A2Z Challenge – Page 3 – soniasmusings

G for Abijit (G)anguly

I discovered Abijit Ganguly through the controversy of Kapil Sharma lifting one of his jokes for his show without giving Ganguly any credit. I found a bunch of his stand-up comedy videos on his YouTube channel. But it is in the last few months that I have become a huge admirer of his strong content. Straight faced dialog delivery with expressive eyes, his jokes hit a solid punch on the face of our hypocrite society. He is opinionated and is often trolled for his bold views but keeps getting better at taking those offensive comments in his stride to create an impactful content again.

Abijit Ganguly (Source: @AbijitG on Twitter)

Married to a Gujarati, this Bengali performer speaks humorously about mundane things like his cross-cultural marriage, the concept of millennial couples, funny side of friendships just like he manages to effortlessly switch over to the current political situation in the country. His words make much more sense than most of the politicians in power today. Watch the video at the end of my post for confirmation

This is the 7th post in the #BlogchatterA2Z series under the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona.’ I hope to see you tomorrow when I disclose the name of the comedian featured in my post for H.

You can read all the posts in this challenge here. Have fun and don’t forget to laugh!

F for The Viral (F)ever aka TVF

TVF is a familiar name for those who thrive on web series. They are the pioneers for leading the change in the mode of entertainment in India. A huge number of the population, especially the youth, desired for better quality shows than what the TV serials were offering. TVF captured this market through shows like ‘Barely speaking with Arnub’and ‘Permanent Roommates’. Over time, the quality of their content grew better just like the aging of fine wine. In the last few years, TVF has been associated with creating shows like ‘TVF Pitchers’, ‘TVF Tripling’, ‘Chai Sutta Chronicles’, ‘Tech conversations with Dad’, ‘Bisht please’, ‘Humorously Yours’, ‘Fathers’, ‘Bachelors’, ‘Inmates’, ‘Awkward conversation with parents’ among many others. The underlying connecting factor for most of the shows is a generous dose of relatable humor.

The brand started exploring different genres like family stories (Yeh Mera Family), new generation romance (Flames), corporate life saga (Cubicles), harsh realities of the education sector (‘Kota Factory’ – one of the best series Indian content creators have ever produced) and the latest buzz creator ‘Panchayat’ (giving a sneak-peek into rural India).

TVF has 7 million subscribers on its YouTube channel. It also has a live app TVF play. A bunch of their shows has been successfully running on Netflix (‘Yeh Meri Family’, ‘Engineering Girls’, ‘Girls Hostel’, ‘Collage Romance’ and ‘Inmates’) and Amazon Prime (‘Kota Factory’, ‘Panchayat’).

Kota Factory - Source socialsamosa — Kota Factory – Source socialsamosa

A couple of years ago, the company had faced flak for the supposed involvement of their founder Arunabh Kumar in sexual harassment case but the management underwent an internal restructuring to facilitate Dhawal Gusain, Karan Chowdhry and Sameer Saxena steer it back to creating quality content and successful shows. TVF has also given the industry a host of talented actors like Jitendra Kumar (Jeetu), Sumeet Vyas, Shivankit Parihar, Ahsas Channa, among many others.

This is the 6th post in the #BlogchatterA2Z series under the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona’. Stay tuned as I reveal the identity of the hilarious stand-up comedian in my post for G tomorrow.

You can read all the previous posts in this challenge here. Don’t forget to get your daily dose of laughter through this video.

E for East India Comedy (EIC)

The dynamic group was one of the first few joint collaborative efforts of 7 Indian stand-up comedians Atul Khatri, Sorabh Pant, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah, Angad Singh Ranyal, Azeem Banatwalla, and Kunal Rao. After Atul Khatri and Sorabh Pant left the channel, the rest of the five comedians have been running the show and taking pot-boilers at the current political and socio-economic situation in the country through their YouTube channel.

EIC- the original team — Kunal Rao, Sahil Shah, Angad Singh Ranyal, Sorabh Pant, Sapan Verma, Atul Khatri, Azeem Banatwalla – the original EIC team (source: Deccan Herald)

The performers also have their solo shows on the channel where they speak about relatable content. On Amazon Prime, Sapan Verma has his stand up special called ‘Obsessive Comedic Disorder’, Azeem Banatwalla’s show is titled ‘Cometh The Hour’ and Angad Singh Ranyal tickles the funny bone with ‘Kaafi Filmy.’ But what is unique about this channel is that it extends its spread to include musical comedies, sketches, talk shows about Bollywood and charchas on relevant topics. My favorites on this channel are the outrage videos where one of the comedians speaks on uncomfortable topics like trolling, animal abuse, SSC scam, inaccessible India among many others.

This is the fifth post in the Blogchatter A2Z challenge under the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona.’ Stay tuned to know the featured content creator for F on Monday.

