“The best thing about Stand-up Comedy is that you can make money by laughing at yourself,” – Siddhar

The debut week of 5th Veda at WWI gave students a lot of reasons to not just smile but laugh out loud as the theme chosen for the event was ‘Stand-up comedy.’ Before the artists took over the stage, a video called “Spiritual Reality- a journey within” was shown to the students which explored the mystic traditions of our mind and body and enlightened them about cosmic energy.”

Remaining true to the integral theme of 5th Veda which is to find the talent hidden within, all the artists spoke about how they discovered their comic talent in various ways and have evolved that talent ever since. Stand-up comedians Aditya Desai, Azeem Banatwalla, Siddharth Dudeja& Sonali Thakker made a direct connection to student’s funny bones. Aditya Desai, the host for the event began the evening giving an insight into the concept of Stand-up comedy in his own witty manner by saying, “It is fair to speak that stand-up comedy finally has gained scaled in India. All comedy is a hit and miss. That is the nature of comedy.”

Next was Siddharth Judeja who has been doing stand-up for quite some time now and his humor was raw and quite direct. He delivered a very lively and diverse performance and the audience didn’t stop laughing throughout the performance. Stand-up is nothing without an audience. The amount of support that the artists got from students was nothing short of amazing. It’s fair to say we were all favorably impressed by the artists. Sonali Thakker had everyone in splits with her Gujju jokes and took a dig in Indian Superstitions. Last but not the least Azeem Banatwalla was subtle but had great comic timing.

In our Founder and Chairman, Mr. Subhash Ghai’s words, “5th Veda is both educational and entertainment which is why we have a broad spectrum of amalgamation of artists to enlighten students on various aspects of 5th Veda. Standup comedy is indeed an amazing concept and has the power to revive our funny bones which is very much needed because I think we Indians are inherently very serious and lack sense of humor. We love to laugh at others but are offended when vice versa happens. Therefore, we should make way for some humor in our lives and laugh at ourselves once in a while. Standup comedy requires a lot of bravery along with precise timing.”

Whistling Woods President Meghna Ghai Puri said, “Today’s show was indeed a great success and refreshed our minds. I would like students to participate and showcase their talents too apart from the artists. Charlie Chaplin stands corrected with his statement that “In the end everything is gag.”

The 5th Veda programme will encompass performance, music, art, dance and discussion, with different events taking place every Thursday. All in all, this gathering of students, faculty and guests was a splendid affair, and we heard several comments from students expressing their desire to attend the event every week.