Transcription
Hello and welcome to Lives Less Ordinary on the BBC World Service YouTube channel with me Mobeen Azhar. Today I'm so pleased to be joined by Zarna Garg. She went from walking away from an arranged marriage at the age of 15 to then being homeless, to eventually turning to the world of comedy and making a real success of it. I'm so pleased to have you with us. How are you doing today?
I'm so good and so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
So you grew up in Mumbai?
Yes.
Which bit of Mumbai? Tell me about it.
South Bombay, Nepean Sea road.
That's quite a fancy area.
It is a fancy area. Did you grow up in a fancy house?
Yes. Tell me about the household.
I mean, I grew up in a very affluent situation. It was, you know, big apartment in a beautiful stone building. And I had my own room, which, you know, in India, a room and a bathroom to myself. Big luxury. I know. Not a lot of my friends had that. Even within the affluent parts of India and Mumbai, that was a rarity. And it was beautiful. I mean, we had a backyard that was open where you could play and, you know, there was a lot of space relative to life in Mumbai.
Did your family have money?
Yes. Where did that money come from? What were they doing?
My dad was a self-made businessman. So my dad was himself a rags to riches story. Yeah, he was a very pragmatic person. He had come up through very difficult circumstances in his life. So it was all about money and nothing that wasn't directly related to money meant anything.
Your mother on the other side. She was quite a soft hearted person, wasn't she?
Yeah. I mean, as a lot of mothers are. Yeah. And also, I think she knew that my dad could be very harsh, almost cruel. Almost but, so she was overcompensating, like, you know, sometimes in families, you have parents who balance the roles. There was definitely no balance in our household. He was going to be the harsh strongman always. So I think she knew that she had to be a little softer and kind of be that parent, that one of us that we could talk to if we needed to.
In your early teenage years, you witnessed the last days of your mother's life.
Yeah. Tell me about the circumstances surrounding that.
So my brother was, my younger brother, was getting married, and, my mom, like all moms who are planning weddings, was crazed. It was all about the events and the guests and the jewelry and the clothes and the all the stuff. And my sister, who at the time was married and living in America, was visiting India for the wedding. And at the airport she saw my mother's eyes were yellow and she was like, you don't look well. See, none of us even saw it. She was just running around like crazy. My dad didn't see it. My brothers didn't see it. None of us saw it, but because she came from abroad and she saw her after a long time, she's like, you don't look well. And rushed her to the hospital from the airport. And then my mom never came back. By the time they figured out what was happening to her, like, it was too late already. So she was checked into a hospital. And at first, I was told that she's there to rest because, you know, she left home to pick up my sister from the airport. It's not like she left because she was sick or that we knew of. So we thought, I, in my teenage brain thought, oh, okay, so she's resting. It's like, I get it, you know, it must be like a spa with a little medical situation attached to it. And no one really tells kids anything in a South Asian household. At my household, it's not like anybody sat down and said, she is so sick, we should go meet her. I had no idea what was happening, but at one point with, I would say two weeks into her being in the hospital, her best friend came home to come and get me and my sister and said, you need to come and meet your mom. That's like the first time I saw her at all in the hospital, and I wasn't prepared for what I saw. I thought my mom would be relaxing, you know, in like, some, like, almost like a five star hotel state. Instead, what I saw was like a person who was, like, very, very sick, like tubes all over, blood. I mean, it was dire, but no one prepared me for it. I walked into the room and I was completely taken aback. We think now, in hindsight, that my mom was just holding on to life, to say goodbye to me because I was her only biological child, and she just needed to know that I was going to be okay. And we believe that to be true because I left the room and within minutes she passed.
After she had gone. Did the relationship between you and your father change? Did it become even more hardened?
Yeah. How so?
So the day after she died and I was the youngest of four. I think he, something inside him broke. He said to me, he goes, you know, you need to get married. I'm done parenting.
How old were you at this point?
