City of Women

Former journalist, current writer and perennial Mumbai Girl Janhavi Samant takes us on a walking tour of the Dadar neighbourhood she’s called home her entire life.

Our thanks to Janhavi Samant and Saad Janhavi Shaan. You can read more about Janhavi’s relationship with Dadar and Mumbai in her book, Faaltugiri and other Flashbacks. 

This episode was edited and produced by Ashrita Achar and Menaka Raman. Menaka Raman is our Senior Producer. Yashwanth Vinay is our Sound producer. Ashrita Achar is our Associate Producer. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on X @thecityofwomen

Additional Audio used: 

Ganpati Visarjan Mumbai 2021 | Ganesh Chaturthi | Lalbagh | Ganpati | Deepankar Kumar by Deepankar Kumar CC BY 3.0

TreinBombay.wav by marwil CC SAMPLING+ 1.0

A writer shares how she lives. 

This episode is a part of our Literary City of Women Series. Thanks to Anandi Mishra, the writer. To read more of her work, you can find her on Substack at Scurf,or on X @anandi010

This episode was written, narrated and produced by Radhika Viswanathan. Menaka Raman is our Senior Producer. Yashwanth Vinay is our Sound producer. Ashrita Achar is our Associate Producer. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Additional audio used: 

Street Ambience India by guidofm -- https://freesound.org/s/509181/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

-40 SE 4ch DELHI theatre sanskrit play with tabla bells and string music.wav by SoundEnsemble -- https://freesound.org/s/516654/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Movie projector by crooner -- https://freesound.org/s/215741/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on X @thecityofwomen

What goes into naming a train? The Indian Railways has dozens of trains named after women - good women, strong women, virtuous women and brave women. We go through the list, wonder about the women who travel by trains, sometimes getting lost, and sometimes finding themselves.

This episode was written, narrated and produced by Radhika Viswanathan. Menaka Raman is our Senior Producer. Yashwanth Vinay is our Sound producer. Ashrita Achar is our Associate Producer. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on X @thecityofwomen:  

Ikyatha Yerasala is a journalist and content creator who has been documenting Kannada and Kanglish slang for the past five years. Her Instagram page Slangaluru is a vibrant space where old slang words are remembered, their meanings sometimes subtly altered for the times we live in, and new slang is coined in collaboration with the community. Listen to Ikyatha share her favourite slang words.

TW: Mature themes and language. Listener discretion is advised. 

Our thanks to Ikyatha Yerasala. 

Ashrita Achar and Menaka Raman edited and produced this episode. Menaka Raman is our Senior Producer. Yashwanth Vinay is our Sound producer. Ashrita Achar is our Associate Producer. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on X @thecityofwomen

Menaka always wanted to be one of the cool, sporty girls in her school. As a child she’d play for hours on the street, but as she got older she found herself retreating indoors, a place she was told was ‘safer’. As she grew older, how did she reclaim her right to exercise and play outdoors?   

Our thanks to Mathangi, Aakanksha, Yamini and Kamala.  

Written and hosted Menaka Raman. This episode is produced by Radhika Viswanathan. Our Sound producer is Yashwanth Vinay. Our Associate Producer is Ashrita Achar. Our Producer is Menaka Raman. City of Women is executive produced by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production. Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on X @thecityofwomen or at vaaka.in . 

 Sometimes we all want to escape for a little bit: from our homes, our lives, and even our selves. On a solo trip to Jaipur, a woman tries on a new skin and tells the story of what happened.  

This episode was edited by Ashrita Achar and produced by Samyuktha Varma. Menaka Raman was this episode’s interviewer, story editor and she is City of Women’s Senior Producer.

Our thanks to Nisha and Priyadarshini Gogoi.

Our Sound producer is Yashwanth Vinay. Our Associate Producer is Ashrita Achar. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production. Follow us on Instagram @cityofwomenpodcast or on X @thecityofwomen

Love is a many splendored thing. And so are booty calls. One intrepid woman shares her journey from not wanting a boyfriend, to falling in love to getting on dating apps in search of love. And while she doesn’t always find love, she does find lust. 

Trigger warning - this episode contains mature themes, listener discretion is advised.  

This episode was edited by Ashrita Achar and produced by Samyuktha Varma. Menaka Raman was this episode's story editor. Priyadarshini Gogoi was our fabulous guest interviewer. Our senior producer is Menaka Raman. Our sound producer is Yashwanth Vinay. Our associate producer is Ashrita Achar. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production. 

Additional audio credits: 

vinyl noise by tim.kahn CC BY 4.0 Car - pulling away by manychefsbroth CC BY 3.0 Heartbeat with deep breaths by under_the_hood CC0 1.0 Evil Laugh_1 by NinjaSharkStudios CC0 1.0 Group of children screaming by SpliceSound CC0 1.0 iPhone Texting by MATRIXXX_ CC BY 4.0 Scroll and Tap Foley - Touch Screen Phone or Tablet by UnplugThe Fridge CC0 1.0 Cue Scratch by Racce CC BY 3.0 forest summer Roond 014 200619_0186 by klankbeeld CC BY 4.0

Welcome back to a new season of City of Women. As India celebrates her 77th Independence Day this month, we thought it only fitting to begin this season with an interview with oral historian and author Aanchal Malhotra.

As part of our Literary City of Women series, we speak to Aanchal about collecting stories, specifically women’s stories, and the impact they have on those that share them and those that receive them. Aanchal tells us about what it's like to travel to a foreign city for the first time, the vocabulary of trauma and she also reads from her book The Remnants of Separation. 

 To know more about Aanchal and her writing visit her website, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. 

This episode was edited and produced by Radhika Viswanathan. Our Senior Producer is Menaka Raman. Our Sound producer is Yashwanth Vinay. Our Associate Producer is Ashrita Achar. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on Twitter @thecityofwomen.

Salma is a Tamil author, poet, politician and activist. Her novel மனாமியங்கள் published in 2017 was translated to English by Meena Kandasamy and published as Women, Dreaming. The book takes you into the inner world of women, women who have little opportunity to experience the world outside. Salma spoke to us of the escape books have provided, her desire for freedom and how she transgressed the boundaries laid down for her. Plus a reading from her book. 

This episode was edited and produced by Samyuktha Varma. Our Senior Producer is Menaka Raman. Our Sound producer is Yashwanth Vinay. Our Associate Producer is Ashrita Achar. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on Twitter @thecityofwomen

Where do you find those moments of sweet solitude? Adrija shares some of hers. 

Thanks to Adrija for sharing her story with us!

Thank you to Adrijia recording this conversation. 

This episode was edited and produced by Samyuktha Varma. Our Lead Producer is Menaka Raman. Our Sound producer is Yashwanth Vinay. Our Associate Producer is Ashrita Achar. City of Women is executive produced, hosted, and written by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma. City of Women is a Vaaka Media production.

Find us on Instagram at @cityofwomenpodcast or on Twitter @thecityofwomen