I was at the airport once – not trying to brag – when atall, good-looking, muscular man strolled past me. I stared at him with the jealousy that inadequate humans like me reserve for people that have used their genetics to their best advantage. He in turn looked at me and shouted, “Oh hey, Sorabh Pant?Big fan. Can I have a Selfie?”A remarkable turn of events. At first I was surprised that a superior version of human enjoyed my work and immediately after felt cocky that this was the case. I posed with him, gave him a condescending backslap and was on my way – having obviously made the man’s morning with my munificence. I had not walked 8 feet away from him when he was surrounded by over thirty people asking him for selfies. Turns out this dude– my dude – was the star of a massive mythological TV show and his fans had just waited for a moment to catch him. In that moment I recognised he was at least 30 times more popular than me (which is no barometer for success). And now I feel doubly bad that I have not seen that selfie anywhere because I still have absolutely no idea who that man was! That is the essence of India. We have so many bubbles of entertainment, and each bubble is consumed by millions of Indians basis genre, language, region that most of us have little to less than no idea about a majority ofthose bubbles or the “stars” that shine in them because we are so consumed in our bubble.A case in point is Bhagwant Mann. (See how how I finally came to the point?)Read also: Bhagwant Mann has the last laugh, to become Punjab's CMA Punjabi friend of mine told me how the man is a legend in Punjab. Between 1992-2005, Mann released a new comedy album every year. That’s 14 comedy albums in 14 years, most comedians can barely release one every 3 years. He was considered second only to Jaswinder Bhalla in the Punjabi comedy scene in popularity. Now both gentlemen are stalwarts in their field but, I have next to no idea about their work – and I’m 100% sure they feel the same way about me. In my own little bubble, all I know about Bhagwant Mann is the following: He competed in the toughest season of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He did not win but, then neither did Raju Srivastava who most comedy fans would argue was undeniably the funniest comedian from that season.He hasbeen accused of drinking alcohol at various social engagements – which would be fine if they were truly social. Unfortunately, the Parliamentis not one of those places, it doesn’t even have an Open Bar. Though, sometimes watching the actions of the Parliamentarians you wonder if Bhagwant was the only member that got ‘caught’.A YouTube video of his went viral catching a cop in Punjab taking a bribe. I revisited this video from 6 years back and there’s tons of comments suggesting that Mann should be CM, which now seems propheticand alsopresumptuous. I also felt a bit bad for the cop that got caught but, that’s another story.