I was just under 15. So 14 and change. And I thought, he's just upset. You know, mom has just died. It's his wife also. And this was his second wife that he had lost so I could I was very empathetic towards him, and I was. And there was so much grief in the air in general. Everybody was in a state of shock. My whole building, my neighborhood, Everybody who saw her as being a healthy woman two weeks ago was in a state of shock. Everywhere we went, it was like, oh my God, you know, you saw it. So when he said that to me, I really thought, okay, he's he's angry. He's having a moment. He's going to be fine. It's gonna it's gonna work itself out. But he was not kidding. And he was very, very serious. And when he said, you need to get married, I was like, no, I'm not going to get married. What? Because also, I knew what getting married meant, in addition to actually just getting married. It meant you might not go to school anymore. You might never go to college. It meant all those things. And I'm a naturally extremely curious person. So that, to me, was even more scary than the thought of getting married.
You didn't want that role. You didn't want to be someone else's wife at that age. You had a lot of life ahead of you.
I actually didn't think about that as much as like, I am not going to not go to school. Right? So is that simple. I am not gonna not go to college. Like, I'm obsessively curious. Like, to the point of insanity. I read everything on earth. So the thought that somebody else might control that aspect of my life. And also at that point, I was heavily influenced by American culture because I was watching it all as an affluent teen in South Bombay, I was reading all the newspapers. I was reading The Guardian in India, I was reading. So I was like, you know, we don't all have to get married like now. So to me, the threat of losing all of that was much bigger than even like I could be shipped out to somebody.
So when you say, dad I'm not doing this, I'm not getting married.
Yeah. What's the response?
He said, oh, he, I don't think thought I was actually rebelling. He thought we were having a conversation and that he was going to just push me into doing, because that's what he was used to. He was used to getting his way with everybody, not just his kids. The world around him. He was a self-made, extremely successful, willful man. So I think in the beginning, he was like, well, if you don't want to get married, you don't, you're not going to live here. And he thought that would do it.
Where am I going to go? You're not going to live here.
Yeah. So what did. And I was like, what are you, what do you mean? He goes, no, you can't live here. You have to leave. And I said, okay.
Did you understand the finality of this?
No, I mean, I, no, not at all. Not at all. I really thought he was grief struck. He's having a crazy moment. There's no way that's real. But the first night where he'd said, well, you need to leave. Where did you go?
That first night? I went to my closest friends house. That night. I really thought, this is going to blow over by tomorrow, okay. You know, so I'll just go hang with my friend.
I'm getting the impression it didn't blow over by tomorrow.
No. What happened? He had no interest in reconciling. None. Nothing. Like you don't understand. I would look at the door and be like, any minute he's going to send a servant or a driver. I did not think he would come to get me because his ego was way too big for that. But there are ways.
How long were you actually staying with with friends and other people?
It was almost a year and a half. So going from a situation where there were servants, drivers, nice cars, your food is cooked for you to then effectively being homeless. You've already lost your mother. Now you're not having contact with your father. It must have been so difficult.
I was in deep survival mode. I'm telling you at the time, I didn't occur to me I was homeless. I know it sounds crazy. It sounds crazy to me, too. Like, what was I thinking? I am a mother of three kids now. I'm like, oh my God. Like it's a miracle I wasn't raped and murdered and tossed by the highway. It's really a miracle. Think of how harsh life is for a girl. You know that age is you know unchaperoned through life. I was in and out of taxis, buses, walking all over the place. Every day I thought, today's the last day.
Did the people around you, your friends, the people you were staying with, did they understand what was happening?
No. I think for the most part, they were like, what is she fighting? You know, my dad had successfully matched three, of my siblings very well at the time in arranged marriages. So people were like, she's a little young, but not that much, you know? So I think a lot of people couldn't understand why I was being so willful myself. They understood why he was being obstinate, but they were like, it's not like he was looking for a bad situation to put me in. He would have found a great guy in a great home, and I could have been one of those lucky ones who would have continued their education or whatever it is that I wanted. So I think a lot of people were like, we don't really understand what's going on with this family.
I know in this period you said that you had become used to watching American sitcoms and consuming a lot of Americana.
