Vaadach Nahi

Vineet, Bhupal and Dhruv end season 1 of this podcast with a discussion of Pu La’s Raosaheb, a Belgaum man who is passionate and critical, while being well-intentioned. The story also features one of the most poignant endings in Pu La’s Vyakti aani Valli collection, which resonates deeply with Vineet and Bhupal’s own experience of saying goodbye to a place and people they had come to love. 

Perhaps one of Pu La’s most relatable stories, Bigari te Matric presents scenes and themes from classrooms spanning Kindergarten to tenth standard. In addition to discussing some of the more interesting parts of this story, and drawing upon their own experiences, Vineet, Bhupal and Dhruv examine Pu La’s katha kathan in comparison to similar work by other comedians. They come to the conclusion that Pu La’s ability to weave humour into a single theme that is both, punctuated every minute with a laugh inducing remark, and yet is sustained over a 30-40 minute presentation, is arguably unique. In any case, yet again Pu La manages to bring joy to a shared experience, enabling all of us to savor incidents in our own lives with a fresh perspective and a dash of humour.

What lies behind the making of each one of us? In this episode, Vineet, Bhupal and Dhruv – all unabashed Punekars themselves - discuss Pu La’s sketch of three cities in Maharashtra that have imprinted their unique environments on the personalities of the individuals living there. Genes make us, but the cities we live in shape our priorities, tendencies, and identities in ways we only appreciate when juxtapositioning ourselves against those from other places.

There are teachers we barely remember, and expect would in turn barely remember us. Then there are teachers we will never forget. And then there is Chitale Master - a teacher for whom teaching is more about building relationships with students than it is about imparting textbook knowledge alone. A teacher who is in tuen with where his students have come from and where they are going. In this episode, Vineet, Bhupal and Dhruv reflect on their own teachers, growing up in the Pune of the 90s, and discuss how they today find themselves unexpectedly in positions to teach, and what lessons they've learned along the way.

All of us have a few people in our lives who seem to specialize in annoying us while also generally being good of heart. As a result we cannot push them away, since they mean us no harm, and yet wish they had found someone else with whom to pass their time. Pu La brings humour to his interactions with people like this in Mi Aani Maza Shatrupaksha - with the over-enthusiastic home builder and the picture-pushing, recently returned tourist. Perhaps that is the best way to approach those that drive us crazy - to view their annoying behaviour through the lens of comedy. 

The purpose of travel is arguably to arrive at a destination. But every journey has within it the opportunity for much more. Trains in particular, with passengers sitting facing each other, offer a higher level of social connection than most other forms of transit. In this episode, Pu La faces a Parsee couple and engages them in a revealing conversation that is woven so well into the surrounding context, that it is hard to imagine it could happen anywhere else but on an Indian train.  

Pu La's Vyakti aani Valli sketch of Antu Barva is in many ways, a meeting of the urban and the rural. Ratnagiri's Antu Barva is quick to make his opinions known, and speaks from direct experience. Vineet, Bhupal and Dhruv unweave the ground truth of the politics of a newly independent India as seen through Antu Barva's eyes, and reflect on some of the moving lines in Pu La's writing that continue to hover in the mind days after listening to it. They also discuss what the rural mindset can teach us even today, decades after Antu Barva's mango tree delivered its last fruit, in a world increasingly filled with smart speakers powered by AI.

Birds, cats, dogs. And humans. In Paaliv Praani, Pu La examines both the similarities in our natures, and our relationships with each other. Is Paaliv Praani a social comment through the lens of our fellow urban companions? Is it a critique of the elites? Is it a satire of overzealous pet owners? Is it a series of humorous observations about humans in the context of the larger animal kingdom?It is all of them and more, because it is what we make of it. And because we don’t debate on this podcast! 

When a buffalo intercepts an ST bus on its way between Mumbai and Ratnagiri, a beautiful chaos ensues. In what must surely rank as one of Pu La’s most beloved stories, Mhais tells one story that houses within it many others, like buds on a tree.   To Dhruv, Mhais represents the best entry point for anyone new to Pu La’s writings and kathaa kathan. Vineet finds that Mhais represents a microcosm of Maharashtra, with an incredible diversity of characters. And to Bhupal, Mhais is noteworthy for its genius both as a piece of writing, as well as a performance.

Pu La's vivid sketch of Narayan from his 1966 book Vyakti aani Valli paints a picture of sights, sounds and smells while revealing a man who gives of himself without taking anything in return, at that most important of times in our adult lives: the wedding. All our weddings had a Narayan. Or many Narayans - none of their thankless efforts captured in our wedding photo albums and dhaakchik videos. Fortunately, in Narayan, Pu La has done exactly that for us. In this very first episode of the Vaadach Nahi podcast, Vineet, Bhupal and Dhruv dissect the Maharashtrian wedding preparation process through the lens of Narayan, admire Pu La’s skill at combining the light and the deep, and reflect on their own experiences growing up (and getting married) in Pune in the 90s and 2000s.