Humour is PL's forte. His situations are everyday happenings in the life of an average citizen. He has a fantastic capacity to pick up the contradictions in human nature. The little oddities of every person around him. An average person may be irritated by them. Not P L. He uses them to create humour. But that humour is never malicious. Never biting. P L never hurts anyone to provoke laughter. He tickles them. Even the person made fun of enjoys the fun.
And PL has the great quality of laughing at himself. This he does at some length all
the time. Almost every work of his can be seen to be overflowing with such potshots at himself.
He is a master of pun. And his ready wit and repartee are a treat to the ear. And there is nothing contrived in them. They come as easy as our breathing.
P L always sees the brighter side of everything. This is one of his most endearing aspects. As he himself says: "Once we realise how we are being fooled by destiny between the two ends of birth and death, what can we do but try to bring laughter in the life of others?"
He has easily been the most popular Marathi writer. And perhaps the only one to have made a fortune by his writings and programmes. But P L won't be P L if he spends all his money on himself and lives in opulence, in part to wreak vengeance on the destiny which had him spend the initial years of his life in rather difficult circumstances. Guided and prompted by his wife, Suneetabai, PL displayed yet another facet of his personality by setting up the P L Deshpande Foundation and helping voluntary organisation after organisation in building some facility or the other, often for the not so privileged section of our society.
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