Yeah. And so you had a sibling that was already in the US. You applied for a US visa, didn't you?
Yeah. She helped me.
Your sister helped you? That didn't come through for a long time.
No. And eventually, after a long period of of being homeless, you had a change of heart. I mean, did you feel that you'd been ground down to the point of submission.
Yeah for sure. Did you think you would bite the bullet and get married?
Yeah. Because I had given up.
Can you remember what it was like when you walked through the door back at your father's house?
Yeah. He was gloating. He had a guy in mind. He had already spoken to. I think he knew I was going to come back. Like there was no end game for me in his eyes. This unnamed man who we're not going to name. He's out there somewhere in the world right now, hopefully happily married. You didn't marry him, did you?
No. Why not?
Because on the last minute, my US visa came through, at the very last minute. Whilst they were preparing for the wedding.
Yeah. After we were, quote unquote, kind of engaged to the guy, it was like kind of, you know, it hadn't been officially announced, but the families had made the decision.
Was it a scandal that you were heading to the US?
I have no idea because I left.
You just left?
I left, well, I had to. I couldn't risk anybody finding out.
Where did you arrive in the US? Where was your sister living at the time?
Ohio.
Was there any kind of plan in place?
No, there was no plan. I had no plan. I was so grateful to be in a safe situation. I knew that my sister would take care of me. I had no doubt. And at that point, I was so tired. Like, I can't even. It's not even the the physical exhaustion. It's like the. You know, I don't want to tear up right now. It's the the mental exhaustion. It's the stripping of self esteem, of trying to find a home every day and make another excuse and make an excuse, and then try to extend the one night to another night. I was so exhausted out of my mind that I was just grateful to be with her and just really, like, just fall into that life of what felt like, at least for a period of time. I'm going to be stable. And by the time I reached my sister's house, I didn't even care if no other human being lived in Ohio. But if I was going to be left alone in peace for a period of time, I was ecstatic. And it became the therapeutic balm that I didn't even know I needed. Honestly, that her and her husband, her husband saying to me, study as much as you want. Like it revolutionised my life.
Did you take up the offer? What did you study?
I did. I mean, I got an undergrad degree in finance. I have a law degree. I'm licensed to practice law in New York. I mean, I try to forget that, I'm really bad at it. I'm very bad lawyer. At one point, all my clients were in jail. Okay. So not the best. I was like, I need to get out of this before I end up in there with them.
How long did you stay with, was it your sister Sunita? Is that right? And Deepak, how long did you stay with them?
Close to six years.
Six years. And you're comfortable? You're happy?
Yeah. They are the quintessential dream Indian relatives. But the, you know that you're living in somebody else's home and, you know, in Indian culture, as if it's not bad enough it's your sister, it's not your brother. It's not even the brother. So I know this, you know, being of South Asian heritage, there's a way that you can develop your own space. You can get your own space that's through the the magic word. It's marriage.
Marriage. And so when did that thought enter your mind? When did you decide that it was. maybe time.
When I was finishing law school, I was in my final year of law school. And again, for the second time in my life, I remember being so tired, I was like, I'm never gonna have my own life. Like, I just felt like I will never have a home that'll be mine. I'll never have a life that'll be mine. Because I'm either a burden on my dad, or I'm a burden on my sister, or my friend, or my neighbor, or the guy who sold fruits and decided to take me in one night. Like, what am I doing? What am I doing? And I decided that I just needed to fix this. I needed a life partner. I needed to not be alone.
But you decided you were going to do this your own way?
Yeah. How did you go about finding a husband?
So in 1997, I remember getting up there in my first e-mail account and thinking, I'm here, world. Let's do this. I'm ready. Yeah. But it was fun enough that I started, like, surfing the the earliest iteration of internet that you could have at home. And you put some kind of advert out there.
I found an Indian matchmaking site, very primitive, like HTML, where a bunch of Indians had just like, basically like a chat site. You know, what it was? It was like the Indian classifieds, the matrimonial classifieds, but online. Zarna I've got the advert in front of me. I want you to read it because come on, let's not be humble. This is quite amazing.
