Car Chit Chats

Self-pity feels good and can sometimes help us feel that our burdens are significant but a lot of it prevents growth and nourishment. Self-criticism on the other hand also doesn't help us and so there needs to be a balance and a strategy to deal with our emotions when things don't go well. This is what Aasima and I discuss during the podcast and come to the conclusion that self-evaluation is the way to go! We thoroughly explain in the episode how one can delve into self-evaluation and benefit from it during times of the blues. In our 'Something to Share From the Week' segment, I dive into my thoughts on modern romance/young love and Aasima continues from there talking about loneliness.

This week we are joined by a special guest, our cousin Tehreem! Tehreem, Ayesha and I have a casual banter at the start of the episode talking about random funny things and delve into the topic of this week's discussion at 3:42. Although the topic was how we would like to be represented in mainstream media, we transition the subject into how we can get more brown people to become part of the media. As we talk about examples where we have seen South Asians being represented in movies, TV shows, and social media, we come to a conclusion about how we can change that in the future. Listen to the episode to find out! We apologise about the audio quality not being great in this episode. We are working on making it better :)

The two movies we discuss in this episode are Little Women (2019) and In This Corner of the World (2016). We dive into the way these movies make us feel compared to other larger block-buster films as well as how they empower us, and can give strength to normal, everyday women. After the 30 minute mark, Ayesha dives into what it means to do your best and Aasima relates a social study she did on Instagram. We mention Black Panther (2018) and The 4 Agreements by Miguel Riz.

This week we discuss to what extent we agree to an article by the 'School of Life' called, 'What should truly motivate us at work'. The article details on the main factors one should consider when choosing a career path but instead humans consider many more extraneous factors which makes the process of choosing a career much more complex than it otherwise would be. Ayesha and I delve into our own journeys of choosing our future occupations (which is still an ongoing process), the kind of factors we had to think about while choosing them and some ways that could've made the process easier. This episode will give you some ideas on how to choose the right career path for you and if you have already chosen one, then perhaps rethinking whether that is the best profession for you.

In this episode, Ayesha and Aasima continue a conversation inspired by the speech made by Alain de Botton called 'Emotional Education.' More specifically, we dive into what self knowledge is; how it can help us and our relationships, what is the difference between the true and false self (feat. going on a tangent about career choices), as well as how having some time in the day to think can help us come to peace.

This week we delve into how ideal a meritocratic world be. A speech by Alain de Botton about emotional education sparked our conversation. We talk about how detrimental it is that the society we currently live in is one where people are judged and categorized based off of just their job titles. We discuss ways in which we can reduce this from happening. From this viewpoint, Ayesha explained a justifiable way our society has been built and how life is not totally unfair. This is where the concept of unfair advantages comes up and is detailed by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba in their book, 'The Unfair Advantage'. We hope you gain a new perspective about how the modern world is run and how we can use this to our advantage. You can check out Alain's speech about emotional education here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9X7u-MeJz0&t=404s. Ali Abdaal's YouTube video about the book, 'The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGbCR_pq4_A. The School of Life YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog. The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba: https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-unfair-advantage-hasan-kubba/book/9781788163316.html

Schindler's List is a film about Oskar Schindler, a man part of the Nazi Union who helped save the lives of over 1,200 Jewish people during the Holocaust. The film's graphic illustration about what the situation was like during world war II compels us to question one's desire to be powerful, discuss ways in which blind hatred can emerge, relate themes and scenes to the present and examine what can be learnt from the movie. War veteran becomes muslim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQG-oIMSbco

In this episode, we discussed and brainstormed ideas with which a person can reach happiness. Gubbare (which translates to balloons) is a song sung by Amit Trivedi and Shilpa Rao and fosters our conversation about internal and external happiness. We share what has worked for us in the past and how we have come to the stage we are now. We recommend listening to this episode if you are looking for ways in which happiness can be achieved or you could improve the contentment of your life.

In episode 8, we dive into a show for children called Steven Universe! This episode is special because our wonderful brother is a part of it. We discuss characters such as Peridot, Garnet, Connie and how we'd like brown people to be represented in mainstream media. We also get into how an individual may form strong connections with their friend or partner to the point where they can tell what the other's thoughts will be and their reaction to events and how we should strive to develop our relationships in this sense.