Indicast - Indians on India

Abhijit Dasgupta, the Deputy Editor of India Today Magazine was kind enough to join us on a Skype call from the beautiful city of Kolkata which is lately the cynosure of all Indian political news. Mamata Banerjee helped get WB on the front pages by winning the civic polls and two days before her landslide victory she made some rather controversial remarks about the Gyaneshwari Express train derailment. Abhijit, very eloquently talks about his experience of interviewing and covering the colourful politician over his career which spans over more than three decades. In other news, the missing black box from the Air India crash site has been retrieved. Chand Kumar Prasad, a 24 year old employed with the Indian Navy has been accused of spying. The heat wave in the north has reached new levels!

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The episode starts on a very sombre note with discussions around the Mangalore Air crash however the topics get a bit cheerful after that. On the occassion of completing one year of UPA II, the Indian PM Manmohan Singh decided to sit face to face with the press and provide an update about the work done. the other topics on this episode include, an All India bengali team conquering Mt Everest, Dawood 3rd on the Forbes Most Wanted List, and the 99 year old half marathon runner.

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It was the 150th Birth Anniversay of India's, for that matter - Asia', first Nobel Laureat. We start with remembering and talking about Rabindranath Tagore and a few side stories about his Life. We then digress to general opinions about Bengalis (hardly a surprise). The other topics include Jayram Ramesh getting pulled up by Manmohan Singh for mouthing off, Anand's winning streak, Nithari killer getting death sentence, and the death of tongas in Delhi.

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Terrorist Ajmal Kasab has been given the death sentence. Ujjwal Nikam, the public procecutor deserves a special mention. INS Shivalik marks a historic breakthrough in the history of Indian navy by becoming india's first stealth warship which is non detectable in high seas. Manmohan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar among many others find their name in TIME magazine's annual list of achievers. The Delhi University gave itself a bad name this week when it sold radioactive material to a scrap dealer!

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The IPL ended and so did Modi's regime. Chirayu Amin has been brought in as the interim chief of IPL. The Glocodyn man is thinking of doing away with Cheergirls and IPL nights and focus on cricket. (Modi is laughing somewhere). The other taopics include the 364 passenger having a near death experience and India's very own matahari.

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We recorded this episode a day before Modi was suspended. This podcast also talks about how the Mobile service providers in India have found new ways to milk the devotional customers where you could directly connect with God through an SMS. Aditya has some interesting examples. In Jammu and Kashmir, the government almost succeeded in banning the use of bulk SMSs for the fear of spreading rumors which could cause unnecessary panic.

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This week was all about Sania Mirza becoming Sania Malik. Aditya gives us a crash course in islamic weddings. We also end up talking a bit about the concept of VOIP marriages which Aditya is strictly against. In some sad news, 76 CRPF jawans were killed by the maoists. Mr. Chidambaram offered to quit, but his resignation was not accepted. We hold ourselves back this time before going on a rant on criticizing the government. You will know why when you listen to the episode.

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It's very rare for abhishek to get excited about any story that we discuss on Indicast with the exception of sachin scoring a century. But Milkha Singh selling his life story to be made into a movie for Re. 1 was something that got him going. He was so impatient that I spent most time figuring out how to get thim talking on other topics like the Kingfisher bomb scare, Mayawati's Maharally, and new teams being introduced in IPL 4.

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Here is a question for all you folks. See if you can crack it. What do you call a man who is an actor, screenwriter and director by profession, a sportsman who represented his country in one of the most physically demanding sports, a well informed social activist, a food lover, a stand up comedian and someone who describes himself as half Bengali, one fourth Maharastrian and one fourth Bengali by birth. Well, you can call the man Rahul Bose.Whether it is the Womens Reservation Bill which is making news at the moment or the beautiful craft of acting in movies, Rahul, in this candid chat with us is outspoken, eloquent and modest, a deadly combination.

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The day started with all of us reading about the tragic death of more than 10 people living in Bangalore when an office building caught fire. One of our listeners from Bangalore, Lakshmikant joins in to give us the ground zero POV of the unfortunate event. Later in the day, Sachin made history by scoring the first double century in the history of One Day International cricket. Pune blasts toll reach 15 and Telangana state claimed the life of a 19 year old to suicide. In other news, schools seeking donations can face some serious trouble with a new bill being passed. On the tech front, India will launch its first stealth submarine.

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