Write-Brained: Recent Episodes
Lila Krishna
In Episode 3, we saw Mohendra meet Bhavananda, who rescues him from a retinue of sepoys, while relieving them of the tax money they are transporting to Calcutta. Bhavananda tells Mohendra he knows where Kalyani and his daughter are.
In this episode, we meet the Santaan, the Children of the Mother. Mohendra has a crisis of conscience.
This one’s a little longer than I thought it would be, and also involves poetry.
Footnotes for this episode:
Vande Maataram. Interestingly, Sri Aurobindo, who translated this book into English, went on to edit a publication named Vande Maataram. Here’s the version of the song by AR Rahman. It’s beautiful.
Mir Jafar and The Battle Of Plassey, the starting point for British rule in India.
I was also pretty impressed with Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Vande Maataram. Translating poetry/lyrics from one language to another seems difficult, to keep the musicality as well as lyricality and rhyme scheme of the original in the new language. Fun fact: Sri Aurobindo’s father raised him in London from a very young age, so he would speak English like a native language, and be able to qualify for the Indian Civil Service (back then, you could only take the exam in England). When he came to India as a young man, he learned Bengali, rediscovered his roots and turned revolutionary.
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In the previous episode, we followed Kalyani through her escape from a band of robbers, and being rescued by an ascetic in white.
This week, we see what happened to Mohendra in the meantime. Listen on for an episode as action-packed as the title suggests.
Footnotes:
A couple of words in this episode that might be unfamiliar:
Saheb - An honorific, often used by itself to refer to someone of higher status.
Havildar - Sergeant.
Random advice: Burning the roof of your mouth with pizza before recording a podcast is not a great idea.
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In the last episode, we were introduced to Mohendra and Kalyani, a young couple, in the backdrop of the 1770 Bengal Famine. They meet an unexpected obstacle on their way to the city.
In this episode, Kalyani undergoes some trials, and is rescued by a mysterious figure in a white robe. Who is he? And what’s happening to Mohendra?
I found myself a little more organized making this episode. I switched from Garageband to Audacity, which makes editing a more intuitive process. The audio quality is better as well.
Footnotes for this episode:
Gaudiya Vaishnavism of Bengal.
Famines in British India. When I look at the chronology of the famines in the Madras presidency, it fits in with the timeline of my ancestors migrating to the princely states of Mysore, Hyderabad, and as far away as present-day Pakistan.
The song Kalyani hears, and which is featured in the outro.
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Greetings, subscriber!
This Thursday, I decided to do something completely different. How does a podcast episode sound?
Seeing as I’m currently fascinated by the post-1857 pre-WW1 era of Indian history, I reread Ananda Math (Abbey of Bliss) written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1882. This is one of those books that kickstarted the Indian freedom movement, and gave it its slogan - Vande Mataram (Glory to our Motherland), which is of course the title of our National Song.
I couldn’t find an audiobook of this book, though there’s been several movie versions, and thought, why not do it myself? I’d been procrastinating on this thought for weeks, and decided to bite the bullet and fool around with a mic and Garageband. The result is the first two chapters of this novel.
It was originally written serially, and hence each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. How fun!
This will be what I’ll be posting here for the next few weeks. And hopefully, my diction and audio mixing will get better with time, and subsequent episodes will bring you more joy.
Tell me how you like it, and tell all your friends to sign up and subscribe!
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