Tom Hodgkinson
takes a walk in the park with the meditating comedian
Sindhu Vee came to start-up late. She did PPE – that’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics, it’s the degree the politicians take – at Oxford and then went into banking, working for Barclays for seven years in the 1990s. She then became a full-time mum and only started treading the boards in 2012. By 2015 she was gigging weekly, and in 2018 she was nominated for the Best Newcomer Edinburgh Comedy Award at the age of 48. Her routines touch on universal truths. With the great skill and generosity of the best philosopher-comedians, she makes you feel less alone in your pain and misery. So it doesn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that her Hindu faith and meditation practice actually underlie her art and work. We met in Regent’s Park near Sindhu’s home and sat outside a café, which was closed as it was lockdown. She first had me in stitches relating anecdotes about her new French bulldog Bowler, who turned out to be blind. We then started by talking about the Brahma Kumaris, the Indian women-run meditation movement.