Humour in real life

I like humour as most of you do. But, I would like to ask how many of you can take a joke cracked at your expense?. I know few people can be very humourous as long as it does not involve them. One of my colleagues, one sardarji used to be cracking jokes at others. One day our M.D. visited our office and spotting him said "O! sardarji you are here. I am reminded of a sardarji joke" and he went on to elaborate the joke. All along our friend's face had lost colour and after the M.D left he was fuming " What does this M.D think of himself?". When he used to crack joke about madrasis who he used to call as 'lungiwalas' he did not bother about us. I like good joke or joke in good humour without hurting anyone even if it is at my expense.


When I was writing 'Salaam Mumbai', I remembered some humourous incidents. Once, we went to attend our colleague's (Maharashtrian) wedding. Since it was the first time we were attending a Marathi wedding we were excited. When we entered the marriage hall some people applied scent on our hands and gave a rose to keep in our head. After the main function in which they held a cloth in between the bride and the groom which was removed later, we went for lunch. They had put wooden planks for sitting and kept big thalis. They also brought small lamps and agarbathis after every few plates. One such lamp and agarbathi was kept next to me. My friend stook the opportunity and teased me saying " Geetha, how they know that you have not taken bath and kept the agarbathi next to you?". I also laughed along with them. At the end of lunch, there was paan and since I was talking with one of my colleague I took the paan and put it in my mouth straight away. Immediately I felt something wrong in the paan. One friend was collecting the rough leaf which was used to wrap the paan and came to me and seeing me with big mouthful she started laughing. Then only I realised that I did not remove the wrapper. Soon the word spread among my friends and they all gathered around me and kept on laughing. I ran to the nearest wash basin and spat everything. My friends made fun of me saying that in my previous birth I must have been a lamb and that is why I am fond of even rough leaf. Even today recollecting that incident I have a big laugh.

In those days I was staying with my elder sister and she used to send my lunch through the most efficient dubbawala. Come heavy rain or hot sun they used to deliver the lunch dubba very promptly. One day however my dubbawala did not bring my dubba due to some reason. I ate out that day and evening reaching home I reported this to my sister and she did not say anything as she was busy preparing the dinner. When the dinner time came we all sat and I eagarly waited for the hot and delicious dishes. When everyone started serving and my turn came my sister stopped me saying "No, for you I have this" saying this she removed my lunch dubba from the fridge. The dubbawala had returned the undelivered dubba promptly. I had a wry smile and ate that ice-cold dinner as we did not have micro-wave oven in those days. Next day, I met the dubbawala and in broken hindi asked him why he did not bring the dubba previous day. What actually happened was he did not bring the dubba next day since in Hindi the word kal stands for both yesterday and tomarrow and I must have told him not to bring tomarrow.

Originally Posted by Geetha Iyer

I like humour as most of you do. But, I would like to ask how many of you can take a joke cracked at your expense?. I know few people can be very humourous as long as it does not involve them. One of my colleagues, one sardarji used to be cracking jokes at others. One day our M.D. visited our office and spotting him said "O! sardarji you are here. I am reminded of a sardarji joke" and he went on to elaborate the joke. All along our friend's face had lost colour and after the M.D left he was fuming " What does this M.D think of himself?". When he used to crack joke about madrasis who he used to call as 'lungiwalas' he did not bother about us. I like good joke or joke in good humour without hurting anyone even if it is at my expense.


When I was writing 'Salaam Mumbai', I remembered some humourous incidents. Once, we went to attend our colleague's (Maharashtrian) wedding. Since it was the first time we were attending a Marathi wedding we were excited. When we entered the marriage hall some people applied scent on our hands and gave a rose to keep in our head. After the main function in which they held a cloth in between the bride and the groom which was removed later, we went for lunch. They had put wooden planks for sitting and kept big thalis. They also brought small lamps and agarbathis after every few plates. One such lamp and agarbathi was kept next to me. My friend stook the opportunity and teased me saying " Geetha, how they know that you have not taken bath and kept the agarbathi next to you?". I also laughed along with them. At the end of lunch, there was paan and since I was talking with one of my colleague I took the paan and put it in my mouth straight away. Immediately I felt something wrong in the paan. One friend was collecting the rough leaf which was used to wrap the paan and came to me and seeing me with big mouthful she started laughing. Then only I realised that I did not remove the wrapper. Soon the word spread among my friends and they all gathered around me and kept on laughing. I ran to the nearest wash basin and spat everything. My friends made fun of me saying that in my previous birth I must have been a lamb and that is why I am fond of even rough leaf. Even today recollecting that incident I have a big laugh.

