Ajmal's grandmother
Had joined a new gym.
Thought it puzzled him
(Why she called it a fitness centre.)
"But does grandmother
Want to be scrawny?"
That sounded rather loony.
(For once, the Shinies agreed.)
The mystery could be solved
If they paid the gym a visit.
The Shinies would do it,
(If Ajmal would buy them tracks.)
"Why do you need tracks?"
He asked them, cocking an eye.
The Shinies pretended to be shy.
("We don't want to be left out," they said.)
Secretly, they wanted to run
On the treadmill at top speed
It seemed like so much fun.
(And they looked better than the people on TV.)
Grandma was cycling furiously,
When the two dropped by.
And when they yelled, "HI!"
(She fell right off.)
"Excuse me," they said,
Poking a man as big as a hill,
"Could you get off the treadmill?"
(But without a glance, he refused.)
But the Shinies wouldn't give up.
They climbed up his back
And beat it, "THWACK, THWACK, THWACK."
(Grandmother had slunk to the farthest corner.)
The man was appalled
And called the gym instructor
But the Shinies simply bawled.
(And got their way because they were small.)
Britney Spears was playing
And the Shinies sang along
Though they hated the song.
(It was great for running.)
Then, they lifted the smallest weights
Making the biggest noise
And without the least poise
(Dropped them, when they got bored.)
But where was grandmother?
She seemed to have disappeared!
The Shinies were bewildered.
(Why had she run away?!)
"Where is Ajmal's grandmother?"
They asked the gym instructor.
But no one had seen her.
(Not since she fell off the cycle, anyway.)
It was pouring outside.
Working out was all fine
But the Shinies wanted to dine.
(With grandmother, of course.)
Through the glass walls of the gym
They looked at the road, sadly.
They needed to eat, badly.
(But one couldn't buy bajjis with pencil shavings!)
But guess who waved at them
From the hot dosa stand,
With ten bajjis in her hand?
(Grandmother, the fitness freak.)
