Episodes
Trailer
Welcome to the Hum Hindustani Poetry Podcast. This podcast is a curation of poetry written by children in workshops that were part of the Hum Hindustani research project. Listen to their poems and think about the ideas of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Perhaps, the poems will open a window to the world we seek to live in.
Episode 1
The poems in this episode are about Liberty. The writers describe their idea of freedom through metaphors drawn from their lived experiences. The commentary examines their use of metaphors from the natural world and how these remind us that freedom is also about connections, and that freedom cannot exist for one without existing for all. The episode features a response to the poems by award-winning children’s writer, Anushka Ravishankar.
About the Guest
Anushka Ravishankar is a writer of children’s books who often writes poems which make children laugh and introduces them to the joy of words and sounds.
Some of her award-winning titles include:
• Alphabets are Amazing Animals
• Excuse Me, Is this India?
• Moin and the Monster
• Tiger on a Tree
• Today is My Day
Episode 2
This episode features a collection of poems written by middle school children that explores what makes them Indian. The poems encourage us to think about nationality and belonging, and how these are intertwined with everyday experiences. Can there be a sense of belonging that is ever expansive, that grows and swells to embrace more and more, that does not exclude but always includes? The episode features a response to the poems by poet, writer and editor, Sushil Shukla.
About the Guest
Sushil Shukla is a writer and a poet, and heads the publishing house Ektara that brings out children’s books and magazines. He is the editor of the Hindi children’s magazines, Pluto and Cycle. Some of his award-winning books include:
• Kyun Karta Hai
• Ek Batey Baarah
• Feriwale
• Tiffin Dost
• Yeh Saara Ujala Suraj Ka
Episode 3
In this episode, children speak about how they experience freedom in their everyday lives – children from cities and villages, girls and boys, from poor families and not so poor ones, from Hindu and Muslim and Sikh families. By listening to the children speak about what makes them feel free, is there something we can learn about the nature of freedom?
About the Guest
Shuddhabrata Sengupta is an artist with the Raqs Media Collective, a writer and political commentator who has been thinking long and deeply about the idea of freedom. The Raqs Media Collective was founded in 1992 and has exhibited widely, including at Documenta, the Venice, Istanbul, Taipei, Liverpool, Shanghai, Sydney and Sao Paulo Biennales. Works by Raqs are part of several contemporary art collections and museums, and their essays have been published in numerous anthologies. Shuddhabrata is also one of the founders and contributing editors of kafila.org. His political commentary and essays have been widely published in India and abroad.
Some of his writings on freedom include:
• The Garden of Freedom
https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/lessons-that-shaheen-bagh-teaches-us-about-citizenship
• A modest proposal to end all controversies on freedom of expression in India
https://kafila.online/author/musafir/page/19/
• Art in the Time of CAA
https://caravanmagazine.in/arts/art-in-the-time-of-caa
Episode 4
The poem in this episode is about Equality and Inequality, and was written by a child in a library in a slum redevelopment in Mumbai. The child has shared examples of equality and inequality that she has observed in her everyday life. There are examples from her home, her school, her neighbourhood and even from the larger world that makes up the country she lives in, India. Perhaps, you will recognize some of the examples.
About the Guest
Manish Jain is an educator who has taught both children and adults who go on to teach children. The idea of equality is woven into much of his work that seeks to deepen our understanding of how the world can become more equitable. Manish teaches in the School of Education Studies at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). His teaching and research interests lie at the intersections of history, politics, sociology of education, and he specialises in the areas of citizenship education, education policies, history of education and teacher education. He has been awarded several fellowships at universities in Canada, Germany and the UK.
He has co-edited:
Education, Teaching and Learning: Discourses, Cultures, Conversations, published by Orient Blackswan
School Education in India: Market, State and Quality, published by Routledge
He has also contributed to:
Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia
Curriculum Studies in India: Intellectual Histories, Present Circumstances
Episode 5
When asked about when they felt equal and when unequal, children across different spaces often shared similar experiences – feeling equal when a festival is celebrated together; feeling unequal when a teacher was more lenient with another student or feeling that a parent favoured a sibling. But there were also many examples that came from the particular experiences that individual children had had. The poem in this episode has both kinds and speaks with great sensitivity about how the poet has experienced both equality and inequality, and even exclusion in her life.
About the Guest
Thejaswi Shivanand is a teacher and library educator. He is keenly interested in widening the library movement to include all educational spaces that engage children. He is a books curator at Champaca Bookstore, Bangalore and leads the library programme, working with children and anchoring professional development. He has taught in the Library Educators Course (English) for several years and is currently teaching a course for adults on appreciating picture books. He has a deep interest in the transformative potential of libraries and archives working together, and is currently exploring this while on the advisory board of QAMRA, an LGBTQI+ archive located within the NLSUI library, Bangalore.
