12 O’ Clock

12 O’ Clock is a myth created by sick people to make fun of others. These jokes are often seen on Facebook.

Recently, a joke was shared with me on WhatsApp:

Banta: I will loot Bank of Baroda.

Santa: Why?

Banta: Because a Gujarati looted Punjab National Bank.

I have a couple of Sardar friends – twins Sukhwinder Kaur and Prem Kaur. Sukhwinder is an MSc in Microbiology and works with a prominent medical diagnostic center. Prem is an MPharm and has a medical shop. Prem’s medical shop is close to their father’s small cardiology clinic. We often group together in the medical shop.

I asked them, “Why do people make fun of Sardars?”

Sukhwinder told me, “We have also heard the Santa-Banta joke you are talking about. We continue it in this way, ‘Why should a Sardar behave like a Gujarati? A Sardar can use his brain and come up in life in a good way.’ Sardars are the butt of jokes like South Indians because nobody is comparable to them because of their sharp brains.”

To be continued…