In those days I was staying with my elder sister and she used to send my lunch through the most efficient dubbawala. Come heavy rain or hot sun they used to deliver the lunch dubba very promptly. One day however my dubbawala did not bring my dubba due to some reason. I ate out that day and evening reaching home I reported this to my sister and she did not say anything as she was busy preparing the dinner. When the dinner time came we all sat and I eagarly waited for the hot and delicious dishes. When everyone started serving and my turn came my sister stopped me saying "No, for you I have this" saying this she removed my lunch dubba from the fridge. The dubbawala had returned the undelivered dubba promptly. I had a wry smile and ate that ice-cold dinner as we did not have micro-wave oven in those days. Next day, I met the dubbawala and in broken hindi asked him why he did not bring the dubba previous day. What actually happened was he did not bring the dubba next day since in Hindi the word kal stands for both yesterday and tomarrow and I must have told him not to bring tomarrow.

Yes, one should be able to laugh at oneself. Otherwise, humour has no value. Liked your approach. My Hindi is not too good either. But I am wondering what you told the dubbawala. 'kal mat laana' or 'kal kyun nehi laya?'. I am sure you didn't say either of these, because both statements, even if the Hindi is not grammatically correct, are clear enough. Anyway, it was a nice joke.

Dear Geeta,

You have a damn good sense of humour.I will come up with what happenened in my life, let me recollect there are quite a few incidents.

Regards.kamal

dear geetha,

i already know u have a good senses of humour but rightly said..not everyone can take a joke on themselves...u seem to have that quality too which i am sure would have got u a lot of friends...But i feel humour should never belittle anybody...have u seen sometimes some people pass biting sarcastic remarks about say a madrasi...then that madrasi waits for an oppurtunity to give back a caustic remark ..both of them laugh it off but i feel such humour is not spontaneous and makes me tense... and I just love spontaneous humour...people who talk in jest but with a serious face...
Mindi

Originally Posted by ojaantrik

Yes, one should be able to laugh at oneself. Otherwise, humour has no value. Liked your approach. My Hindi is not too good either. But I am wondering what you told the dubbawala. 'kal mat laana' or 'kal kyun nehi laya?'. I am sure you didn't say either of these, because both statements, even if the Hindi is not grammatically correct, are clear enough. Anyway, it was a nice joke.

Dear ojaantnik,

You are right. One should be able to laugh at oneself and I find in western countries they have this sense of humour. They will draw cartoons of even in the midst of serious things. I think no other President can take so much jokes going around about him rather cooly than President Bush. Even in Dasavatharam movie there are dialogues like Bush telling "If it is complicated then don't tell me" and asking naively what is NaCl.

Even today I wonder what did I tell the dubbawala in broken Hindi that he did not bring the dubba next day. Sometimes the little knowledge of language can have havocs. There is this famous joke about a Britisher trying to speak Tamil. Once a Britisher staying next to a Tamilian in Chennai found that the plants in his garden were eaten by the neighbour's cow. He was forced to speak Tamil since the neighbour was not knowing English. He asked him " Nee maadu naan thottam yen menje?".

Regards,

Geetha Iyer

Originally Posted by Kamalji

Dear Geeta,

You have a damn good sense of humour.I will come up with what happenened in my life, let me recollect there are quite a few incidents.

Regards.kamal

Yes, kamalji. I am eagarly waiting to read your account of humourous real life incidents. Thanks.

Regards,

Geetha Iyer

Originally Posted by Mindian

dear geetha,

i already know u have a good senses of humour but rightly said..not everyone can take a joke on themselves...u seem to have that quality too which i am sure would have got u a lot of friends...But i feel humour should never belittle anybody...have u seen sometimes some people pass biting sarcastic remarks about say a madrasi...then that madrasi waits for an oppurtunity to give back a caustic remark ..both of them laugh it off but i feel such humour is not spontaneous and makes me tense... and I just love spontaneous humour...people who talk in jest but with a serious face...
Mindi

Dear Mindian,

Thank you for the rich compliments. It is true that one should be able to laugh at oneself as well as criticize also. As I have already told one of my B.Fs is my inner voice who will readily indict me if I do something wrong and laugh. This has helped me since I am able to take others criticism in sporting spirit. Sometimes this has worked negatively since I am laughing at myself I have been branded as a joker and people have not taken me seriously when they should have.

Regards,

Geetha Iyer

hi geetha,
i feel that simple jokes can be entertained as far as they dont hurt others feeling wantedly!!!!
enjoyed your jokes thoroughly, was reminded of my school and college days where we used to crack such jokes regularly with my friends.
regards
pavi

Geetha : Enjoyed this one, you have a damn good sense of humor, itdoes not come easy to many people and fewer can laught at their own expense but I am glad you did.

[quote=Geetha Iyer;371608]I

Originally Posted by pavithrasriram

hi geetha,
i feel that simple jokes can be entertained as far as they dont hurt others feeling wantedly!!!!
enjoyed your jokes thoroughly, was reminded of my school and college days where we used to crack such jokes regularly with my friends.
regards
pavi

Hi pavithrasriram,

I am glad that you enjoyed my jokes. I will put some more jokes as they come to my recollection. You are right that as long as the jokes do not hurt otehrs they are enjoyable. Thanks for posting your comments.

Love,

Geetha Iyer