The Belongg Literature Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Home to our conversations with authors and experts about diverse and inclusive books focused on themes of gender, feminism, race, caste, disability, faith, prejudice, and belonging. The episodes are structured as separate sub-series and offer different ways of imaging themes of diversity and inclusion.
Home to our conversations with authors and experts about diverse and inclusive books focused on themes of gender, feminism, race, caste, disability, faith, prejudice, and belonging. The episodes are structured as separate sub-series and offer different ways of imaging themes of diversity and inclusion.
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy to for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
Reimagining love: Breaking away from the normative with authors Sharif Rangnekar, Bishakh Som and Maia Kobabe. In this episode, we will hear our guests explore their relationship with community and found families, experience writing memoirs and the role of love in political, cultural and social discussions.
About the Guests:
Sharif Ragnekar is a well known journalist and advocates for LGBTQ+ rights at every possible platform. He is the Festival Director of the Rainbow Lit Fest and his memoir Straight to Normal: My Life As A Gay Man is one of the few pieces of writings that explores queer lives in India.
Artist and writer Bishakh Som’s comics work has previously appeared in several international journals and she is the author of two beautiful graphic narratives, Apsara Engine, a collection of eight short stories and Spellbound, a graphic memoir.
Maia Kobabe is an American illustrator and comic. Eir first full length book, Gender Queer: A Memoir, was a winner of an Alex Award and Stonewall Book Award . The memoir presents a rare glimpse into the reality of life as a non-binary individual and has been translated into several languages.
This series is hosted by Yoshita Srivastava, literature collective associate at Belongg. She believes inclusive representation is essential for a better future — empathy being key in dismantling prejudice. She is interested in exploring intersections of gender, sexuality, identity and culture studies, and has previously worked at media and social sector organizations.
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
In this episode, we speak to Danish Husain, storyteller, actor, poet and theatre director, who has been instrumental in reviving 'Dastangoi,' the lost art of Urdu storytelling. With Danish, we explore the legacies of revolutionary writers such as Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai, and the importance of writing that unsettles the status quo and makes you question the way things are. Throughout the conversation, Danish invokes the poetry of stalwarts such as Ghalib and Faiz, and brings out the deeply syncretic nature of our cultural roots and everyday existence.
About the Guest:
Danish Husain is the founder of Qissebaazi, a platform that promotes storytelling in diverse languages. His love for poetry has manifested in the Poetrification project with actor Denzil Smith, and he also runs his own theatre company, Hoshruba Repertory, under which he has produced some brilliant plays like Chinese Coffee, Guards At The Taj and Qissa Urdu Ki Aakhiri Kitaab Ka. His acting repertoire includes films such as Newton, Dhobhi Ghat and Peepli Live, amongst others.
This series is hosted by Zinnia Sengupta, former literature collective associate at Belongg. Zinnia has always dreamed of making the world a kinder, more inclusive place than the one she was raised in. She has written for Pune Mirror, Verve, and other travel & lifestyle publications, and worked closely with several grassroots-level NGOs.
Books and authors in the episode:
- Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza’s Aadha Gaon
- Edward Said’s Out of Place
- Attia Hussain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column
- Faiz Ahmad Faiz
- Ismat Chughtai
- Mirza Ghalib
- Saadat Hasan Manto
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
In this episode, we speak to Urvashi Butalia, an Indian feminist writer, publisher and activist. Urvashi tells us about her early encounters with inclusive literature, and how her reading journey has evolved with her feminism. She also talks about the importance of reading books that transcend and question boundaries of identity, and how reading is inherently a form of activism.
About the Guest:
Urvashi Butalia is known for her pioneering work in the women's movement of India, as well as for authoring books such as The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India and Speaking Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir. In 2003, she founded Zubaan Books, a feminist publishing house that is known for its pathbreaking and diverse work.
This series is hosted by Zinnia Sengupta, former literature collective associate at Belongg. Zinnia has always dreamed of making the world a kinder, more inclusive place than the one she was raised in. She has written for Pune Mirror, Verve, and other travel & lifestyle publications, and worked closely with several grassroots-level NGOs.
Books and authors in the episode:
- Versions of the Heer-Ranjha saga
- Rajinder Singh Bedi
- Mahadevi Verma (Poetry, Shrankhala ki Kadiyaan)
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Chandamama and Phantom comics
- Godaan by Premchand
- Nayantara Sehgal
- Anita Desai
- Kamla Markandaya
- Rukogi Nahi Radhika by Usha Priyamwada
- Amrita Pritam
- Krishna Sobti
- Mridula Garg
- Chitra Mudgal
- Gulshan Nanda
- Salma
- A Life Less Ordinary: A Memoir by Baby Haldar
- Shareer ki Jankari (About the Body) by 75 women from Rajasthan, published by Zubaan
- The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- Birth of the Maitreya by Bani Basu
- Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis
- Queeristan by Parmesh Shahani
- Kalpana Swaminathan’s detective fiction
- Karuna Ezra Parikh
- Peace Has Come by Parismita Singh
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
In this episode, we speak to Ruth Vanita, an academic, an activist, and an author who has contributed immensely to literature around gender, sexuality, and culture. We speak to her about her book 'Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans of Bombay Cinema,' and explore her ground-breaking study of courtesan imagery in 235 films, throwing light on the role the courtesan figure played in shaping the modern Indian erotic, political and religious imagination.