Oh my God. I wasn't trying to be amazing. I just don't want people to think. If you could read that for me. Yes. Okay, here it goes. To some I am too short or too plump, too dark or too argumentative. But enough about me. This is what I need from you. A husband and a partner. Somebody who is ambitious but not ruthless. Confident but not arrogant and humble, but not timid. Most of all, he is honest. I am on a mission to build a very successful life. And you must be ready to go with me. Only contact me if you want to get married. In parentheses. All caps. No friends. Kindly include your most recent tax returns and medical records.
Come on. That is a special kind of advert. What was the.
It's the English version of what my dad was saying. I love it. It is because it's kind of brutally honest. But you can imagine an Indian parent in Hindi or Gujarati saying these things.
You absolutely can. But the difference is this is kind of wrapped up in comedy, quite cutting comedy. But it is, right? It really is. What was the response?
People were responding from all over. I couldn't believe I was like, oh my God, this internet thing is great. And people were very serious. I was like, every one of my potential suitors was like a medical student or a doctor or an engineer, or like it was real people who were reaching out. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, for a minute I was like, oh my God, I'm really special. Then I realised I was like, I should see what other women are writing. Why are people responding to me? So you know. And then I realised that I was literally the only one speaking for myself. And in this way.
Come on, in this way in particular. Yes. Because how did you go through the potential suitors?
I did, I met so many people, flew to Cleveland to meet me, so many. And I had a McDonald's that I had like marked for the meeting because, you know, in 1997, you have to understand anything you did on the internet. Everybody was like, what if it's a serial killer? It could be dangerous. We were not living the life now where, like any Uber driver shows up with like, red hair and you just jump in the car. Back then, everything was like, don't send an email. What if it's a serial killer?
When did you start to think that maybe you had found the right match?
So my now husband back then he wrote responded to my ad, not intending to respond to it. He was in Switzerland goofing around with his friends. A bunch of engineers from India were goofing around in Switzerland on a Friday night, I remember, and they had stumbled on my ad because to everybody, internet was a curiosity, right? So they were like, just making fun of all the ads, I guess. And then they saw my ad and my husband reached out to me saying, this isn't real. Like, are you for real? What is this crazy ad? And I think he was half not even expecting a response. And I got very offended by his response. And I was. It is very real, sir. And by the way, you have reading comprehension issues because I had said, do not, you know, I was very clear on who should be emailing me, but he was very curious about what I was doing, what was happening. And then once he realised there was a real person on the other side, he was like, so, is anybody responding to this? Like, who is the type of people? Like, he just wanted to know more. And I was so offended that somebody could think that my very honest, integrity filled intentions were being questioned, that I also wanted to brag. I was like, not only are people responding like, do you want to know how good these people are? Actually, Mister, there's big competition out there.
He must have been intrigued.
Very. And excited because that contact continued, didn't it?
Yeah. When did you actually meet up? For the first time?
Within a few weeks of our first, you know, back and forth.
Please tell me it wasn't in the McDonald's.
No, it was actually at JFK airport.
Is that better?
Okay. I mean, I guess maybe it's a little bit better. Yeah. Because I was, I had finished my degree and I had decided it's not happening in Cleveland. So I was moving to New York and New York opened up all new possibilities because a lot more people were willing to meet me if I was in New York. Yes. And I told him, I said, I'm moving to New York. And he said, I'll come to New York from Switzerland. And I was like, for what? You don't want to get married? Like, why are you coming to New York for? And then he was like, oh, I have business. He had no business.
Come on. Very clearly, there was some kind of spark there. He was always in my head. So I was like, why am I thinking about this guy? I was irritated with myself. I'm sitting here and realising, I don't think until that point for a long time I even knew what it was to have fun. I was on such survival mode that everything was like, what is the next step and how efficiently can we do it? And I think with him it just became like a little fun banter of like, but why are you looking for this? Like, what do you care? And you.
