I have a joke

There was this Twitter thing that happened, and I got infected. (Some of these I added later.)

I have a joke about telepathy.

I have a joke about Bombay Winter.

I have a joke on the Indian education system, but I haven’t memorised it.

I have a joke about HR, but I had to downsize it.

I have a joke on advertising, but I have to put my creative director’s name in the credits.

I have a joke on this government’s strategy for dealing with the pandemic, and I think everyone will get it.

I have a joke on Aadhaar, but it can be traced back to me.

I have a joke about encounters. It will slay you.

I have a joke about cake, but it’s still half-baked.

I have a joke about Retweets, and y’all just going to Like it.

I have a joke on CSR funds, but I had to give it to PM CARES.

I have a joke on the freemium model, but you’ve already read your 10 free jokes.

I have a joke on nepotism, but it’s a dad joke.

I have a joke about insomnia, but I think I’ll sleep on it.

I have a joke about petroleum but it’s crude.

I almost have a joke about hypotenuses, but I just can’t get the right angle.

I have a joke about dickpics; I’ll DM it to you.

I have a joke about Unilever’s skin cosmetics, but that wouldn't be fair.

I have a joke on right-wing historians, but I need to rewrite it.

I want to do a joke about start-ups in India, but I haven’t found an American idea to localise.

I have a joke about poetry in India, but I’d have to self-publish.

I have a joke about starting a bakery, but I really knead the dough.

I have a joke about the ubermensch, but it would only work for a nietzsche audience.

I have a joke about philanthropy, but I just can’t give it away without seeing your five-year plan for scaling up.

I have a joke about publishing in India, but it will only reach 5000 people.

I have a joke about banana bread, but everyone’s already making it.

I have a joke about newspapers, but we have to shutter the edition because we have no ads.

I have your joke about mansplaining and I’m going to tell it to you.

I have a joke about Greek yogurt but it’s against Indian culture.

I have a joke about the I have a joke jokes, but it doesn’t meta.

I have a joke about insomnia, but I think I'll sleep on it.

I have a joke about rashtriyans on Quora, but .. excuse me, phone call.. Yeah Agrima?

…

I have a joke about history, but I'd be repeating myself.

I have a joke about my advertising clients, but after I'm done with the focus groups.

I have a Delhi police joke. It has a punchline.

I have a joke about the Sirens, but you're not listening.

I have a Lakshman joke, but it might cross the line.

I was going to do a joke about International Female Orgasm Day on the 31st, but I didn't hit the spot.

I have a joke about vaccination. But young folk may not get it.

I have a joke about collarbones, but it's not humerus. (This came from another Twitter discourse.)

The Goa Project Sessions

Since May, I've been helping The Goa Project shape something we're calling the TGP Sessions.

Background: The Goa Project is an annual unconference that happens in Goa. Unconference? The attendees pitch sessions and vote for who gets stage time. (I wrote a piece about it back in 2017, much before I first volunteered, if you want a then-outsider's point of view.)

The TGP Sessions is an idea we came up with as a way of keeping the community engaged in these lockdown times. (The community is people who have attended TGP editions in the past or contributed to them, or who participated in the first TGP Residency in 2018.) It's also a way to grow the community, since it's pretty clear that we won't be able to have a gathering in Goa any time in the near future.

We meet every alternate Sunday, between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., IST, on Zoom. Attendance is free, but you need to register.

The Sessions go like this.

There are up to three segments, or sessions within a Sessions.

Up to two of these are 10-minute presentations of interesting ideas, things people are creating that are aimed at making for a better world, debates, and so on. These are each followed by 10 minutes of Q&A and discussion. Some Sessions we've had so far: an overview of the evolution of money, from gold to cryptocurrencies; valuing labour in a time of unprecedented economic shifts; building platforms for collaborations and communities; communities that have arisen as a response to the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown; arts and culture in times of pandemics; mental health in quarantine; a case for cutting up the Supreme Court; technology creative people are using; how live storytelling can transition to digital; alternative sexual lifestyles in India; how improv trains your mind; how to do good podcast and live online interviews.

And we conclude with what we call the creative showcase (again, not more than two of these on a given weekend), which is for artists and performers to show us things they're making: art, plays, music, poetry, anything that can be done through a Zoom window. We've had a duo that makes music that fuses Carnatic music with other forms, and a Odissi dancer making the case for dance for both physical and mental health. Coming up, photo essays, interactive theatre, poetry, more music.

Want to check out the sessions? You'll need to register on Zoom and you'll get the meeting ID and a unique password. Once you've got the feel of it, you may want to pitch a session. You can use this form to pitch a session and this one for the creative showcase. And we have a mailing list you could subscribe to, which notifies members of TGP events (currently one mail a week, usually on Friday, with the coming Sunday's line-up).

We encourage people to attend sessions before pitching. And to continue to attend once they've done a session. The idea is to build a community after all, one with no stars who only come in to present, where everyone contributes and collaborates. (Important note: none of this is paid for in cash. TGP is all volunteers who do stuff because they think it's worth doing. The result has been a rather interesting collection of people over the years, folks well worth your time to get to know, and the kind of collaborations and relationships that result when interesting minds bump into each other.)