Comedian Bharti Singh has shared a bittersweet childhood memory from the 1990s, recounting how she was repeatedly turned away from a neighbour's house in her mohalla where she would go to watch television — a luxury her own family could not afford. The revelation came during the latest episode of The Indian Game Show with Bharti and Harssh, themed around '90s Ki Yaadein (Memories of the '90s).

The Childhood Memory

Bharti recalled that hers was a household without a television set, and that a single, relatively well-off family in the neighbourhood owned one. She would frequent their home hoping to catch programmes, only to be sent away. “Hamare ghar mein TV nahi tha yaar. Mere bachpan ki yaadein hain, mohalle mein ek hi thode paise wale hote the unke ghar TV hota tha,” she said on the show. (Translation: ‘We didn’t have a TV at home, you know. I have memories from my childhood when there was one relatively well-off family in the neighbourhood that had a TV at their house.’)

She went on to describe how the family would draw a curtain across the television when she arrived and tell her to go home and study. “Lekin aksar jab main unke ghar TV dekhne jaati thi, toh woh TV ke aage parda kar diya karte the. Aur bolte the ‘Jao-jao apne ghar padhna nahi hai?’,” she recalled.

Turning Rejection Into Fuel

Rather than expressing bitterness, Bharti chose to frame the repeated rejection as unexpected motivation. “Main unko thank you karna chahti hoon ki aapne mujhe apne ghar se nikala, aap log ki wajah se maine itni mehnat ki ki ab main khud TV pe aa rahi hoon,” she said. (Translation: ‘I want to thank them for throwing me out of their house. Because of you people, I worked so hard that now I myself am appearing on TV.’)

The contrast between her early struggles and her current position — as one of Indian television’s most recognisable faces — was not lost on the studio audience, who responded warmly to the candid anecdote.

About The Indian Game Show

The Indian Game Show with Bharti and Harssh is a family entertainment format featuring celebrity guests who take on physical, comedy, and skill-based challenges. Episodes combine audience participation, prize rounds, and the signature humour of hosts Bharti Singh and Harssh Limbachiyaa, her husband and creative collaborator. The ‘90s Ki Yaadein’ episode brought together nostalgic conversations with competitive gameplay, offering Bharti a natural moment to reflect on her journey.

Bharti Singh's Rise From Humble Beginnings

Bharti Singh is among the most prolific stand-up comedians and television hosts in India, having appeared on numerous reality and comedy shows over the past two decades. Her public persona has long drawn on candid, self-deprecating humour rooted in her working-class upbringing in Amritsar, Punjab. This latest anecdote reinforces a narrative she has touched upon across several public appearances — that early hardship was the engine behind her relentless work ethic.

The story resonates widely in a country where access to media and entertainment was sharply stratified by income as recently as the late 1990s, before cable television proliferated into middle- and lower-income households in the early 2000s.