Know how soon after that did it get really serious.
Very quickly because he then started interrupting my dates that I was planning with a lot of seriousness. He would show up at these dates and, like, sabotage my dates. He'd show up at the dates. I don't think he was trying to sabotage. He really didn't believe these people were real for a while. So he was like, she's exaggerating and I need to see this myself.
This is quite an investment from him.
Yeah. I was very irritated and I was very upset. I remember after the umpteenth date that he messed up, I remember saying to him, I was like, I understand I'm a big curiosity in your life, but this is a real thing in my life. I am actually serious about this. Like we're not playing around. These people are not flying here because they have nothing better to do. And I'm not doing this because I have nothing else to do. You need to stop. Like you need to get out of my life. I need to get married.
But he didn't want to stop, did he?
And he's like, well, then maybe we should get married. And I was like, what?
What a line.
Yes. I was like, you don't know what you're talking about. He's like, no, no, I'm serious.
Can I just say, even when you tell this story, you've got this coyness on your face. You look a bit shy about it. I mean. You look like a teenager. It's really funny.
Are you crazy? I know, I'm still angry with him from 27 years ago. But you know very clearly you didn't want to get rid of him. Because you're more, I know from this conversation, you're more than capable of drawing a line and saying, I don't you know, you didn't want to get rid of him.
Exactly. You were like, you know, fun is, as we know, addictive. He was working in finance, wasn't he?
Yeah. In Switzerland.
In Switzerland? You decided you were going to make a commitment. How soon after that were you married?
Within months. Within months. I met my mother in law on the day of my wedding. Okay. On the day of the wedding. Because. there was no slowing down in the Zarna world. Okay. Either we were, either I didn't know you at all or we were getting married. So it was like. It's like you get married and you now have this thing that has been elusive for almost ten years. Yeah. Which is a sense of your own life and your own home. Yeah. He works in finance. He's making good money. Yeah. You raised three children. Yeah. You could have been a housewife of New York. Yeah. You could have been one of those people.
I was for a long time. I was a manic, deranged Manhattan housewife. I wasn't just a housewife. I was like, my kids will play every sport, will play every musical instrument. They will excel in math and science, and they will be artists. I was, and all three of them will. So it was insane. It was. There was a lot of yelling and screaming. I think it hit me that I had given up so much. I mean, literally given up so much. Like, I'd lost my family, lost my relationship with my dad and so much to do.
What you decided that you were going to try lots of business ideas. You're going to go into business?
Well, I didn't, I, every idea I thought was a winning idea. There's a lot of ideas. There's a lot of ideas.
Run me through some of those ideas.
Okay. I had a travel toothbrush idea. Such a mega flop. Nobody cared about the product that I created, so I did that. I did, I had a vegan chili. I poured my my heart into making vegan chili. No one wanted to buy it. Not one person. Oh my God, that was such an epic flop. And sometimes they would buy it out of pity. But I knew they were throwing it out because you never saw it on a menu. It didn't work. No.
I know there was one particular incident a dinner party.
Yeah. With the great and the good.
Yeah. So we're talking about some of the other Indian families and some of the, the other wives had quite a lot to say about you, didn't they? And the fact that they perceived that your husband was financing everything, financing all of your ideas.
Yeah. So when we hung out with his friends, it was very, very successful people. And then their wives, who were devoted to their success. The success of their husbands often. So on that table, I was always the odd one out who was trying to fight this status quo that I found myself in. So at that dinner party, they were all making fun of all my businesses, and they were like, oh my God, it's always something new with you. What are you working on now? And, you know, and I had kind of become the butt of all jokes. And I was kind of used to that because I was failing spectacularly in the public eye. And I remember my they were at the dinner party. They were all making fun of me and my husband, who speaks very little in general. If he says five words a day, that's a lot for him. He, like, looked up from his meal and he's like, you know why they're making fun of you? Because one day you're going to find your thing and you're going to become unstoppable. And then he said that, and he just kept eating as if nothing had happened. But the whole table was like, shocked. And I, see, that, I count that as the most romantic moment of my life because I was like, you know, he really read the room. He really read what was happening. It was an indication of how much he believed in me, even though, like, the whole world was laughing at me.
