Punit Pania’s ‘Nirvana+GST’: Comedy meets meditation in a unique show on spirituality and consumerism

“The topics I grapple in my life are heavy, so even though it’s a challenge artistically, I take it up in my comedy because it is fun,” says Punit Pania, a stand-up comic who likes to talk about “dense topics” through his shows. this show, Nirvana+GST is based on his experience in Vipassana, a 10 day meditation course. unlike most other shows where small bits are taken from different aspects of life, his experience in vipassana was so momentous, it became a whole show in itself.

In this show, he talks about his experiences there, his learnings, the kind of people who go there and why they go there; he also talks about “consumerism and spirituality”. “For example, meditation courses are advertised on WhatsApp like they will be able to open your chakras with an OTP message. meditation and spirituality have become like a plug and-play thing where you resort to it when there is a problem in your life, and then once the problem is solved, forget about it. People treat it like a product, a service,” he laughs. This idea led to the name of this show; he added GST, as he says every thing these days is taxed, you get an invoice for everything!

Among all other genres of comedy, Punit has found his niche in touching up on topics which are otherwise very heavy, something people would not easily laugh at. “In comedy people usually talk about what has happened to them, their observations and thoughts, and inevitably my thoughts and observations are about topics like spirituality and domestic violence among others, which I end up writing about. Although this has not always been commercially viable, I do it because it satisfies me,” he says. The aim is to give people something different.

Punit took the leap into comedy after spending several years in the corporate world. He says this experience shaped his decision to steer clear of commercial comedy and instead pursue something that truly satisfies him. Writing had always been his passion, a calling he felt even back in college when he regularly wrote blogs. He dabbled in novel writing and other forms of content but soon realised he wasn’t going anywhere. Satire, in particular, was a recurring theme in his blogs, and when he was introduced to stand-up comedy, he found that much of his written material translated well to live performances. “In novel writing, where the revenue and feedback aren’t immediate, you often end up writing only what sells. I wanted to break free from that, so stand up became the perfect outlet — it allows me to create freely and do something different,” he explains.

In this age of BlinkIt, Zepto and Netflix, he says, where everything, even content is delivered at home, it is a challenge to get people to actually step out of their house and buy tickets for a live show. “This is why the key is to give the audience something different every time, something which might not be delivered home,” he concludes.