Brown Colored Glasses

This season finale episode coinciding with Pride Month and celebrating the idea of normalizing all kinds of identities and perspectives, especially from our Brown Colored Glasses, is so very fitting.  Specifically, as a listener, you get to hear from a panel of those within the South Asian community who identify with LGBTQ+ and who share their stories - their struggles, their wins and what they represent. Fayzan Gowani, a queer and trans Muslim passionate about intergenerational healing; Nazesh Ali, also a trans individual, an entrepreneur, creative artist and a host on Radio Azad and our very own Shama Dharani, BCG's beloved co-host, who identifies as a lesbian and is passionate about financial literacy. Tune in to listen to this grand finale of an episode where you will walk away feeling a real "sense of pride" and ensuring you grant yourself and others around you the self-love that we all deserve.

As South Asians, we are all too familiar with the dreaded word "dating" and what that can mean in terms of stigmas, taboos, expectations, outcomes and more. This episode discusses it all - the idea of dating, what it means today for the current generation versus our parents generation, dating only within our cultural community, how dating to marry (and not to explore relationships) is a rite of passage that a South Asian must go through and so much more. Tune in to this light hearted episode coming in from all the various angles of the  co-hosts perspectives, but definitely intersecting with so many of our own notions when it comes to South Asians and dating.

As a bonus episode to all the listeners, this was a special live recording with the BCG hosts and Rizwan Mawani, a passion educator, author and researcher in the field of anthropology and religious studies. His work has taken him across the globe to address audiences from students to policy makers and BCG had the opportunity to host him and ask any questions from the live audience related to faith, identity and spirituality. On the heels of the last episode (For The Love Of God) and all the buzz and chatter, this episode serves as a linchpin to answer all those burning questions we have about our faith, as the next generation of South Asians living in a Western society.

Do you find yourself questioning your own faith and those of others based on how deeply they follow the practices of their faith? Do you wonder about the impact of Covid-19 on our beliefs and what this past year has meant for us in a spiritual sense? Do you feel that your sense of faith has evolved over time as you have begun to form your own identity and come to realize what offers you comfort and serenity? If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions or ponder about the intersection of our South Asian culture, our evolved identity, religion, faith and spirituality - this episode is for you! Come listen to the hosts share their personal perspectives on this topic and challenge each other on what it truly means to be a "person of faith".

As we continue to honor Women's History Month, this episode covers the all too familiar topic and ideal that we as South Asians struggle with quite a bit: body image. You will get to listen to heartfelt, personal experiences from each of the hosts and how they experienced body shaming in different ways and it's impact on them as individuals. We also discuss social media and "what's trending now" and its ramifications when it comes to internalizing body image as well as how as parents we can impact our children and infuse the right ideals when it comes to our relationships with our own bodies.  Last but not least, we share and discuss the newest diet with you that's here to stay and that is to "embrace your imperfections".

In this second episode which delves into the notion of South Asians and colorism, the hosts discuss all aspects of our obsession with the lighter skin - whether it's the "Fair & Lovely" face cream, the tone filter on shaadi.com or our own parents telling us not to stay out in the sun for too long. What is also discussed is the why - where did this stem from and how as a society we ended up discriminating those with darker skin.  How does this also parallel with the racism we see within the Western World, especially within this past year, and how and where we can begin to dismantle these belief systems and embrace all the shades of brown, because dark is lovely too.

Brand New Season for BCG and a whole new team! In this episode, you get to be a fly on the wall and listen in on four friends, aka your new hosts, talk about the good, bad and the ugly when it comes to Valentine's Day. What are some of the pressures one feels when this day comes around? Does this day really need to be just about romantic love? What about self-love, Galentine's Day and in general, love for humanity? Take a break and and enjoy listening to the back and forth banter on what should and shouldn't constitute  Valentine's day and what we can do to take charge of our thoughts, emotions and actions, all from our proverbial "brown colored glasses".

This episode is the season finale for the first season of Brown Colored Glasses and features the host's daughter, Imaan, to reflect upon the topics of this season such as mental health, unconscious bias, gender and racial conversations and more - all from the lens of a child. Many times, as an adult, we succumb to an invisible threshold that society places upon us whether in terms of our personal or professional lives.  What we really need is to be able to look at life from a childlike perspective - one that is free of bias, guilt, and societal expectations and rather filled with innocence, joy, passion and curiosity. "Unleash Your Inner Child" and listen to this dialogue which will evoke feelings of conquering the world, dreaming the impossible and living in that spirited feeling of complete freedom.

This episode is the third and final segment of the 3-Part Series on Unconventional Career Paths in South Asians. This one features, Saqib Siddiqui, a Pakistani engineer cum lawyer who shares his personal story of how his culture, his family and the giant expectations of acceptable and lauded career choices affected him from a very young age. What is really delightful about this particular episode is that even though Saqib is discussing conventional career paths, his path towards how he arrived at who he is today is very unconventional and frankly extremely inspiring for those listeners wanting to figure out how to get out of the rut of the all too familiar deadly trios of career choices (lawyer-engineer-doctor) for South Asians and how to embrace professions that may not be supposedly revered, but will offer that deep inner satisfaction and joy. After all, work really should be an extension of your passions and talents coming together and your culture should not be a barrier to achieving that.

This episode is the second segment of a 3-Part Series on the topic of Unconventional Career Paths in South Asians and features Aelia Hassan, a senior at Indiana University studying Sports Media and Broadcast Journalism. This dialogue really hits home the idea of empowering young girls to pursue their dreams and passions and in this case, it all began with Aelia's love of sports from a young age. Aelia talks about the struggles she faced and continues to face as a woman in the male dominated sports industry and also her challenges as a woman of color. There is so much to be learned in this dialogue for all kinds of listeners and also a lot to be proud of in terms of unconventional career choices, especially as a South Asian woman, that have led to happiness, success and internal satisfaction.