Vadodara, 29 April, 2014

Veteran Gujarati humor writer Vinod Bhatt recently spoke at 54th Charcha Chaura at Gandhinagar Gruha in Vadodara. Following are excerpts of his address:

-Comedy and tragedy are two sides of same coin. If something is comedy for someone, the same thing can be tragedy for another person. Humor is dry tear. It’s tragedy for a person who is standing on banana, but same situation is comedy for someone else.

-Even when there’s so much heat, there’s good presence in this hall in Vadodara. This doesn’t happen in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. In Ahmedabad, the organizers struggle to get audience in poetry, mushayra events even when entry is free. Once I was told that audience was less in one event and I should invite some people. I told my friend that there’s one event and it is free. My friend replied: Ticket is free. that’s OK, but who will pay rickshaw fare?

-What is the difference between Besnu and Shok Sabha? Besnu is silent while Shok Sabha is vocal. In Besnu, relatives, friends and others come, look at photo, join hands and leave. In Shok Sabhas, people talk more about themselves compared to one who died.

Speaking in same event, author Gunvant Shah said: If you go on road in America, even stranger gives you smile. The society out there may have thousand other drawbacks, but it is a fearless society, smiling society. Vinod Bhatt brings smile on faces here that are serious like an owl.