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Poetry is more senior than humor in my life: Sairam Dave

Sairam Dave

Sairam Dave

Sairam Dave is Kathiyawad born such a humorist who is capable of refreshing your tiredness of 365 days in just 3 hours. He lives in Gondal city which is known for his Highness Bhagwat Sinh. Other than being a humorist, he is Principal in a primary school in Gondal and a poet.

He is said to be the youngest humorist in Gujarat receiving huge popularity from his fans. He was also honored Gaurav Puraskar by Government of Gujarat. Very few people recognize him as a poet; where as the matter of the fact is he has exclusively published a book of poems, gazals and songs by the name “Sairam Na Hasata Akshar”.

Interesting to note that, Sairam Dave is the only artist of his field having his own website. He runs http://www.sairamdave.com, which is distinct in its own sense. He has translated words like Mobile in his own way. I truly suggest having a look at this site.

VIDEOS OF INTERVIEW. TOTAL 4 OF THEM.
DURATION:30 MINUTES.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

5th Exclusive Video of very Entertaining Rapid-Fire Round with Sairam Dave.

Excerpt of the Interview

Q1: Heartily welcome to Speakbindas. My first question to you is that according to you what is humor?

  • A1: Thank you. Those words in Gujarati consisting of two and half letters make an enormous meaning. I have always recited in Dayra programs that two and half letters of love (પ્રેમ), Krishna(ક્રિષ્ના), Truth(સત્ય), Wife(પત્નિ) and Humor (હાસ્ય) are truly mind-blowing words. Humor is life’s nectar. Laughter is a cleaner of soul. Any vehicle running on road goes by miles per hour, where as life goes by smiles per hour. I believe that how many times you speak with humor decides your success in life. A person who never laughs can not be trusted. Only someone who is an open hearted can laugh with rattling sound. Only humans among all species are blessed with a boon to laugh. There is no such an authentic definition of humor or laughter. But I can say that humor is born in the womb of tragedy. So I can say that the person, who has cried a lot in his life, can make others laugh.

Q2: Most of your fans know you as a humorist. But we can say that you are a different kind of poet too. Would you please shed some light on this creative corner of yours?

  • A2: Friend, poetry is more senior than humor in my life. I used to write poems since my studies and it was for my own joy. “Sairam Na Hasta Akshar” is my first book of poems written by me. The first edition of the same was released by Shri Rameshbhai Oza and second by Gujarat’s Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Book consists of around 150 poems out of total around 1500 poems written by me. In the book you can find poems having different themes such as humor, tragic, humanity, love, national pride etc.
Sairam Dave

Sairam Dave

Q3: Other than being a humorist, you are a teacher too. How is the teacher in you?

  • A3: People mostly have no idea that I am a teacher too. And sometimes I also get to hear from them that I might not be doing any job, which I believe is the question from 900 people out of 1000, those who know me. My father is a teacher in Monghiba Higher Secondary school in Gondal, mother too is a teacher, who recently obtained her V.R.S. So our family is associated with education. Basically, I have done Diploma in Electrical Engineering from Rajkot polytechnic. I also went for a job for one year after completion of the same.
  • My father sings hymns for last 35 years. One day my father felt that none of his three sons, me being oldest, will carry forward his inheritance of music and singing. So that day my father expressed his grief that after he dies, his harmonium will have no inheritance from his family and should be burned with his body. I was deeply touched with his sadness and that proved to be the turning point of my life. So leaving the 1st ranked certificate of Diploma, I enrolled for the course of P.T.C. and ranked first in Amreli diet with 81%. Then I joined Government Primary School no. 5 in Gondal. For last 10 years I am a teacher. And let me tell the Speakbindas readers that I GO TO SCHOOL AND PERFORM MY DUTY everyday from morning 07:30 to 12:30. For last two years, I am Principal of the same. Our school has 250 girls coming from such slum area that they do not even have two rupees to buy an eraser and most of them go for some labour after finishing the school.
  • I believe in delivering quality programs and mostly my humor programs are organized on Saturday, Sunday. Hence, it is not necessary that I should be giving program entire week. I don’t have that much financial craving because I am into this field with a mission. Hence, when I enter the compound of my school, I no more am Sairam for them.
  • Let me tell you that the students of my school that I mentioned are so poor that they do not even have a television set at their homes. I have taken them to the Doordarshan thrice so that they can deliver their performance, which was my life’s great achievement. Government has also taken note of our educational plays and songs. Whenever any organizer of my programs express their wish to donate something I suggest them to donate to our school and so far have received total of Rs. 2,50,000/- of donation.