You can check all the previous posts over the weekend here. Enjoy this hilarious video by Angad Singh Ranyal, one of the EIC group members.

D for Vir (D)as

Most of the readers would remember Vir Das for acting in a couple of Bollywood movies (Go Goa Gone, Delhi Belly). But what makes him stand-out is the fact that he is one of the first few successful stand-up comedians taking the craft of humor to an international level. In 2017, he was the first Indian stand-up comedian to debut on Netflix with his show ‘Abroad Understanding.’ The versatile performer has hosted shows across different genres, written for esteemed magazines and repeatedly made it to the Netflix platform with shows like ‘Losing It’ and his latest, ‘For India.’

Vir Das - Source:LBB — Vir Das – Source: LBB

Known for his strong opinions on politics, society and human behavior, Das is often seen speaking about the uncomfortable and bitter realities coated with a layer of humor. His bold views have subjected him to trolling but the sassy performer has delivered a comeback in his classic witty style.

This is the fourth post in the Blogchatter A2Z series under the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona.’ See you tomorrow as I disclose the name featured in the post for E.

You can read the previous posts here. Have fun watching this clip from Vir Das’ first Netflix special.

B for Biswa Kalyan Rath

The first time I watched Biswa Kalyan Rath, more popularly known as Biswa was on the hilarious Bollywood review series called Pretentious movie reviews where he shared the stage with Kanan Gill. I watched a couple of his videos on his YouTube channel and was blown away by the way he found humor in the mundane things. Next came his stand-up special ‘Biswa mast aadmi’ on Amazon Prime. One look at the video and the introduction is bound to crack people up. He spoke about his childhood, his parents (his father Jagan Mohan Rath became a famous character), regular topics like booking an Uber and managed to keep the audience entertained till the last joke. What was unique about the show was that he hardly took any pause between the segments.

He has made a special appearance in a couple of shows like ‘Better life Foundation.’ but it was after he turned a story writer and creator with the show ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’ that Biswa went beyond his stand-up comic persona to showcase the versatile artist within. Both the seasons of the show on Amazon prime dealt with the harsh realities of life but were packed with sarcasm and dark humor. The IIT-Kharagpur alumnus has also been a judge on various seasons of comicstaan and was last seen in his second stand-up solo on Amazon prime titled ‘Sushi’. Biswa’s words have the endearing aspect of being relatable while delivering a punch under the veil of humor.

This is the second post in the BlogchatterA2Z challenge under the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona’ I hope to see you tomorrow as I reveal the one who gets featured in my third post for C.

You can read my previous post in the series here. Don’t forget to enjoy humor in Biswa’s style in the video below.

A for Amit Tandon

While Ashish Chanchlani would have been a bigger name for the 17 million followers he entertains on his YouTube channel, my personal favorite happens to be Amit Tandon aka The Family Man.

Amit’s jokes are centered around a typical middle-class family and are generally devoid of abusive language, making him a perfect choice as a family entertainer. He was one of the first stand-up comics to debut with a show on Netflix and has a huge audience base across the globe. You can catch his hilarious videos on his YouTube channel here.

Here’s one of my favorite videos. Have fun.

This is the first post of the Blogchatter A2Z challenge 2020 under the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona’. See you tomorrow as I unravel who gets featured in the post for B.

Theme reveal post – Blogchatter A2Z-challenge 2020

This is my third year at the A2Z challenge / Blogchatter A2Z challenge. The first year was thrilling. I wrote on the theme ‘A dollop of Bengal’. I followed it up with my debut Detective Thriller ‘Deal of Death’ that is available on Amazon here. The second-year was a little hectic because my son started school in mid-April. I wrote on parenting with a dash of humor.

This year, I was in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the challenge or drop the idea. I am into my fourth month of an MFA creative writing course and currently, I’m juggling three fiction classes there. At one point, I almost thought of giving up this challenge because I was already writing 4000 words on a weekly average.

But the excitement of participation didn’t take long to rub one me. I started hunting for themes. Blogchatter gave me some great advice. All I knew was that I couldn’t write beyond 100 words per day. So, after ransacking my brains, I realized that I am going to go ahead with the theme ‘Laugh in the time of Corona’.

Considering the anxiety that all of us are going through, I wanted to speak about anything other than the deadly virus that seems to have brought our lives to a standstill. So, I will talk about Indian stand-up comics on the net, shows that promote humor in the form of a stand-up special or through YouTube channel. As we grapple with the pandemic engulfing our existence, this is my way of dealing with stress.

So, hop on as I start preparing this joyride beginning on April 1st, 2020. Subscribe to my blog to stay updated. You can also follow me on FB/Twitter/IG @soniasmusings.

In the meanwhile, stay safe, stay indoors and don’t forget to wash/sanitize your hands.

