Cultured, or Nah?

In this episode, Shabnum sits down with Navpreet Sachdev (Nav the Poet) and Jaydeep Singh Ugra to talk about how being Sikh plays a role in one's understanding of identity. As a minority group within India as well as in the West, and given the Sikh community's at times strained relationship with the Indian government, we explore how being Sikh can sometimes be alienating from the identity of being "Indian", yet more intertwined with the cultural identity of "Punjabi." Jay and Nav tell us about their experiences growing up Sikh in the UK and US, and as a not-turbaned and turbaned Sikh respectively. 

Host: Shabnum Gulati
Guests: Navpreet Sachdev and Jaydeep Singh Ugra 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed
Music: AnAkkiN on SoundCloud 

In this episode, Shabnum is joined by esteemed film director Faraz Arif Ansari. Faraz has worked on numerous Bollywood projects, and most recently is known for their internationally award winning short film Sisak, Netflix's the Big Day, and their film Sheer Qorma (to be released later this year). Faraz and Shabnum talk about what's changing or not changing fast enough to allow for more queer representation in South Asian mainstream media, and how much further we still have to go. Faraz talks about their own journey coming out as a queer Muslim that is gender non-binary, and how they've learned that acceptance is not a destination, but a journey. We talk about the overlaps between faith and gender identity, between culture and gender identity, and culture and religion. Join us for this deep conversation on how we can come to celebrate our gender and sexual identities despite the pressures of society and culture! 

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guest: Faraz Arif Ansari 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed
Music: AnAkkiN on Soundcloud 

If you are Indian American, dancing is more than just a "hobby." It's a blood sport. How someone hasn't already made a reality TV show about the national Bollywood, Bhangra, and Raas competitions we all end up doing is a mystery to me (consider this my pitch, Netflix). Recently, on the Cultured, or Nah? story I posted a poll to ask if Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are also as into dancing as Indians. The results that came in explored a lot of nuance that goes back to how dance in India originally started, and the history of dance in itself. Most classical dances of India pre-date Jesus Christ! In this fascinating conversation, Shabnum sits down with Sudha Grover and Rohit Gijare to understand the history of Indian classical dance, the cultural spillover (or lack thereof) into Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, and the reasons why dance as a phenomenon has pervaded Indian Americans disproportionately to other Indians around the world! 

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guests: Sudha Grover, Rohit Gijare 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed 
Music: AnAkkiN on Soundcloud 

Is there a racial hierarchy when it comes to dating outside of our community? How difficult would it be to go against the 20-30 years of conditioning we've all had on what an acceptable partner looks like? And how does religion add in a third layer where most in the West only struggle with the "interracial" aspect of a mixed marriage? These are the questions Shabnum explores on this week's episode with Zara, Angie, and Tej. Zara is a British Pakistani woman from the UK who fell in love with a white British man from a Christian family. Zara tells us about navigating religion and marriage as a Desi and as a Muslim when these aspects of her identity were very important to her. Angie is Chinese American, and Tej is Indian American and the two talk about breaking the news to their own families while navigating how Sikhism fits into the picture. This episode is a really important one in understanding how Desis all over the world are for the first point in time breaking the established notion of what a successful marriage must look like on such a large scale . 

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guests: Zara Hadid, Angie Fu, Tej Dhillon 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed 
Music: AnAkkiN on SoundCloud 

In this episode Shabnum is joined by Rajiv Menon, a producer working in LA with a PhD from NYU in Masculinity and Global Pop Culture. Shabnum and Rajiv talk through a series of issues in our understanding of what Toxic Masculinity is today - starting with the question, "What is Toxic Masculinity?" We will deep dive into how a seemingly buzzworded concept can actually provide a rich vocabulary with which to have meaningful discussions on how masculinity, when purported in negative ways, can become harmful to both men and women in a society. We will also talk about how both men and women have to work together to combat a toxic form of masculinity, and how South Asian men in the west consistently facing the uphill battle of an emasculated identity coming from characters such as Apu on the Simpsons need to balance that identity with the identity of the "provider" or the "dutiful son" being thrown at them from their South Asian families. Join us in this discussion as we explore the challenges of being a South Asian male, and the role all of us have to play in making sure we are expressing masculinity in healthy ways. 

Host: Shabnum Gulati
Guest: Rajiv Menon
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed 
Music: AnAkkiN on SoundCloud  

In this episode, Shabnum is joined by Masterchef star, author, and celebrated Instagram blogger Hetal Vasavada on the unique place food holds in our culture. Desis have a complicated relationship with food. We all know that our mothers and grandmothers will force feed us until we're about to explode, but are also the same women that will berate us for gaining weight. What we don't always talk about though is the social capital that food has in our culture. There are certain gender norms associated with food, and food is distributed as a means of celebration - often in a way that has a debt associated to it. We also cover on the episode how food for Desis usually goes beyond social into the realm of political capital. Indian Independence is owed in large part to a series of hunger strikes, and hunger striking as a means of political protest is a custom that continues to this day. We also say a lot with food by using it as a means of ascertaining caste or religion. Join us in this conversation as we explore the many ways in which food holds more than just nutritional value for us! 