Q4: Government of Gujarat has honored you with ‘Gaurav Puraskar’ award. Tell us what was that about?

  • A4: It was the blessed and happiest moment of my life. There was a ceremony in Gandhinagar town hall, where around 70 artists coming from various fields were present. I was being the youngest of all, only 32 years old, and the age being a lacking criteria to receive the award, I was honored this award jointly with my father for his contribution in singing hymns. I won this award for my songs that I have written with the theme of Gujarat pride centric and I have tried to mould them in a way that they can be accepted by the youth of today. I have blended the mode of songs in tunes of national pride songs as well as Gujarati songs. I have a dream of making today’s Gujarati dance on the beats of Gujarati songs. I have also written ‘Gujarat Chalisa‘ which consists of four revolutions occurred in Gujarat. Our love to nation has been seasonal, because we salute to our national flag mostly on 15th August and 26th January. So my efforts are to modify this mentality.

Q5: What is your take on stand-up comedies being performed on various television shows and comedy that you perform?

  • A5: The biggest difference being they earn in lakhs and we in thousands! Many fans of mine have asked me that why I don’t attend such programs? Of course, many other artists from our state have been there, most of them being from orchestra who do standup comedy shows. Broadcasting and telecasting can not be done simultaneously. Our efforts have always been to be royal to our mother tongue Gujarati. Of course, those TV comedians do mind-blowing comedy shows as they have a huge variety of subjects such as international politics.
  • Where as our comedy, which can include all humorist from Shahbuddin Rathod to Sairam Dave and the new generation following, is cultural comedy. It’s like after sharing some jokes, we tend to give a message to society with some inspirational cultural story. It’s not just a comedy show like that of Shekhar Suman or Navjotsingh Sidhu etc. Our shows have pure humor that a father and daughter together can attend. And I believe strictly in this. So far my 34 audio / video titles have been released. My system has been such that after preparing the script of next program, I give it to my mother, my wife and my family for reading. If they censor the same, I go ahead. There is a thin line between humor and vulgarity. Not to criticize but many artists take support of such cheap level of humor.
Sairam Dave gifting his book

Sairam Dave gifting his book

Q6: Have you been to such an incident in your life when you were sad in your heart but still you made people laugh?

  • A7: Many of them I remember. People generally have no interest at all in artists’ personal life. Some organizers suffer from the mentality that they have purchased or rented the artists. I don’t mean to say all are so.
  • Our job is to make people laugh no matter what is going on inside us.
  • Once, I was out of state for my program. My wife was pregnant and we were accepting our first child. What happened was that, doctors shared their view that Cesarean is must. This was the initial time of my career. I used to charge Rs. 10,000/- at that time. So I requested my show organizers to let me go as in case something may happen to my wife. And even my wife needed me to be with her during that time which is common from the point of view of a woman. So I requested to my show organizers and offered them that I will perform the entire show without any charges if they allow me to go for two days. They said it wasn’t possible. I gave the performance. And after it was finished, president of the committee who had invited me, stood up and requested me in front of the audience for a promise to give one more such performance after six months. I declined the same telling them that they hadn’t understood my critical situation. But anyways, that’s not the point. It’s been several other times too when our mental condition is not so happy but show must go on.

Q7: Any particular ambition in your life that you are passionate about?

  • A7: I am a man who sees dreams with open eyes. I have seen some extra ordinary dreams. I see dreams for myself, my state and my country. One of my dreams is that when India becomes the superpower, contribution of Gujarati community would be the maximum and then we the Indians won’t need to go to USA but they would be polishing diamonds in Surat, in Rajkot, Peter, Thomas, Cook and James and so would be driving passenger rickshaws, Angellina Jolie would be cleaning our streets, Shakira and Madona would be singing Garbas wearing Gujarati traditional dress ‘Chaniya Choli’ and lastly, myself will be presenting a show on ‘Dayro’ in Obama’s white house and Dayro would be in English. My extreme desire is to present Gujarati Dayra in a Hi-tech way and make them believe that Gujarati culture, literature; music has been under-estimated. It is our tragedy that we haven’t found the translators for Jhaverchand Meghani’s literature. Otherwise, I have concrete confidence when I say our books can be sold in more number of copies than of Harry Potter.

Q8: Do you consider anybody as your competitor in your field?

