“I never wanted kids,” says Sorabh Pant, taking a swig of his Erdinger beer. “I just never got the idea of children. Heck, I didn’t even want to get married.” On this balmy afternoon, the stand-up comic is seated at Woodside Inn in South Mumbai, “trying to get some writing done” between meetings, press interviews and testing new material at open mic nights.
He’s on the phone a lot – but that’s because he’s coordinating a play date with his son for later in the day. “I used to think if I didn’t have all these responsibilities, I’d be able to achieve more on the work front,” he says. “Holy shit, was I wrong.”
Pant has, in the past five years, spawned East India Comedy, one of the country’s most successful comedy companies, a couple of best-selling novels and two brand new human beings: His two-year-old son, Vikramaditya, and five-month-old daughter, Nayantara. Now, he has a two-hour show, pithily titled My Baby Thinks I’m Funny, on tour and streaming on Amazon Prime Video; a third novel on its way this year; but he’s retired from baby-making. Even though he “absolutely” loves kids now.
“Well, not all of them, of course,” Pant says. “Like most humans, it’s a bit hit-and-miss too. But most of them are awesome.” He wears fatherhood well, as his over-a-million Twitter followers would testify. He’s fitter, his stand-up career’s on fire – enough to branch out on his own – and his children are the toast of his Instagram feed.
Here, Pant talks to GQ about negotiating the tricky territory of young parenthood, and how to do it the 21st-century way, clichés included. Yes, you won’t sleep for about a hundred years, but it’ll be worth it.
Spend as much time as you can with your child.
This story is from the June 2017 edition of GQ India.
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This story is from the June 2017 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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