A tea party in honour of freedom fighters was in progress at Giani Zail Singh's house.
Two other former Presidents,
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and R. Venkataraman were also present.

Suddenly a group of terrorists took over the party.
They lined up all the three former Presidents for execution.
As the firing squad got ready, Sanjiva Reddy yelled,
'Earthquake!' and escaped in the commotion that followed.
The executioners got ready again, and as they took aim,
Venkataraman shouted,
'Flood!' and he too escaped in the confusion.
As the firing squad lined up for the third time,
Zail Singh decided to try the same idea and yelled, 'Fire!'

"Karnail was rung up and told that the Prime Minister had decided to make him a minister in his cabinet and that he should reach the Rashtrapati Bhawan to take the oath.

Before going there, he rang up his wife to break the good news to her.
But he imitated somebody else's voice:
'Mrs Karnail, how would you like to be the wife of a cabinet minister?'

'I will be delighted,' gushed Mrs Karnail,
'but may I know who is calling?'"