In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, ⁠Arati Kumar-Rao⁠—National Geographic Explorer, environmental photographer, and author—joins ⁠Vandita Morarka⁠ to explore the disappearing world of South Asia’s landscapes.

They discuss Arati’s journey from physics and marketing to environmental storytelling, her award-winning book Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink, and how photography and longform narrative can illuminate the “slow violence” of ecological degradation. The conversation also touches on sustainable living, attuning our senses to the environment, and the urgent need for direct engagement with nature to inspire meaningful action.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

00:00 Introducing Arati

01:05 Discovering the world of environmental storytelling

09:09 Passion vs. viability

13:32 The act of witnessing

18:42 Getting people to care

23:30 Unequal burdens and climate refugees

31:32 Listening to traditional ecological knowledge

41:29 Rethinking short-sighted development initiatives

50:01 Community, and on being inconvenienced

55:23 Women's voices in environmental narratives

01:02:13 Holding on to hope

01:07:50 Arati's reccs

01:13:03 Outro

In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, ⁠Annie Zaidi⁠—writer, journalist, and editor—joins ⁠Vandita Morarka⁠ to explore the limits of representation in literature and publishing.

They discuss the ethics of writing across difference, the demands of research and lived experience, and how accountability shifts between fiction and non-fiction. The conversation also examines publishing gatekeeping, linguistic hierarchies, and the risks of tokenism and performative diversity in politically charged writing.

Drawing from Annie’s work across genres and her editorial role in Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women’s Writing, this episode reflects on who gets to speak, who is heard, and what structural change might require.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

00:00 Introducing Annie

01:22 Navigating genre in writing

06:57 Authority, and writing across difference

12:09 The challenge of authentic representation

22:49 Researching lived experiences; separating the personal

25:41 On training as a journalist

31:39 Lessons from journalism

36:11 Editing Unbound, & structural exclusions in publishing

43:45 Tokenism and performative diversity

50:46 On returning to academia56:05 Advice to listeners

01:01:12 Annie's reccs

01:06:30 Outro

In this episode, writer and mental health advocate Amrita Tripathi joins ⁠Vandita Morarka⁠ to discuss narratives of care and the role of storytelling in mental health discourse.

They explore how lived experiences can challenge stigma, the ethical complexities of sharing personal stories, and the importance of consent and care in mental health writing. Amrita reflects on founding The Health Collective, weaving mental health into fiction, and how conversations around mental health in India are slowly evolving.

Amrita is the founder-editor of The Health Collective, which focuses on mental health and storytelling, and the founder of Tap In Tribe. for women and leadership. Check out Amrita's books The Other Sister and Sibius Knot. Amrita also hosts her own podcast, Say Again?!.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

TW: This episode contains mentions of suicide, violence, and self-harm. Please take care while listening, and step away at any point if you need to.In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, poet and artist ⁠Megha Rao⁠ joins ⁠Vandita Morarka⁠ to explore the role of art as a lifeline—something we need not just to express ourselves, but to survive.

They discuss “heroic vulnerability,” the courage of revealing one’s wounds through art, and the responsibilities that come with being an artist whose work resonates deeply with others. Megha reflects on healing as a non-linear journey, the power of revisiting childhood through writing, and how storytelling can help us reclaim joy and aliveness.

The conversation also examines her use of magical realism to engage with larger questions of power, greed, and social justice—offering art as a space for both intimacy and collective reflection.

Check out Megha's books Our Bones in Your Throat, and Teething, and poetry podcast Poems to Calm Down To. Megha's spoken word performances can be found on YouTube. Megha also often posts poetry on her Instagram page.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

—CHAPTERS

00:00 Introducing Megha

01:18 Heroic vulnerability

04:59 The responsibility that comes with changing lives

07:56 Art for survival

11:38 The journey of healing through self-discovery

20:30 Magical realism as a tool for political commentary

28:03 Ethical responsibilities of artists

33:09 The power of female friendships

38:44 Writing rooted in Kerala

48:37 The body as a site of artistic expression

52:50 For the listeners

56:02 Megha's reccs

58:56 Outro

In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, ⁠Ria Chopra⁠—writer and cultural commentator—joins ⁠Vandita Morarka⁠ to explore digital identity, feminism, and selfhood in the Gen Z age.

Together, they discuss how young people navigate fragmented online selves across platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp, and the particular pressures of code-switching within South Asian cultural contexts. The conversation reflects on writing about the internet from within it, the rise of digital feminism and influencer culture, and the tension between accessibility, authenticity, and rigour.

They also examine the “exhaustion economy” of constant visibility and productivity, before turning to questions of class, audience, and geography in South Asian digital spaces. The episode closes by imagining futures for Gen Z feminism—and what it might take to sustain meaningful, joyful engagement online.