About the Guest:
Ruth Vanita co-founded India’s first nationwide feminist magazine called Manushi: A journal about Women and Society, which combined academic research and grassroots activism. An author of several books such as Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India, Memory of Light, Love’s Rite: Same-sex Marriage in India and the West and Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans of Bombay Cinema, she has also translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English.
This series is hosted by Swati. Swati is a Social Design Practitioner, a researcher, and a podcaster. She has been working with the medium of audio for over 5 years, running a community radio station in Ahmedabad, and has experimented with various forms of story-telling through different mediums.
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
In this episode, we speak to Madhumita Bhattacharya, one of India’s few crime thriller writers. Madhumita talks to us about her journey as a writer, the trials and tribulations that led to the creation of 'Dirty Women', her latest novel and the need for stronger women characters in fiction.
About the Guest:
Madhumita Bhattacharya has written four murder mysteries - The Masala Murder, Dead in a Mumbai Minute, Goa Undercover, and Dirty Women. With an experience of working in the space of the newsroom, writing and editing across a wide range of subjects, Madhumita weaves in personal experiences of her work into her latest novel Dirty Women, a story about the investigation into the disappearance of a four-year-old Tara in 2002 in Calcutta.
This series is hosted by Swati. Swati is a Social Design Practitioner, a researcher, and a podcaster. She has been working with the medium of audio for over 5 years, running a community radio station in Ahmedabad, and has experimented with various forms of story-telling through different mediums.
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
Reimagining the scope of the Indian Constitution with Prof. Arun Thiruvengadam, Arvind Narrain and Aakash Singh Rathore. In this episode, we speak to three guests who have approached the Indian Constitution through different lenses in their writing and scholarship. The three discuss the scope of the constitution in accommodating evolution of different identities, the state of the constitutional principles in today’s world and the changing idea of India.
About the Guests:
Dr. Arun K. Thiruvengadam is currently a Professor of Law at the National Law School, Bangalore. His teaching and research interests lie in the areas of Constitutional and Administrative law in India; Comparative constitutional law; Law and Development; Law and Politics in South Asia; and Welfare Rights. He is the author of The Constitution of India :A Contextual Analysis.
Arvind Narrain is a founding member of the Alternative Law Forum. He was part of the litigation team, which argued the constitutionality of Section 377 before the High Court and the Supreme Court. He is the author of Queer: "Despised Sexuality", Law, And Social Change.
Aakash Singh Rathore is a philosopher of international repute, author of eight books (including Ambedkar's Preamble: A Secret History of the Constitution of India) and has written for numerous international and national journals and dailies.
This series is hosted by Yoshita Srivastava, literature collective associate at Belongg. She believes inclusive representation is essential for a better future — empathy being key in dismantling prejudice. She is interested in exploring intersections of gender, sexuality, identity and culture studies, and has previously worked at media and social sector organizations.
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
Reimagining history: Rejecting a homogeneous past with Prof Manan Ahmed Asif, Prof. Chinnaiah Jangam and Archana Garodia Gupta. In this episode, our guests view history through different lenses and surface common truths as well as rich differences in our past. We will hear our guests exchange reflections about the multiplicity of historical narratives, the need to look to our past and the value of searching beyond mainstream sources.
About our Guests:
Prominent scholar Prof Manan Ahmed Asif has written extensively on South Asian history and currently teaches history at Columbia University. His books include, A Book of Conquest and The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India.
Prof. Chinnaiah Jangam's research focuses on the social and intellectual history of Dalits in modern South Asia. He is currently an Associate professor at Carleton University. He is the author of much acclaimed, Dalits and the Making of Modern India.
A leading national quizzer, Archana Garodia Gupta has won the 'Champion of Champions' title from BBC's Mastermind India. She has written the popular historical anthology The Women Who Ruled India: Leaders. Warriors. Icons. and co-wrote The History of India for Children series for Hachette.
This series is hosted by Yoshita Srivastava, literature collective associate at Belongg. She believes inclusive representation is essential for a better future — empathy being key in dismantling prejudice. She is interested in exploring intersections of gender, sexuality, identity and culture studies, and has previously worked at media and social sector organizations.
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.
In this episode, we speak to celebrated poet and author Easterine Kire. A majority of her writings are based in the lived realities of the people of Nagaland in north-east India. She draws intriguing parallels between the indigenous literatures of the world, and explores the importance of own voices and oral traditions of storytelling.
About the Guest:
Easterine Kire is known for groundbreaking, award-winning titles such as 'A Naga Village Remembered', 'A Terrible Matriarchy', 'When the River Sleeps', amongst others, and is the first Naga author to have published an English novel. Apart from writing, she also performs Jazz poetry with her band Jazzpoesi.
This series is hosted by Zinnia Sengupta, former literature collective associate at Belongg. Zinnia has always dreamed of making the world a kinder, more inclusive place than the one she was raised in. She has written for Pune Mirror, Verve, and other travel & lifestyle publications, and worked closely with several grassroots-level NGOs.
Books in the episode:
- The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
- The Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
- A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
You can also listen to this and more by downloading Belongg’s app UnOther, spelt U_N_O_T_H_E_R which is available on both the Apple and Google app stores. To invite such experts to your organization for guest lectures or expert consultations, please also look at Belongg Circle, a platform that curates intersectional experts and makes it easy for a range of organizations to integrate such thinking in their work.