I purchased a book written by Diksha Basu recently, without knowing anything at all about either the author or the book, save for an interview she gave recently. Give that woman an award – anybody who is able to make a Puneri part with his hard-earned cash on the basis of nothing more than an interview deserves a medal of some sort, at the very least.
Now why, you might ask, might I do such a thing? It was because of this quote by her, excerpted from the interview I mentioned above:
“I try not to think about that and I think that as long as you are making fun of everyone, it’s fair game. Also what I think is crucial and I hope it comes across that I have such a deep love for all my characters, that I am not at any point mocking them. I feel that to laugh at someone with affection is very different from cruel mockery. And it should be equal opportunity for everyone to gently laugh at people and situations. And we should be able to do this irrespective of class, gender or race. The fact that everyone is losing that ability a little bit is increasingly leading to horrific situations around the world.”
If I had known Ms. Basu, I’d have stood her a beer, or a dozen.
Since this is unfortunately not the case, I did the next best thing, which was to buy her book. My current reading list being longer than the number of acronyms launched by our government, I haven’t gotten around to reading it just yet, but if that quote is anything to go by, I ought to enjoy the book immensely.
For those words are more or less the philosophy that I live by. Gently poking fun at everything and everybody is what I do best, (and I know that doesn’t say much about the other things that I do) and I truly admire people who do the same, but only much better.
Because in my worldview, if you remove humour from life, I’d argue there really isn’t all that much left..
But being humorous has become increasingly difficult in recent times. Our skins have always been different from that of a rhinoceros, but of late, they’ve become thinner than Kareena Kapoor. Somebody, somewhere, is outraging about something that somebody else said. This is true of the time I penned these words, and is true of this moment, when you are reading them. All we do these days is outrage.
Why, in this column alone lies the potential to unleash on the undersigned the collective wrath of Puneris, fans of the government, fans of Kareena Kapoor and fans of rhinoceros.
Wit, humour, subtlety and the ability to gently shake your belly because of laughter has all but disappeared today, and I can’t tell you how sad that makes me.
Which is why it was such a relief to read what Ms. Basu had to say in her interview. The world needs more people able to poke fun at each other, and do nothing more than laugh gently and appreciatively when one is the subject of a joke.
A skill that is, I grow more convinced every day, in increasingly short supply.
He doesn't expect the paradox to be resolved in his lifetime
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