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Therapy meets romcom meets detective agency in the perfect debrief as comedians Atul Khatri and Kiran Deol discuss the art of overanalysing.

- SAACHI GUPTA

A FAMOUS ENACTMENT of Noah's Ark, first performed about 700 years ago in England, goes like this: as Noah urges people and animals to hurry aboard the ark he has painstakingly built, his wife sits in a tavern drinking and gossiping with her girlfriends. Even as the water rises, she refuses to leave, until eventually, her sons have to carry her onto the ark by force. The story's negative depiction of Noah's nameless wife is one of the many ways in which men have shamed women for their meandering conversations over the centuries.

Now, chronically online millennials and Gen Zers have a new term for this exchange of information: the debrief. A minute-by-minute dissection of a date night or party is nothing unusual. In fact, it is proven to strengthen social bonds. It is also a method of reflecting on and regulating one's emotions after a major event. We invited comedians Atul Khatri (currently touring his special Well Trained) and Kiran Deol (whose special Joysuck is out on Prime Video) to deconstruct the debrief.

Kiran Deol: When I debrief with my girlfriends, I want to hear it as if I were there. Give me all the details so I feel like I was next to you.

Atul Khatri: My male friends and I are more curt and to the point. To be honest, even if I wanted to share more details with them, I don't think they'd be interested.