I would never get it from there,” he said and walked away in a huff, abandoning the party.
We were aghast. How can anybody be so uncouth as to lose all sense of etiquette and decorum? And that too, towards someone celebrating her birthday? Many like Yusuf Rassiwala and Banoo Apa quickly moved in to comfort Pushpa, but she was visibly hurt. “Don’t pay any heed to him,” consoled Rakhee Bansi. “Hear with one ear and take it out of the other.”
“But he was the one who advised us to go there,” argued Pushpa’s husband Bijoy Gupta, agitated.
Others commented that he had insulted not only the hosts, but all of us – as though we deserve to eat ‘kachra’ and he is above all. The food items were in fact, carefully selected leaving out anything sweet in deference to the diabetics. The samosas, pastries and vada-pao were fresh from the oven and relished by all.
Were it not for this rather, disgraceful incident, the morning session went tickety boo with Srichand Arora and Yusuf Rassiwala getting into a hilarious altercation over Club caps. According to the latter, the caps were too small for his big head and he’d rather wear one of his own than “walk around like a cartoon”. Yet, when Arora gave him his cap, Yusuf’s head fitted in comfortably. Now the question arose of returning the caps. Arora wanted to retain Yusuf’s cap and Yusuf wanted to keep both. How they resolved the issue while the exercises were on should best be left to imagination. The accompanying pics provide a clue.


Kiran Prakash:
Very unfortunate incident. I wish this had not happened. I have attended many celebrations in the Garden and have always enjoyed them. If anybody does not wish to be a part of a celebration, he can always say so. But nobody, repeat NOBODY has any right to embarrass a host like this. My solidarity is with Pushpa and Bijoy Gupta. Happy Birthday, Pushpa. Many happy returns of the day.
Bihari Milwani:
I think the person who demanded to know the place of procurement must be running the same business. It is but natural for that person to get angry if you do not source the things from him.
Kiran Prakash adds:
Bihari-ji, you must be kidding. I don't know if we have any member who has such business. Since I had not gone to Garden today, I am not aware who is being referred to.
Harish Wadhwa:
* First of all, a very Happy Birthday to Pushpa-ji. Let not the unwanted comments affect the celebrations. Dene wale ka dil dekha jata hai, right? Just move on.
* I will leave the cap issue to the wonderful camaraderie of Yusuf-bhai and Arora-ji. Two fine gentlemen at the Garden. But nice to see Arora-ji in green-green matching shoes as well. Wah kya dedication hai!

Picnic Buzz

Picnic Planning: A study in contrasts

Dull, uneventful morning with picnic preparations (ref yesterday’s post) hijacking all activities of the Club. To Shekhawat specifically, nothing else seemed to matter – not even the unusual occurrence of all four of his saalis not turning up today. He was far too preoccupied mobilizing people for the August 16 picnic to even notice their absence.
Initially Bijoy Gupta did not believe Shekhawat could be serious about the picnic (or so he said), but on seeing him persuading other members during the exercises, the former put in his share. Mallika Kagzi however, refused to be convinced, even as Shekhawat insisted that she bring her husband along. Srichand Arora excused himself as his wife would most likely be hospitalized during that period after her knee surgery, scheduled on August 11.
In the end, Shekhawat managed to get 11 members to commit with booking amounts of Rs700 each. He needs 19 more and has set August 8 as the cut-off date, before inviting outsiders/ non-members to join. From the way things are going, he should have no difficulty in achieving that target.
Bihari Milwani:
Picnic master should announce that almost all seats are filled up and only very few seats are available. Then everyone will come fast with booking money. He could also invite the spouses of all members for a grand get-together. The seats will be instantly filled up.

Picnic Revived

Shekhawat makes picnic announcement

It’s on, it’s off; it’s on, it’s off… That has been the situation over the past one month or so with no unanimity emerging on whether we should embark on the so-called ‘monsoon picnic’ (ref post of July 23). Even now, the Club appears equally divided on this count. But Shekhawat today seized the initiative and declared that he has spoken to the management of Royal Garden Resort (near Dahisar naka) and struck a deal on group booking that we cannot retract from.
“The picnic is fixed for August 16,” he informed. “I have spoken to the bus operator also. If we are able to form a group of 30-odd, enough to fill a bus, our cost per head would work out to about Rs700 per head.