Looking back at A2Z challenge 2019

For the last five days, I have had conflicting emotions. On one hand, I was relieved that the crazy month of April was over and I didn’t have to work at odd hours to schedule my posts. On the other hand, I missed reading and interacting with fellow bloggers who have now become a part of my extended virtual family. To spare myself the state of confusion, all that I have sincerely done since 2nd May is to catch up on my sleep. Today morning, when I saw the link for a reflection post, I jumped in to share my experience of an eventful A2Z challenge this year.

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary Reflections badge

After my first successful Blogchatter A2Z challenge last year, I had written about my experience through a post filled with learnings, gratitude, and nostalgia. Last year, I had no plans in place. I was undecided on the theme until it was time to reveal it. Not a single post was based on predecided topics or written in advance (I didn’t even know that there was an option called schedule). This year I had decided to be a bit more organized in my approach since I had been waiting for the A2Z challenge for months together. I wanted to have a theme ready, wished to sort out the topics of the posts and even considered writing a few of them in advance. But old habits die hard. The plan to plan my posts stayed only in a state of planning as I dashed towards my usual last-minute execution mode.

When I started thinking about a theme two nights before the day of the theme-reveal post, I considered all the possible categories that I write about. Unfortunately, nothing seemed interesting. It was Sr. T’s idea that I write about the most relevant situation in my life at that moment which was all about Tuneer’s school admissions. I didn’t want to make the articles sound boring or coated with advice. In fact, I am the kind of flawed mother who would perfectly fit into that category of clueless parents seeing advice from the experts. So I thought of turning my harrowing experiences into humorous ones. All that I was worried about was how to stretch a topic so narrow into creating twenty-six posts. Yet whenever I sat down to write my post of the day, the fun element in reminiscing those memories helped the words flow effortlessly into a draft.

Continue reading “Looking back at A2Z challenge 2019”

Z for Zooming Out

I feel a mixed bag of emotions as I write the last post in the A2Z challenge 2019. I had finished my first A2Z challenge last year by balancing my writing with the needs of a toddler who started preschool in the first week of April 2018. This year, it became a little more difficult as the toddler moved on to a new school and I was left juggling between multiple tasks. Between getting the kid ready for school, preparing his breakfast and dropping and picking him up from school, I was left with limited time to write my posts daily and read some great pieces from my fellow bloggers. Probably that is why I feel an extra dose of happiness on reaching the finishing line for the second consecutive year.

Taking some time off from the roller coaster ride of school admissions

When I chose the theme of school admissions, I had no idea if I had experienced enough number of situations to convert them into posts for twenty-six days. I must mention that none of these real-life stories seemed funny when we were going through the experiences. My father often says that when we look back at life in retrospect, we often find a lot of instances that could have been handled in a very different way if we could have added a pinch of humor to them. I realized the depth of this statement only after I started writing this series. There are so many times when I published a post and then thought to myself, ‘What made me react so much to rejection?’ or ‘Why was I affected the most by this new phase in Tuneer’s life?’

Continue reading “Z for Zooming Out”

Y for Yin and Yang

The dictionary meaning of Yin and Yang stands as two complementary forces that come into play to balance and create something bigger and better. When I began writing this school admission series, I had mentioned the protagonist as my 3.6 yr old son Tuneer along with Sr. T and me as the supporting cast. Through the last twenty-four posts, I have written about our experiences and emotions related to this phase. Today’s post is dedicated to those who bring equilibrium to Tuneer’s life filling it with joy, love, affection and protect him from those who might be the reasons for stress and undue pressure (yeah me!). Introducing his lifelines –

Tuneer with his family - paternal grandma, paternal grandpa, father, maternal grandpa and mother (l to r) — Tuneer with his family on his 2nd birthday – paternal grandma, paternal grandpa, father, maternal grandpa, and mother (L to R)

1. Babai aka his father –

I have an exclusive post dedicated to this man and his adorable equation with the kid. Yet I need to reiterate the fact that the boy had the maximum escapade from my scoldings because of his father. According to him, there’s nothing that the boy could do wrong. It didn’t matter if the boy refused to answer any question, showed no interest in picking up English or denied his knowledge about my name. His standard reply to any exasperated statement of mine went as “But he’s such a sweet boy”. The apple of his eye is getting so sweet every day (read naughty) that I’ve started fearing for our enhanced blood sugar level (read stress).

2. Dadai aka his paternal grandfather –

Until Tuneer was born, I had always been a favorite of my father-in-law. He was more supportive of my decisions than those that were taken by his son. Equations changed between us the day he became a grandfather. His unconditional support towards his only grandson exceeds all limits. He refuses to listen to anything against the ‘innocent’ child. He was the toughest to convince about the interview preparation. As per him, any school that considered English speaking skills to be a selection criterion for nursery admissions deserves to be trashed by every single parent. According to him the fact that Tuneer could answer his name and recite a rhyme should have convinced every interviewer about his intelligence level. No amount of argument could convince him otherwise.

Continue reading “Y for Yin and Yang”