It was just another weekend. I got a
call from Rajesh uncle, dad's friend from Australia. He was in town,
and wanted to hang out. He's cool like that. He suggested we meet at
Me So Happi in Khar. Sleazy name, I thought to myself. Turns out it
was a restaurant, and my brother Aakash was performing there the same
night.
A bit of background, Aakash is a
part-time student of law, and a full-time stand-up comic. He has
shows all over town all the time. Most of the time I don't even know
whether he is performing on any given night, and if he is, I don't
know where the performance is. Much to my discredit, I haven't been
to too many of his shows. I blame Mumbai traffic.
Anyway, I accepted Rajesh uncle's
invitation. Come Saturday evening, Prachi and I were off to Khar.
There was an unexpected drizzle that day, and the whole of Bombay
felt like it was air-conditioned. We reached just about on time. My
friend Nipun joined us as well. Don't ask who he is and why he was
there, that's a separate blog entry altogether.
The restaurant was shaped like a really
long rectangle. As soon as I entered, I thought to myself....how in
the world will they do stand-up here? Presumably, the comic would
stand at one end of the restaurant. I would be lucky to hear him, let
alone see him. I shared my concerns with Aakash and he said it will
all be fine. The sceptic in me has taught me not to trust him,
especially when he says that is will all be fine. He's unreliable
that way.
About 30 minutes behind schedule, the
show started. Aakash was the opening act. He had one of those
wireless microphones which turned out to be utterly useless. We
couldn't hear him at all! I was quite disappointed. The trained comic
that he is, he asked early on whether we could hear him, and we
replied in the negative. Apparently this was the first time the
restaurant was hosting a stand-up show. To my surprise, he took it in
his stride and just walked to the middle of the (really long
rectangle-shaped) restaurant. I was thinking, he is out of his
comfort zone. He was smack in the middle of the room, with the
audience on all four sides. He simply continued his routine.
A feeling of dread engulfed me. Not
because his jokes were bad (they weren't), but because he was in the
worst situation a comic can be in. He was in the middle of the
restaurant. At any given time, a significant percentage of his
audience couldn't see him face-to-face. He still went on. Waiters
kept crossing him to take and deliver customer orders. He still went
on. Customers would wave to waiters right in front of him. He STILL
went on. People who couldn't hear him because of the bad mikes
stopped paying attention and started chatting, which made hearing him
all the more difficult for those paying attention. He STILL
went on.
The dread turned to a churning feeling
in my stomach, knowing what he as a performer would have been going
through. But soon enough, it turned to pride. For the fact that my
brother took it in his stride and didn't get upset. For the fact that
he continued his performance no matter how bad the situation got.
After his act, the owner of the restaurant got the message and fixed
the situation somewhat. But Aakash didn't benefit from that. He took
the brunt...and still went on. I doubt I can ever fully explain it to
him, how proud I am. But I am. For the way he handled the situation.
After all, the show must go on. And that's just what he did.
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