The Psychosis.
"I swear to God I felt like it was a dream, it wasn't real..."
S.R.
Setting up the board...
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“My mother gave up everything so I could have something.”
Born October 26, 1997. Jammu. A Kashmiri Pandit family from Anantnag — displaced in the 1990s exodus. Refugee camps in Jammu, then Hyderabad.
Father Rajesh: a journalist at Doordarshan, later News18. Mother Sweeti: left her career to raise him. Everything she had, she gave.
Bullied at Hyderabad Public School for his skin color. The kind of cruelty that doesn't leave bruises but rewires how you see yourself.
Chess came from his grandfather during visits to Delhi. A quiet game in a loud childhood. The first thing that was entirely his.
COVID lockdown. Literal confinement. Tanmay Bhat suggested he stream chess. First stream: March 23, 2020 — 200 viewers.
The J&K Gambit — wildly sacrificing pieces, playing with reckless abandon. Named after the displacement. Comedy and chess fused into something no one had seen before.
Collaborators: Vidit Gujrathi, Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura. 69,000+ concurrent viewers during the FIDE Online Olympiad.
Chess Super League. Comedians On Board. Improving Chess — 100 episodes. Rating: 1,040 → 1,942 peak. Donated $10K to Lidè Haiti.
“The J&K Gambit — it’s a lot like what happened in 1990. You sacrifice everything and hope something works out.”
June 14, 2024. India’s Got Latent. A parody of India’s Got Talent crossed with Kill Tony. The self-rating mechanic: contestants rate themselves, judges rate them. The gap is the joke.
25 million+ average views per episode. 12 main episodes, 6 bonus. IMDb 9.1 out of 10. The IGL App hit #1 on both app stores within hours of launch.
SOLITARY — THE FIR
>February 8, 2025. Bonus Episode 6. A question from Ranveer Allahbadia. Clips escape the paywall. Context collapses.
>FIRs filed across Maharashtra, Assam, Rajasthan. BNS Sections 79, 95, 196, 294, 296, 299. IT Act Section 67. The legal system as a weapon.
>NCW summons. Parliament Zero Hour. Karni Sena threats. His editor arrested. Episodes deleted. ₹8 crore at risk.
>Death threats. His mother’s call. His father’s memes. Psychosis: “It felt like a dream. It wasn’t real.”
"Sweeti Raina watched her son’s world collapse from a phone screen. The same woman who left her career, who moved cities, who fought so he could have a life — now helpless. Internet trauma is violent. But it ends."
Rajesh Raina posted memes. Not because he didn’t care, but because Kashmiri Pandits have survived worse. Displacement. Exile. Loss that doesn’t trend. Generational trauma is quiet. But it never leaves.
“Hum Kashmiri crossfire mein hi marte hain.”
We Kashmiris always die in the crossfire.
August 15, 2025. Independence Day. The comeback begins.
40,000 tickets sold in the first hour. Still Alive & Unfiltered tour: Bharat Mandapam, Talkatora Stadium, 300,000+ tickets worldwide.
Madison Square Garden. February 28, 2026. Twenty-eight years old.
Still Alive special. April 7, 2026. Free on YouTube. 11 million views in 24 hours. IGL Season 2 confirmed — live-only format.
THE WALL
"Samay made chess cool for an entire generation."
— @chess_fan_2024
"IGL is the best thing to happen to Indian comedy."
— @latent_lover
"The comeback was unreal. Still Alive changed everything."
— @comedy_addict
"Bhai tu ruk mat. Hum hain tere saath."
— @samay_army
"J&K Gambit forever."
— @gambit_gang
"From 200 viewers to Madison Square Garden. Insane."
— @stream_watcher
"The only comedian who made me learn chess."
— @rookie_1200
"Samay didn’t just survive the FIR. He turned it into a tour name."
— @still_alive_fan
"Kashmiri Pandit representation matters. Samay showed us that."
— @kp_diaspora
"The man literally played chess with Magnus. On stream. For content."
— @twitch_clips
"IGL Season 2 is going to break YouTube."
— @latent_s2
"He’s not just a comedian. He’s a movement."
— @brokai_follower
Samay — you showed us that the bars are temporary. The bakchod is permanent.
Built by Brokai Labs. Episode 4 of the Giveback Series.