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guest: Hetal Vasavada 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed
Music: AnAkkiN on Soundcloud 

Just as with Hollywood, the fiction landscape is changing rapidly! Just this year, we had a series of books by South Asian authors hit the literary landscape and make waves throughout the world. In this episode, Shabnum sits down with Alka Joshi, author of "The Henna Artist," and Saumya Dave, author of "Well Behaved Indian Women." Both of these pieces of work came out in 2020, are works of fiction that feature almost all South Asian characters and families, and explore the role of the South Asian woman and all that is expected of her. This is true in Joshi's "The Henna Artist," a historical fiction book set in 1950s India, and Dave's "Well Behaved Indian Women," set in modern day America. It's striking how much similarity there is in what the characters face despite the different settings of each book.  Alka and Saumya both discuss the inspirations for their work as well as what is causing the widening of the publishing market that we are seeing today, allowing for more South Asian authors to tell stories from their perspective, and to talk about history from a perspective that is not just European. 

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guests: Alka Joshi, Saumya Dave 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed
Music: AnAkkiN on SoundCloud 

In the first episode of Season 2, Shabnum sits down with Faiza Gul and Jibran Ahmed to talk about the factors that contributed to Pakistani migration to the UK, a demographic that is much more sizable in comparison to Pakistani immigrants to the US. We talk about how and why so many Pakistanis moved to the UK in the 60s - 80s, the racism they faced, and a deeper look into some of the nuanced issues that British Pakistanis face in their own community. We will talk about the relationship of different South Asian groups to each other in the UK, and look to sort some of the myth from fact we hear in the media about the British Pakistani experience.

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guests: Faiza Gul, Jibran Ahmed 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed
Music: AnAkkiN on SoundCloud  

 

SEASON 1 FINALE! Thank you all so much for being loyal listeners! Can't believe we're already at the last episode of Season 1! In this episode, Shabnum talks to Priyanka Ganjoo, Pritika Gupta, and Seerat Saini about the evolving and widening beauty space as it relates to representation for South Asian women. Priyanka and Pritika are the CEO / Founder and Head of Partnerships of Kulfi Beauty, a budding beauty brand focused specifically on South Asian skin tones and undertones. Seerat is a fashion and beauty influencer and one of the co-founders of Brown Girl Memes who has been blogging about feminism and representation in the beauty space for a few years now. 

Priyanka and Pritika tell us all about the mission of Kulfi, and why creating these products are more important now than ever. The four of us discuss the hard lessons learned about starting a South Asian focused beauty brand in 2020 - the challenges the Kulfi team faced in getting funding for what was considered a "niche" market, grappling with the pandemic while trying to get a business off the ground, and what needs to change in the beauty space to allow for more women to feel comfortable in their own skin. Seerat tells us about her journey as a blogger talking about problems in the beauty space that aren't always talked about in the public arena, and the experiences that inspired her to take centerstage on supporting South Asian focused beauty brands. Check out the episode and let us know what you think! 

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guests: Priyanka Ganjoo and Pritika Gupta of Kulfi Beauty, Seerat Saini 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed 
Music: AnAkkIN on SoundCloud 

In this episode we discuss the Golden Age of South Asian content that we seem to be enjoying in America. Shabnum and Khan talk to Sujata Day, (as seen on Insecure and Awkward Black Girl)  who tells us about her latest venture writing/directing/producing Definition Please, and by Rajiv Menon, a producer that's had a windy path to a job in entertainment but loves to bridge the gap between South Asian and North American content. We talk about what kind of content inspired us all growing up to do what we do now, and how the small pieces of South Asian focused content that see the light of day have to carry the unfair burden of representing all of us. There's space for all of us in this industry, so when are we going to see the South Asian Barry Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, Christopher Nolan? 

We talk about the troubles of playing an Indian character in America, and how it would be difficult to get cast if you "didn't look Indian enough," and yet struggled to get cast in anything mainstream. However, the tide is definitely turning, and we explore what role streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu have played. We really hope you join us on this journey, as we covered the gamut of South Asian content having its heyday today.  

Host: Shabnum Gulati 
Guests: Sujata Day, Rajiv Menon, Khan Asghar 
Illustration: Hanifa Abdul Hameed 
Music: AnAkkiN on SoundCloud