Jokes from the Rural Punjab

submitted by Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan

Muhammad Iqbal teaches English in Vocational Training Institute Narowal, Punjab, Pakistan. His interests include rural ELT and writing children poetry. He is discussion List Moderator of Global Issues SIG IATEFL. He is the founder member of Rural English Learners and Teachers group working all over the Punjab. He also chairs a committee (RPCV) working for the rights of the teachers of vocational training institutes in Punjab.
E-mail: muhammadiqbal722@hotmail.com, www.groups.yahoo.com/group/relt/join

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Introduction
Joke 1
Joke 2

Introduction

I want to share some jokes with you that you can present in the class while teaching some lesson regarding Food or Gender Issues. The first joke is an amalgamation of pathos and humour. You can present it in the class while teaching some lesson regarding Food or Gender Issues whereas the second one should be shared when you teach Present Perfect Tense. The second joke is very suitable for Punjabi Rural English Teachers but the international English teachers can also share it with their students.

Joke 1

I am writing this joke in the memory of a son of a poor farmer Abdullah who grew up in my village Dharang in the Punjab. The story of his life came to its sticky end during a perilous journey of Tuberculosis he was experiencing in his chest, the very chest that used to provide him joy and pleasure. Despite the cruel poverty, Nature gifted him a face that always wore a happy smile. People never drew a blank on what fell from his witty lips. He was really the toast of the village. I regrettably want to let you know that he was one of the six persons of my village who passed away in this Ramadan including two ladies due to their deliveries and one Christian male suffering from hepatitis.

Abdullah was deprived of his mother when he was just a few years old. He just had a sister named Zohra. One day when he was a child he got some broiled grams one way or other from a local shop. While getting back home, he sat on a cart in a sooty room and began to turn it over in his mind how he would split the food three ways for his family members--- “me, my father and younger sister” he sighed. Moments later, he divided this food into three equal parts and murmured:

“This part is mine

And this other one is of my father

And the third one will be of my sister but--------------

Father will not take from me and my sister can receive nothing from me: so all is mine. He looked this way or that and re-collected all parts of the food and ate it alone.”

All of a sudden, Zohra who was working her way through the cooking, yelled, “Prestidigitation.”

He laughed, “no, not a slight of hand. ‘Frailty thy name is’ hunger.”

Joke 2

Teacher to the class: Please translate this sentence into English

Us nai apna kam ker liya our kerta he jata hai (he has done his work and keeps it doing on)

One of the student replied:

“He has done-dana-don , don-dana-don, don-dana-don, - don-dana-don, -------------------.” (He created a drumming sound)

Please check the Improving English through Humour course at Pilgrims website.