"Despite the growing number of venues willing to host these open mics, the participants are on consensus about the fact that a lot more places will help the scene grow better.". Some have faced the stage nerves before but there are some who are going to stand in the limelight for the very first time. A stream of 20-somethings are eagerly making their way to Tuning Fork, a café in Khar.Take Sachin Garg, for instance."It’s not just at the Tuning Fork, several venues in the city — cafés, pubs and full fledged comedy stores — like Canvas Laugh Club, The Cuckoo Club, and others are realising the potential of hosting an open mic night for the hundreds of amateur stand-up comics in the city. "There’s so much scope in the central areas of Mumbai," Kunal points out. "

The energy in the room is contagious, and the laughter doesn’t stop — right from the time the first comedian goes up.Sumit Vaswani, culture manager at Social explains that the venue’s new property, Comedy Jam, has fast become one of the most sought after gigs held there. If there’s an open mic and they’re not working, they’ll be there," explains stand-up comic Kunal Kamra. "I’ve not seen a good stand-up comedian sit free on a Monday or Tuesday night. "Open mics are there to learn, get better, and find a reason why people would want to listen to you for longer."However, Kunal explains that it’s here where the seeds of longer shows are sown. You head there with five thoughts and there’s not going to be any negative that comes out of it. "It’s been on of our most well-received series of events," he says. It may boil down to these things but it’s true, these are the things most people connect with. He states, "It’s a form of cardio for me. An author, Sachin had been lining up at the venue for three weeks before he finally secured a spot this week, and performed for the very first time. He adds, "The audiences are forgiving and they will cheer you on for giving it a shot and getting on the china wholesale sit stand desks factory stage. "For most open mic performers — this certainly is the case with me — it’s an adrenaline rush and it’s about validation."  With three shows under her belt, upcoming stand-up comedienne Supriya Joshi believes that the thrill that comes along with performing on the stage is what keeps most comics going. From multiple five minute slots you go up to fifteen," he shrugs."Kunal KamraEven established comics, who use these occasions as testing ground for their new material. "Everyone has a funny thought, but first timers find it hard to put it across."With the age groups of 20-25 being most popular during these events, Sachin says that there’s been an explosion in the number of participants now. A healthy mix of students and young working professionals, the many enthusiastic faces in the crowd are here to try their hand at stand-up comedy.

In fact, the demand has been such that in the past few jams, we’ve had to unfortunately turn people away who’ve come in late, due to limited seating/standing capacity.It’s a hectic Tuesday night. Every time you step on the stage, you think of something that could be funny and write it out for a show. Also the age group fits because you tend to get wary after 25 and worry about making a fool of yourself.

Sometimes you bomb terribly, but that too is an interesting experience, especially to see how your delivery failed to hit the mark. If I had it my way, there would be one open mic every night in every area. With names like Gursimran Khamba, Biswa Kalyan Rath and Kenny Sebastian, people in their 20s can look up to icons who started off seven years ago. You’ll hear stuff like ‘my parents are so middle class,’ you’ll hear the word ‘WhatsApp’ seven times and the ‘break up’ several times.

"Mr Sirsa, who was accompanied by SAD Delhi unit president Harmeet Singh Kalka, added, "Shiromani Akali Dal today declared that it would rather not contest elections in Delhi than sacrifice the interests of the minorities or compromise on the secular principles taught to us by the great Guru Sahiban.The strain on the Akali-BJP ties had also increased over the use of election symbols.The Akalis had contested the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections as an ally of the BJP. We have not budged. The two parties had used the same strategy in the 2015 Delhi election when two of its four candidates contested under the lotus. Accordingly, the SAD declared that it would stay away from the electoral process in the forthcoming Assembly poll in Delhi.

The Akali Dal does not favour the National Register of Citizens. The BJP reportedly wanted the Akali Dal candidates to contest under its symbol — the lotus — instead of the SAD’s election symbol, weighing scales."Both Mr Sirsa and Mr Kalka said there were strong ideological differences between the BJP and the SAD.This is the second time, after Haryana, that seat-sharing talks between the SAD and the BJP have failed."The SAD had voted for the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha."The two leaders said differences on this sensitive and critical issue came to the fore during the debate on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 which was passed in Parliament. The same stand was repeated by Akali Dal by Balwinder Singh Bhunder in Rajya Sabha also."  The BJP had questioned SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s stand on the CAA. The BJP won three seats in the 70-member Assembly. Our stand is clear that country cannot be exhaust tubing suppliers divided on the basis of religion.New Delhi: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a member of the BJP-led National Democ-ratic Alliance at the Centre, said on Monday that owing to diغير مجاز مي باشدreements with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), they have decided not to contest the February 8 Assembly elections in Delhi. "We want Muslims to be included in CAA… And we are firmly opposed to NRC. The SAD went solo in the Haryana Assembly elections after its lone legislator in the state switched sides to join the saffron party. Of the four seats SAD contested, it won one in bypolls. The Muslim community must not be left out of the CAA process as leaving them out would go against the basic principles of Shiromani Akali Dal and the great teachings of our great Gurus.In Delhi, the BJP has already forged an alliance with Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on two and one seat, respectively.Mr Kalka said, "Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal took a principled on this issue during the debate, standing by the minorities and upholding the principles of secularism in the spirit of sarbat da bhala. That stand is non-negotiable. "We were questioned on SAD leadership’s stand on the Citizenship (Amend-ment) Act and were told at three meetings that this was not the BJP stand.

The party was asked to reconsider the stand on including Muslims in the CAA.. Both the JD(U) and the LJP are BJP’s alliance partners in Bihar where Assembly elections will be held in October.Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, SAD’s sitting MLA from Rajouri Garden, said, "We have opted out as we refused to change our stand on including Muslims in the Citizen-ship (Amendment) Act. There are approximately 10 lakh Sikh voters in the national capital who impact the outcome in 10 Assembly seats.