“I was about to get married, but…”
This is how I’ve closed conversations this year. (I wasn’t really going to get married.) This year’s events didn’t surprise me and I think we’re just getting started. We hadn’t taken a break since the Industrial Revolution. We kept making things, the conveyer belt got so cluttered that at some point it had to get jammed. (If you listen closely you can hear the moving parts of a machine cramping up till it goes kaput!)
I blame aliens for all the horrible things that are happening. Because if intelligent life exists outside our solar system, they have silently watched us fight amongst ourselves for the last 10,000 years and done nothing about it. How heartless can they be to exhibit such human behaviour!
We’ve now realised something special about the human species. We have horrible people in each country. We’d better look at this year as the start of us trying to co-exist as one species. It feels like the calm before the big storm, doesn’t it? No? Just me? Okay then!
Today, we’re course correcting. The flora and fauna got a break, which sadly saw the poor across the world suffer because of their dependence on daily wages. This year so many ambitions were altered, dreams derailed, hopes huffed and puffed.
I miss the stage and the gathering of people sitting and facing one direction.
I hope we have something worthwhile when people again sit and watch someone perform for them. We first performed for only humans (no distractions whatsoever! No cellphones! No Insta! No nothing!). Then we had performances through screens. Then we went from performing on screens to screens. That’s why this year didn’t surprise me. It was the next step.
I’d like to close with a few opening lines for conversations. “I took so much for granted!” “He wasn’t so bad.” “I miss the times I could step out.” “I love my family, but it’s too much.” “It’ll take a long time, no?” “Remember the good times!” “Forget telling jokes, become a manager in a shop!” “Are you crazy, leaving the house?” “Let’s take a walk.”
Shankar Chugani, or Shanky, is a stand-up comic based in Bengaluru, who has been performing for over five years now. He was a finalist on Comicstaan Season 1 and has 23k followers on Instagram
{{/usCountry}}Shankar Chugani, or Shanky, is a stand-up comic based in Bengaluru, who has been performing for over five years now. He was a finalist on Comicstaan Season 1 and has 23k followers on Instagram
{{/usCountry}}From HT Brunch, November 1, 2020
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