Find more on his work at:
https://champaca.in/collections/staff-recs-thejaswi-recommends
https://qamra.in/
Episode 6
The poem in this episode is written by a young girl in a village in Firozpur, Punjab, who regularly attended the Farmers’ Protests of 2020-21, both outside Delhi and at the sites near her village. The poem was written as an exercise on equality but the child-poet’s words reveal a much larger landscape. They take us beyond what is normally seen as a child’s world. Is the child’s world really smaller than the adult world? Or are we limiting it and ignoring the layers of meaning that lie in children’s experiences?
About the Guest
Farah Farooqi is Professor of Education at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, Faculty of Education, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. Previously, she worked for eight years at the Department of Elementary Education, Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi. Farah has written on issues of education, identity, marginalization, ghettoization, cultural politics and school ethnographies. Farah writes both in Hindi and English. Her journey as Manager of a government-aided school was published by Eklavya as Ek School Manager ki Diary. She has also published in journals and magazines such as Economic and Political Weekly, IIC Quarterly, Learning Curve, The Caravan, The Wire, Shiksha Vimarsh and some international forums such as The Friday Times (Lahore) and Max Weber Stiftung (London) on several issues in Education. Farah has contributed as chief advisor and author to the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for Environmental Studies for Classes IV and V, published between 2006 and 2008. She has also written for teachers and teacher-trainees.
Her recent book published by Routledge (2023) is titled, Education in a Ghetto: Paradoxes of a Muslim-Majority School. More on the book can be found here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003407140-1/introduction-farah-farooqi
Episode 7
The poem we share today was written by a 14-year-old studying in a municipal school in Govandi, Mumbai, reflecting on the idea of Fraternity that the Constitution of India promises to all its citizens. What does fraternity mean? What does it look like – in the home, at school, in the neighbourhood or in the country? When do we feel it – is it when we experience a sense of belonging? Does that come from where we are born or where we live? When does it happen – when we come together? And what if we don’t? What of those times? Does the fact that the Constitution promises this to all citizens mean that we all feel bound together, in fraternity? The poem interrogates the idea of belonging, drawing from everyday lived experiences, leaving us to wonder whether we can indeed make the world anew.
About the Guest
Nisha Abdulla is a Bangalore based theatre-maker practicing as a playwright, director, dramaturg, and educator. Her anti-oppressive arts practice places care, curiosity and community at the core of the creation process. Nisha is particularly invested in exploring the interplay of identity-belonging-power-gaze in the contemporary socio-political context. She is the Artistic Director of Qabila, where her work centers new writing and the dissenting imagination. She is also a founder member of OffStream, an artist collective that makes and enables creative projects around anti-caste advocacy. Nisha also teaches at schools and universities; most recently she was guest faculty at Azim Premji University (Bangalore) and NALSAR University of Law (Hyderabad).
For more on her work, visit:
https://linktr.ee/nishaabdulla
Episode 8
The poem narrated in this episode was written as part of an exercise in which children were asked to reflect on their everyday life and when they had felt a sense of belonging. The poet is 14-years old and studies in a municipal school in Govandi, Mumbai. She lives in a densely packed compound of high rise buildings where people who lived in slums and pavements from all over Mumbai were rehoused. Living in such a space means coping with the lack of facilities such as poor sanitation, no safe play areas and uncertain power and water supply. What do children experience in such circumstances? How does that affect their relationships with those around them? And from where do they draw their sense of belonging?
About the Guest
Natasha Badhwar is a writer, film-maker, teacher. She has a graduate degree in Psychology from Delhi University and a post-graduate degree in Mass Communications from Jamia Millia Islamia University, and is a Professor in the Media Studies Department at Ashoka University. Natasha started her career as one of India’s first women camerapersons in news television with New Delhi Television (NDTV). She quit 13 years later as Vice President, Training and Development. A popular columnist, Natasha’s columns are published in BBC Hindi, The Tribune, Mint Lounge and The Morning Context. She is the author of the memoirs, My Daughters’ Mum and Immortal For a Moment, published by Simon & Schuster India. With Harsh Mander and John Dayal, she has co-authored Reconciliation, Karwan e Mohabbat’s Journey of Solidarity Through a Wounded India, published by Westland Books. With Harsh Mander and Anirban Bhattacharya, Natasha has co-authored When The Mask Came Off – Lockdown 2020: A People’s History of Cruelty and Compassion. She has received the Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2016 and 2022, in the reporting and web documentary categories.
