This week in podcasting/September 30, 2019

A downside of the academic life is that it’s hard to make time for the things you enjoy watching, listening to, or reading. There seems to be always so much work-related reading and watching to catch up on (particularly in these times when research output seems to come out of a fire hose). When you’re at work the meetings and paper pushing take up all one’s hours. And so you lug the assignments home and open up your laptop in the quiet after-dinner hours for the unending catch-up.

There is a space, though, where work cannot reach me…yet. It’s when my hands are tied to the steering wheel or my eyes need to focus on the pressure cooker and boiling milk. It’s a space that envelops me when I take that occasional walk and turn my ringer off. That’s when I am able to immerse myself in things that do one of several things: make me wonder and laugh, give me a small sense of understanding of this complex world, or allow me to escape into the stories of lives so unlike my own that I cannot help but learn.

So this past weekend I had the opportunity, along with some old friends and a few new ones, to pay tribute and open up the conversation on the main vehicle that drives that “me space”—podcasts.  On the occasion of World Podcasting Day (or thereabouts), I got to play host to a small but energizing event at Hyderabad’s favourite open space, Lamakaan (which is Urdu for “without boundaries”).  Goethe-Zentrum, Hyderabad, podcasting platform Suno-India and University of Hyderabad’s community radio Bol Hyderabad put together the city’s first podcasting meet-up with a single-point agenda—to see if there could be a podcasting community in the city.

We had modest expectations. Maybe ten people would show up, we thought—a few friends, the odd listener, and possibly a couple of curious passers-by.  By the time 5:30 p.m. rolled around, we had those ten people in the room (okay, eight of them were part of the organizing group). “Let’s wait a few minutes,” suggested Rakesh Kamal, one of Suno India’s three partners. Even as I fiddled with the mike willing those minutes to turn into people, the room seemed to fill up. Some known faces, but a good number of unfamiliar, and we were off to a beginning. After the obligatory opening that answered the key questions we’d posed on the poster (above), we had several people come up from the audience to talk about their own podcasting journeys—surprise, surprise, podcasting is really a “thing” among Hyderabadis!

Some highlights:

The Indian Cycling podcast, in which Harsha (software engineer by weekday and avid biker at all times) and Gokul  Krishna (cycling coach and bicycling entrepreneur) talk about all things to do with non-motorized two-wheelers—the machines, the people who ride and race them, the events and the sheer passion that seems to have created a whole world around it.

Discover Desi, introduced by Divya Vishy, who explores the world of Indian indie (no type there) music and its cultural, political and social under/overtones. “Im not Maed in India,” she quipped, as she talked about her work and her delight in finding a room full of people who were interested in podcasting.

Katha cheppava ammamma (Tell me a story, grandma) from Suno India, hosted by veteran teacher and habitual storyteller Eashwari spoke about how and why she got into podcasting, which seemed a natural next step to writing stories for children.

Yunus Lasania, who hosts Suno India's new podcast on Hyderabad's history, Beyond Charminar, talked about his fascination with little known and overlooked bits of the city's history and why podcasting is a welcome addition to an otherwise partisan and market oriented mediascape.

Several others spoke about their experiments with the medium and their plans to put their ideas into sound.  One podcaster, who had come all the way from Warangal, introduced us to his teaching series for UPSC hopefuls (now, who wouldn’t want some more help with those hard-to-crack exams?), while another talked about his desire to do something in the health space.

A question that kept coming up was the thorny one of business model ("How do you make money?" asked one participant. "We don't," said Rajesh!), but that didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm in the room. We certainly ended the evening on a high. There’s something about knowing that there are others that share one’s interests.  And one’s own obsession seems less crazy when you find a roomful of others who seem to mirror it.

In other news this week, I'm continuing to discover some incredible new podcasts made across the world, but my morning news fix remains constant: I begin with Indian Express' 3 Things, catch up with the previous evening's The Daily, and finish up the hour with BBC's Global News Podcast. The September 26 of 3 Things had a great explainer on single-use plastics (India's War Against Plastic) while The Daily had an absolutely delightful special episode for kids on Sunday, in which a 9-year-old discusses her OCD with Michael, whom she can't stop calling "Sir".