You know, everything I said in my ad might have been true. You're a funny person. You're naturally a funny person. I'm not trying to be just so you know. But it kind of just pours out of you. I can see that from the moment I met you.
Yeah, right. It just. I don't know why. Because I want to be scary.
You want to be scary?
Yes. I want people to be afraid of me. Zarna it's not working.
No, I know, and it's a tragedy because I'm always yelling at people. I'm yelling at people's kids. I'm like, why are you doing this? And I'm like, I'm looking at you right now. I'm worried, why is this guy not in med school? Such a nice Punjabi guy. Why is he doing this job? What is this job? Med school. What is, this is not a job. I'm sitting here talking to you. Exactly like why is he here on a weekday in the afternoon? I really appreciate your concern. My mom would love you so much. See? So much. Both my parents. Doesn't she say stuff like that? All the time. She's serious. She doesn't understand what I'm doing. Why? Why are you always in front of a microphone? Right. What are you doing? See? Me too. When I say these things, I actually deeply mean it. But people think I'm being funny.
But this is the thing. You're naturally just a ridiculously funny person. How did you translate that into being your career? And how did you decide to take that leap?
My daughter noticed that that when I was trying to launch all these other businesses. The businesses were not working, clearly, but people were engaging with me. Like even the vegan chili that people threw out. Restaurants throughout, they would buy it from me to throw out. Because they liked you. They liked me and they like the stories. And they would be like, oh, what are you doing? They wanted to talk to me and engage with me. And so my daughter was like, mom, your your product is your story. You need to tell your stories on a stage. You need to do stand up comedy. And now, if you're a parent and your kids suggest something, your mind is trained to say no. Because we are so used to every stupid idea that the kid has come up with. So you're like, she's like, you should do stand up. I'm like, that's not a job. And she's like, mom, it's a real job. Like, people get paid to do this. At that point, I had never even seen stand up comedy. I didn't even know what she was talking about. But then the kids ganged up on me and said, try it, try. And at that point I had made the kids do everything. Oh my lord. I had made them play the sitar, play the tabla, play the viola, go do running, flag football, skiing. I mean, not skiing. I would never do that. Too dangerous. But ice skating, swimming, math, every type of math, not one type of math. It was your turn. I was. to try something. My kids were like, oh, is mom too scared to try it? And so just to shut them up, I went to an open mic just to prove to them that I'm not the ultimate hypocrite. I showed up at an open mic and my plan was I will take a selfie. I will show them that I tried it, I will tell them how stupid they are and we will continue on. That'll be it. Draw a line under it.
You didn't draw a line. What happened?
So at the open mic, I remember watching, like, what is going on? And people were just coming up on stage and making jokes, and I was like, this is a job in America? white people do this? Like, only, who came up with this, you know? And I remember the lady who was running the open mic said to me, you're already here. Why don't you do five minutes? And I was like, but five minutes of what? And she said, just get on stage and talk about whatever you think is funny.
So you were freestyling?
Nothing. I had zero prep. Nothing. So this was during the period of it was approaching lockdown?
Yeah. Not the best time to launch a comedy career.