Find more at:
Natasha Badhwar on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, LinkedIn, The Tribune and Mint Lounge
My Daughters’ Mum — Natasha Badhwar
Immortal for a Moment — Natasha Badhwar
Natasha Badhwar’s newsletter on Substack
Natasha Badhwar’s old blog on Blogspot
Natasha Badhwar’s Memoir Writing Course
Parenthood — Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar)
Reconciliation: Karwan e Mohabbat’s Journey of Solidarity through a Wounded India — Edited by Harsh Mander, John Dayal and Natasha Badhwar
Why my daughters don’t go to school anymore — Natasha Badhwar interviewed by Manisha Natarajan. (Full video.)
The most important lesson learnt as an #unschooling parent — Natasha Badhwar
The Joys of Walking Out — Natasha Badhwar and Sahar Beg
To Fail Without Feeling Like A Failure — Natasha Badhwar
The real difference between my husband and me — Natasha Badhwar
Roger Ebert and me: How tragedy and Twitter bonded us across continents — Natasha Badhwar
In Conversation with Roger Ebert — Natasha Badhwar
A welcome note for new husbands and wives — Natasha Badhwar
Five things to learn from the man you love — Natasha Badhwar
Fatherhood is a funny thing — Natasha Badhwar
Imposter Syndrome.
What we say and what we mean, the fine art of small talk — Natasha Badhwar
Episode 9
The poem in this episode is about the Farmers’ Protest of 2020-2021, the Kisan Andolan in which farmers across several states of India came together to resist new farm laws that the government had introduced. There were many arguments for and against the laws, just like there are many varied practices of farming across the country. The protest continued for over a year, through the COVID 19 pandemic, with farmers’ communities setting up camps that became almost temporary cities on the borders of Delhi. Families from villages came and spent weeks at these sites. For many of the children who came too, this was an experience like no other. The poem in this episode shows us how such an experience influences a child’s understanding of community, of power and of resistance. And in that understanding lie possibilities of imagining change.
About the Guest
Poonam Batra is one of India’s leading academics in the field of elementary and teacher education, formerly with the Central Institute of Education, University of Delhi. Her work spans multiple areas of knowledge: public policy in education; curriculum and pedagogy; teacher education and gender studies. Her recent research examines the politics of school and teacher education reform; comparative education imperatives; inequalities, education, and sustainability; and decolonisation of teacher professional development. She is Co-Investigator and India lead on the GCRF funded Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) southern-led research network.
Find more at:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0049085720958809?journalCode=scha
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11125-020-09518-6
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16823206.2013.877358
https://oxfordre.com/education/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-427
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1479-367920190000036011/full/html
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://tesfindia.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Revised-TESF-Background-Paper-Addressing-Inequalities-Jan-2023.pdf
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/TESF-India-Background-paper.pdf
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:/www.researchga…bal-South.pdf.
https://tesfindia.iihs.co.in/
Episode 10
Many different voices emerged during our workshops and for the last episode of our podcast, we curated a poem from these diverse voices. It is a collective poem, created with responses shared by children to a one-line exercise on the idea of Liberty. Their concerns range from freedom in personal spaces as well as the outside world. Perhaps, you may find your own thoughts and feelings somewhere in this amalgam.
This is the last episode in our podcast but our collective endeavour to make sense of our complicated and intertwined histories must continue. We hope the podcast created a shared space to discover what we may not have experienced, to find resonance with another’s world. The children’s words, the children’s voices can help us find, reinforce and celebrate the plurality that lies in the idea of Hum Hindustani.
About the Guest
Sampurna Chatterji is a writer, translator, editor and teacher. She writes for both adults and young people and has collaborated on writing poetry across languages with other poets.
Of her twenty-one books, nine are for young people. These include The Bhyabachyaka and Other Wild Poems (Scholastic, 2019), co-authored with Welsh poet, Eurig Salisbury; her YA novel, Ela: The Girl Who Entered the Unknown (Scholastic, 2013); The Fried Frog and other Funny Freaky Foodie Feisty Poems (Scholastic, 2009); and her creative retelling, The Greatest Stories Ever Told (Penguin, 2004). Her books for adults include the short story collection about Bombay/Mumbai, Dirty Love (Penguin, 2013) and eleven poetry titles—the latest being Unmappable Moves (Poetrywala, 2023). Sampurna’s translation of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose – Wordygurdyboom! – is a Puffin Classic; and her translation of Joy Goswami’s prose poems After Death Comes Water (HarperCollins, 2021) has been lauded as a recreation of the Bangla originals in “a living voice, as inventive and vivid as the English of Joyce”. She teaches writing to design students at IDC, IIT-Bombay and can occasionally be spotted on Instagram as @ShampooChats.