Swiss chocolates from Ved Prakash Grover

If more people join, we can go for a bigger bus and the cost per head might even go down. Whatever the excess amount collected will, as always, be refunded.”
The announcement met with lukewarm response even as Mumtaz Jahan and Zarina Khan instantly stepped up to pay their share. The rest remained non-commital. But this is exactly a scenario Shekhawat enjoys as the next few days would see him on an overdrive persuading all and sundry to join his bandwagon. Organising picnics is another way of keeping himself occupied in his post-retirement years. And as everyone knows, he is very good at it.
Meanwhile, Ved Prakash Grover gave us a sweet surprise with mouth-melting chocolates his son has brought back from a trip to Spain and Switzerland last week. Dharmendra Grover had gone on an official tour to Barcelona and clubbed it with a family holiday at Interlaken and Zurich. It was extremely kind of him to have thought of us and share his joy in this manner. Our gratitude and good wishes go to the Grovers.
Bihari Milwani:
The picnic master's integrity and reliability have been proved beyond doubt. Now, with the support of his salis, the event of August 16 is going to be booked very fast. Rush before seats are full.

Day 1715

Pic of the Week

HERE COMES THE CHAIR MAN!

The photographer is eyeing the Chairman's chair while the Chair Man is carrying the chair wherever he goes. --Kiran Prakash

Chor, Chor... CCTV footage of the thief taking away chairs from the Garden! --Bihari Milwani

Here's someone behaving like N Srinivasan. Just doesn't want to part with the CHAIR, no matter where he goes. Its all a Kissa-Kursi-Ka. --Harish Wadhwa

Birthday Blast

Cake-cutting, courtesy Mallika Kagzi (in white)

It was a birthday bash like none other.

Calendar for Yusuf Rassiwala

Six July-borns – five females and one male – hosted a grand celebration at the Garden this morning amid rounds of rip roaring laughter and applause, good food

Calendar for Banoo Apa

and drinks and of course, much merriment and bonhomie. No less than 35 members were present to cheer the birthday girls and boy – Banoo Apa, Razia Khan, Rakhee Bansi, Naseem Khan, Bhaswati Bose and Yusuf Rassiwala.
Mallika Kagzi had brought a vanilla-‘n’-honey cake on her own as a personal gift to mark the occasion. Banoo Apa brought chai and cold drinks from home, in addition to the food packets paid for jointly. (Later, Rakhee was to turn up with yet another flask of tea.) The packets by

Calendar for Bhaswati Bose

Calendar for Razia Khan

themselves made for a sumptuous mix – veg sandwiches, cheese roll, chocolate pastry, chhole wafers and motichoor luddoo. And in keeping with Club tradition, each of the hosts was presented with a personalized desk calendar with snap shots of ‘moments’ in the Garden since his/her last birthday.
Everybody turned a year older today, but the zeal and fervor of childhood birthdays have not diminished. Our greetings and gratitude go, once again, to the six hosts of the morning. As always, we wish them all happiness, good health and many more such birthday celebrations in years to come.
Kiran Prakash:
Today's treat was not only JUMBO in size, it was of a superb blend of quantity, quality and presentation. In addition to the delicacies mentioned, the neatly-packed box also contained sachets of tomato ketchup, plastic spoon and paper napkin. It appeared like a packed lunch box from a five-star hotel. Thank you very much Yusuf-bhai, Razia-ji, Banoo-ji, Naseem-ji, Rakhi-ji and Bhaswati-ji. What an idea Sir/Madam-ji! Once again, belated happy birthday to all. The gift of a cake by Mallika-ji to the birthday boy and girls was indeed the icing on the cake. Great event! Thank you all, once again.
Bihari Milwani:
I salute the person who came up with the idea of a joint celebration. Can we have as a rule that the first Saturday of the month be celebrated as joint birthday for all the birthdays of the previous month? This way we will sincerely do our exercises and party at the end of the month. This will also help working members to reach office in time.
Muhammed Farooq Khan:
I had the pleasure and honor of seeing Banoo's birthday gift from BIG LAAF. In my opinion this is the BEST GIFT my life-partner has ever received. My heartfelt thanks to the BIG LAAF FAMILY, but more particularly to those who thought of it, conceived it and created it. I am now looking forward to 2016. My gratitude, respect and love --Banoo Aapa's proud Husband
Bhaswati Bose:
It was Banoo Aapa who took the initiative for a joint party. She also brought tea and cold drinks from home when she was not supposed to. Mallika was equally generous for bringing a cake on her own. And I also got my calendar finally! Thank you everybody, it was our most memorable birthday celebration.
Mustafa R:
A gift speaks volumes of a person’s personality, generosity and creativity. I just wanted to write and say thank you to everyone in Big Laaf for the personalized calendar that was gifted to my father, Yusuf Rassiwalla on his birthday. And a special thanks to the ones who conceived this idea.