IT HAS been a decade since Sindhu Venkatanarayanan, popularly known as Sindhu Vee, debuted as a stand-up comedian.

She found her new true calling in her early 40s, after quitting a successful career in investment banking in 2012.

“I never intended to be a banker. I studied philosophy and wanted to be a professor,” Sindhu says.

But the risk of quitting a well-paid banking job paid off well. Today, she is one of the most sought-after comedians performing in the United Kingdom.

Interestingly, just like her banking career, Sindhu got into comedy by chance. “I got an email from someone who said she was doing stand-up and she was one of the least funny people I knew.”

She thought if they could do it, why couldn’t she? “My first performance was a heat in the Funny Women competition in 2012. I got offstage and never looked back. I was home. I cannot tell you how grateful I was.”

Onstage, Sindhu talked Danish to a girl from Greenland and told the story about her mother asking if she was a lesbian to a bunch of lesbians in the audience and went straight to the semi-final in 2014 Funny Women Awards. There has been no looking back since then.

Apart from the UK, Sindhu has also performed on stage in India and the United States. She has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each year between 2013 and 2017.

Not only that, her debut series, Sindhustan, aired on Radio 4, she has also made television appearances on such shows as Have I Got News For You and Would I Lie To You? on BBC One, Richard Osman’s House of Games, and QIon BBC Two and Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled for Dave.

She has also been a part of Netflix’s popular British