Yeah. So I had just started stand up comedy and the world shut down. And I was like, it's over. Like, how many times, just in this time that we've spent? Aren't you exhausted from my life? Like, how many times can the universe take you down and you're going to be like, I'm going to fight one more fight? I was like, it's over. In the West. Everybody was like, where did Covid originate? Was it in the bat? Was it in the virus? I was like, it came from my mother in law's kitchen. I swear I thought she was going to do anything to destroy my career because she was the subject of my jokes. But my son said, you know, mom, I'm starting to see a lot of people on TikTok are singing and dancing. Why can't you do comedy? And I was like, no, what are you talking about? TikTok is 14 year old girls twerking? At that time, that's all I knew about TikTok. And he's like, no, no, mom. There's like, all these grown ups that are like, singing and like, sharing their skills. So he at that time was 14, took one of my videos and edited it, and I used the word edit lightly because it was full of mistakes and it was shut off halfway and whatever. And he put it up. And I remember the joke was, I've never said I love you to my husband because no good Desi woman ever would. And I never said, I love you to my husband, but if he said it to me, I'd know he's cheating on me with a white woman. So he put that video up and went to sleep. And then the next day it had tens of thousands. 100000 plus views. And he's like, oh my God, mom, all these people. Even then, I didn't believe it. Like I thought, oh, TikTok is like one of those countries where everything starts at a million units. You know, some of these countries where it's like a million. Whatever for bread? It's not real. Yeah. It's like whatever. And he's like, mom, there's thousands of comments, people saying that they they agree with you. They've never said it. That was the first time it occurred to us that this was the whole thing.
You've now turned comedy into a kind of family business. There's there's the stuff on TikTok. There's the stuff on Instagram, there's the podcast. You get the whole family involved. By any measure, it has blown up. It is everywhere. You must be so pleased.
You know what I'm pleased about? I'll be honest. I'll be serious for a second. When people see me on the streets, right? Without fail. Without fail. Every single person who recognises me without even making the brain connection. How they know me. They're smiling because my association with comedy is so strong. They know that whatever it is that they did with me last made them smile. And made them feel good. So I'm proud of that. I'm proud of that. That that is mine and my family's legacy. That even my kids, when they see my kids, they're like, oh, that joke that your mom did about your girlfriend or your boyfriend or whatever. So in a world that feels like it's on fire. Otherwise, where everybody's waiting to rip each other to shreds, I feel proud that that is our legacy and our contribution.
You recently were the opening act. You have been the opening act for Tina Fey. And Amy Poehler.
Yes. Seeing America through the perspective of people that are paying to see these titans of comedy, some of the most successful comics of our era. It's quite an amazing thing to do. Particularly, you know, you had the immigrant experience, you were homeless for a period. Yeah. And now you're seeing America through this perspective. It's pretty unique, isn't it?
I mean, it's just I'm shocked every time I open for them and they do humongous arenas, 10000, 15000 people. And I walk out and people go nuts. Nuts. I'm talking to them about my bindi and my mangalsutra and all these very Indian things, and they can't get enough of it. And I'm looking at them. I'm like, who are all you people? And watching these two especially build it, their touring business, because I opened their first trial show and I just closed their last show for this season.
Do you still feel like the same person who was homeless at 15?
Oh, yeah. I'm nervous all the time I live, I sleep with one eye open. I don't think I've slept in peace since I was 14.
Really?
Yeah, absolutely. Why? What are you afraid of?
Because that never leaves you. When you have experienced that level of insecurity like financial insecurity, home insecurity, it never leaves you. Like, I've lost so much in my life and so many things have gone, you know, gone without any notice, without any, warning that that fear never leaves me. So I like to also keep myself in a state of, like, always growing. I'm constantly reinventing myself. I like I work 24 over seven and I don't want it to stop.
Do you get to enjoy it?
Yeah, I love what I do, so it's not like there's no sadness around all the work. Like I'm exhausted to my bone every night, but happily so. because it's a privilege. So I really hope you you do take the time to enjoy it because you've you've achieved so much and it's such a pleasure to hear about. It really is. I'm so grateful for you sharing your story. Thank you so much. I am so honoured to be here. BBC has been a big part of my life, my whole life. For a person who's obsessed with the news, you can imagine. And I can't believe that I get to be here. Thank you. Grateful. And with Punjabi. With Punjabi. I'm sorry we didn't have any samosa.
Yeah. I'm so sorry. Well, you know what that means. We're gonna have to do it again. We're gonna have to do it again. We definitely will. Thank you so much to Zarna. And thanks to you for watching this episode of Lives Less Ordinary. Make sure you like and subscribe to our channel so you never miss an episode from me, Mobeen Azhar and the whole team. Until next time, take care.