City-based comedian Ravi Gaikwad remembers dropping out of an engineering course at a renowned institute in Mumbai following snide casteist comments from his peers. “I didn’t tell my parents about it. I didn’t know how to,” he recalls. Three years later now, he retells the story at stand-up comedy shows to a mix of roaring laughter, hesitant chuckles, and admittedly, a fair share of disapproval. Blue Material, a collective of comedians from the Dalit community co-founded by Gaikwad, has many such stories coloured in irony to tell. This weekend, they open the stage to the city with an open mic series.

“Starting a discussion around caste is like convincing a child to finish the greens on their plate. You know It’s good for you, yet, it’s almost always frowned upon. Through our collective, we’re making the greens more palatable. Using humour, you can slip in some important conversations in your jokes that people will gladly consume,” laughs Gaikwad, who finds inspiration in African-American comedians such as Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Jerrod Carmichael. “After dropping out, I binge-watched stand-up comedy videos coming out of the black community. It mirrored my life experiences to a great extent,” he reveals.