Read more about her work ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ and buy Ria's book Never Logged Out: How the Internet Created India’s Gen Z ⁠NOW!⁠.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

—CHAPTERS

00:00 The Evolution of Digital Identity07:34 Curation of self across platforms10:04 Conformity in digital spaces11:59 The Robbers Cave Experiment15:05 The other side of online norms15:54 Social conditioning of women16:47 Role of age in curating online behaviour18:43 The Absence of safe spaces for learning21:07 Reflections on mistakes and personal growth23:03 The Interplay of online and offline selves27:13 A case for empathy29:01 Navigating professional and personal identities30:49 What made Ria who she is35:53 Rejecting capitalistic niche-ification38:16 Challenges of writing on the everchanging Internet44:01 The best medium to represent the internet....is the internet47:25 Feminism in the digital age56:48 The role of brands in feminist discourse01:02:05 The crisis of trust in institutions01:05:03 Finding joy in digital exhaustion01:10:34 Survival sans monetisation01:15:21 Empathy and sympathy in feminism01:18:20 Ria's reccs01:26:21 Outro

In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, ⁠Professor Madhavi Menon⁠—renowned scholar of English literature and gender studies—joins ⁠Kuhoo to explore the intricate politics and poetics of desire.

Drawing on Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaf, sufi poets, and everyday life, Professor Menon reflects on desire as something simultaneously seen and unacknowledged, thriving in places we rarely expect. She discusses the role of fantasy in shaping human yearning, and examines how law and morality influence whose desires are legitimised and whose are marginalised, especially in the context of India’s shifting legal landscape around sexuality.

This conversation asks us to reconsider what desire is, how we experience it, and what it reveals about the worlds we live in. Read more about her work here. Her books Infinite Variety and The Law of Desire can be purchased via Speaking Tiger Books, and Amazon.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, the team from ⁠Zubaan⁠—India’s pioneering feminist publishing house and NGO—joins ⁠Vandita Morarka⁠ (founder of SGBC) to explore what it means to be a feminist publisher in practice.

⁠Melissa Fernandes⁠, ⁠Aanchal Seema Khulbe⁠, and ⁠Indira Tayeng⁠ discuss how feminist principles shape editorial decisions, archiving, and on-the-ground community engagement. Together, they reflect on how Zubaan’s unique model bridges publishing and activism, preserves feminist histories, and continues to reimagine what feminist knowledge production can look like in South Asia.

⁠Follow Zubaan on Instagram (Books + Projects). Check out more of their work at Zubaan Projects⁠, and shop their wonderful titles at here⁠.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠sign up⁠⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

In this episode of the Sanskaari Girls Podcast, Vandita Morarka speaks with linguist, technologist, and translator Sowmya V. B. about the art and politics of translation. Through the lens of her work on The Hunger that Moved a Goddess, Sowmya reflects on what it means to carry meaning, rhythm, and emotion across languages.

Sowmya runs pustakam.net, a bi-lingual website with reviews of novels and films, short stories and interviews of famous Indian and global personalities; read her translated work here, here, here, and here, and follow her work with ‘Sowmya Writes….on Everything She Wants to’.

🎙️ The Sanskaari Girls Podcast is a podcast by the Sanskaari Girls Book Club (SGBC), a South Asian feminist reading community fostering critical engagement with literature, amplifying marginal voices, and building reflective, politically conscious conversations.

Follow SGBC on ⁠Instagram⁠, and ⁠sign up⁠ for the SGBC Membership!

In this episode of the Sanskaari Girls podcast, Vandita Morarka engages in a profound conversation with poet, activist, writer Meena Kandasamy, exploring the concept of the feminist killjoy. They discuss the complexities of speaking out against oppression, the emotional balance between anger and joy, and the role of silence as a form of resistance. Kandasamy shares personal anecdotes and insights on navigating loneliness in truth-telling, the importance of friendship and solidarity in feminist struggles, and the cultural significance of madness and possession in women's narratives. The conversation also touches on the influence of fiction on real-world feminism and concludes with recommendations for further reading on difficult women in literature.

Read more about Meena's work, follow SGBC on Instagram, and sign up for our (free) membership.

In this episode of The Sanskaari Girls Podcast, writer, editor, and essayist Rega Jha joins Vandita Morarka (founder of SGBC) to discuss the essay as a feminist form. From personal storytelling to digital platforms, Rega reflects on how essays can be both intimate and political—bridging personal experience with collective feminist thought.

Subscribe to Here/Now Studies, Rega’s newsletter, follow SGBC on Instagram, and sign up for the SGBC Membership.