  • A8: I do not and can not consider any person as a competitor of mine. And people who believe the top ten humorists as each others competitors, considering me one of them, I would like to say that I am the youngest of all. I am just 32, I was born in 1977 and for those who don’t believe this, I always carry my leaving certificate in my pocket! So all other humorists are like elders to me.
  • I consider my last performance as my competitor. So I always try to beat my last performance with my next performance. I always carry an attitude of learning from seniors and supporting my juniors. Of course, I believe in healthy competition with others.

Q9: Your father Shri Vishnuprasad Dave has been a popular hymnist, your mother a teacher. Today we can say that you are a successful artist of your field. What is their contribution towards your success?

  • A9: My father sings hymns for last 35 years. He was given the ‘pass’ certificate by Late. Shri Hemu Gadhvi for Akashvani. I can say that I am reaping the fruits that my father seeded. And my father’s words as I said earlier proved to be the turning point of my life. So without him, Sairam wouldn’t have been born. Even today me and my father give joint performance. My father has been my friend, philosopher and guide who has even taught me what kind of clothes I should wear in programs in early stage-days. My mother’s name is Sarojben. I must say her sense of humor is really great.
  • And even my wife Deepali has supported me a lot. She also has been lucky for me. I got engaged with her in the year 2001, on 1st day of Navratri festival, and fortunately, on the 9th day of Navratri my VCD ‘Chaman Banega Krorepati’ was released which received huge selling and total of 5,00,000 copies were sold. So I believe that her entrance in my life has been proved fortunate for my career.
Devang Vibhakar with Sairam Dave

Devang Vibhakar with Sairam Dave

Q10: So far which are the countries you have presented your program? How have been the experiences from there?

  • A10: Dubai, Muscat, London, Abu Dhabi, Kenya, Dar-E-Salam. I have been to some of these countries more than once. In USA, they are saying to come after recession is over! I can say that, people give utmost respect to us when we go there. But a sad thing is that the young generation generally do not attend such programs, mostly because of the language problem.

Q11: Any special message you would like to share with Speakbindas readers?

A11: Yes, to Speakbindas readers and visitors, I would like to say

હસતા રહો, વરસતા રહો, જીંદગી છે,
સુખ ચક્કર મારીને પાછુ તમારી પાસે આવવાનુ જ છે.
ત્યા સુધી ધીરજ રાખો.

રંજોગમકી બંધ દુકાન રહે,
હર ચહેરે પે મુસ્કાન રહે,
મે રહુ યા ના રહુ,
હસતા સારા હિન્દુસ્તાન રહે.

About

Devang Vibhakar is the Founder and Editor of www.SpeakBindas.com. He has interviewed more than 350 people. His effort was recognized by Limca Book of Records, twice. He has been to Scotland as well as Germany as part of vocational & cultural exchange programs and has compiled five books so far. He's passionate about bringing forth interesting stories & interviews of entrepreneurs to avid readers of SpeakBindas. He can be reached here.

9 thoughts on “Poetry is more senior than humor in my life: Sairam Dave

  1. vijay bhatt says:

    je jotu hatu te mali gayu.

  2. harpal says:

    thanks for inform about sai ram this was my first visit of the site i like it much

  3. ATHARAVA.SHAH 9033118039 says:

    aaa bahuj saras site 6e i realy like it. most of man have nice sance of humor & siram is one of them. i like 2 b frna of sairam he is my favouret buddy if u hearing me sairam i wana talk wid u my number is . 9033118039 call me any time. actuly i m very buzy person but specialy always avilabel 4 u

  4. Hi… Sai ram how r u? I hope you r fine. I m your great fan and i listen your all dayras and my favorite dayra is “prem etle vhem”

  5. gouri says:

    Hi Sairam . I am South African born Indian and enjoyed your clip of the video which i received from family and i then sent it to all my gujerati friends.sad we do not speak much Gujerati but definately going to watch your videos n read some of your books although i am not a fan for reading.maybe reading your books n watching your videos will improve my gujerati,God Bless you.

  6. jai siyaram…..ek maa ena dikra ne jetlo prem kare che etlo j prem hu tamne karu chu.. jene sabdo ma kahi sakai tem nathi bas har pal tamari yaaaaaaaaaaaaad ej mara family no pavitra prem …………pujya morari bapu ni yaad ma jay siyaram….

  7. Saroj Radia says:

    Jai Siya Ram Jai Sairam

    I am very much fond of you. I watch you on youtube everyday.

    Love to meet you when I come to India

  8. Very good author. We sell all books written by him on our site after reading “amtha amtha kem na hasie”… keep it up

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