As one of the lakhs of people who travel into the city from its extended suburbs, this writer often feels like an outsider. And so, it was easy to relate with the experiences of Anand Subramanian’s journey into comedy.

Subramanian and his trio of friends — Sagar Mavani, Dhaval Datar and Uddhav Parab — hail from the working class suburb of Dombivli. Their group, and performance, is understandably called Dudes of Dombivli. “We wanted to plant a flag in the comedy circuit for those from the outer suburbs, to let everyone know that comedy exists beyond Thane as well,” Subramanian jokes.