Indicast - Indians On India

The odds of Bihar being in the world spotlight are a million to one. An eclipse made it possible. NASA declared a small town named Taregna in Bihar as the best place to witness what was the longest and one of the most beautiful sights in the sky. Planed earth experienced a complete solar eclipse on July 23. Back on the ground, the Continental Airline has been taken to task because some ground crew member had the audacity to frisk our former president, APJ Kalam. Outside in France, Sarkosy has gotten tough on anyone who wears anything remotely associated with religion; the Sikhs are not too happy about it. Rahul Gandhi has taken an oath of sorts to expel all party members with criminal records.

Dr Manmohan Singh is a natural remedy for sleep disorders, says a western journalist and we couldn't help but comment on that as our PM is back from an overnight visit from Paris where he attended the French National Day Parade as the the chief guest. In politics, the Supreme court has given clearance to Mayawati to erect those statues costing crores of rupees. Aditya has strong opinions on this one. Also, we call in our listener to discuss a rather amusing story of Air India stuffing in three more passengers after the house full board was up.

No one knew about Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code until the High Court fished it out, amended it and the media splashed it on prime time and front pages. Section 377 stated that no man or woman could engage in sexual activity which is against the order of nature. This archiac law was finally amended by the High Court and in this episode, we mull about how big a deal is it really? The Kargil War completes its 10th anniversary and in another international news, Bernie Madoff is sentenced to 150 years of imprisonment for his billion dollar fraud, but Aditya is not too happy about it!

She might be the chief minister of one of the poorest state in India but that doesn't mean the state has no money to splurge. Mayawati in on a statue inaugration binge which has now been challenged in the Supreme Court. In other news, we talk about the Below Poverty Lines stats that have been anounced, Nandan Nilekani joining as a cabinet minister, Afzal Guru mercy plea, and ICC's attempt to make tests interesting. But the highlight of this episode is the Lalu and Mayawati joke by Abhishek.

Indians are once gain reminded about how how diverse the country is. While North India was undergoing a heat wave, the South eastern country was washed away by heavy rains. In the other significant news, we talk about our plans for the upcoming 100th episode of Indicast. We are looking forward to some generous financial support this time from you and hope that you empty your wallet for a good cause. IN other news. we talk about India's T20 exit, new lady Lok Sabha speaker, and what's up between Mayawati and Lalu?

There is a new trend in Australia - Beat the Indians. Until a month ago, it was only on the cricket field but now its on the street. Indian students are being targetted and beaten up in hate crimes. While this is going on in Australia, Indian Sikhs are killing each other in Austria. As a result people went crazy in Punjab and caused damages worth Rs. 7000 crores that too in recessionary times. Other topcis include Afzal Guru mercy plea, air traffic woes, Cabinet ministers and other ramblings

Congress scores a big win in the World's largest democratic election. It no longer depends on any of its alliance parties to keep it in Power but will that mean better and sensible governance remains to be seen. In the other big news, LTTE chief Prabharakaran has been killed by Sri-lankan. We talk about what the LTTE has given the world. You will be surprised to know that the list is pretty interesting.

We made a passing reference to Bofors deal in the last episode which made a research it a bit and thought that it would be good to talk about what the big deal about it was and sub inspector has been punished for possibly doing his job. Other topics include women topping the UPSC exams this year, and ISI training women for terrorism.

After all the drama and ruckus created by the Mumbaiites post 26/11, it was a no show on election day. Only 43% of us decided to vote while the rest most probably enjoyed a long weekend but a few voters in Madhya Pradesh decided to cast a "no-vote". This episode also covers the suprising death of the man who discovered pebbles in Ambani's helicopter, how the slowdown has resulted in the increase in UPSC applications, and why a tigress in Ranthambore was conferred the Lifetime achievement award.

The performers are ready. The biggest democracy drama is set to unveil itself. In this podcast we wonder what it would be like if Advani and Dr Manmohan Singh were to debate aka Obama and Mc Cain. But then we have Mulayam Singh Yadav wanting to ban English in schools since it soils our culture. In another news, a son kills his dad for voting for a wrong party .And IPL has kicked off and Bhajji and Dhoni are in the news for other reasons

Continuing our election updates, BJP released its election manifesto containing all the things that they would do if elected and how did congress react? Congress says that 70% of the manifesto has been ripped from UPA's manifesto. Also, you know that its election time when a leader choses to address the a rally through his cell phone. The other updates include Karnatak topping the list of voters ready to sell their votes for cash, Pooja Chopra winning the Miss India 2009, Kasab getting a lawyer and the Queen gets a new iPod from Obama.

We spent 21 of the 22 minutes talking about politics or the lack of it. Aditya and I ended up at two ends talking about Mayawati, the politician with a not so impeccable track record and Meera Sanyal, the ABN Amro bank head who has nothing to her credit yet, but is taking baby steps in contesting this years elections. Politics and entertainment are never mutually exclusive; we have SRK campaining for Congress. In another news, Congress has reserved 50 per cent seats for NRIs and Aditya is livid!

India celebrated Holi just like any other year, but this time with some organic flavour. After the bomb blasts less than a fortnight ago, Pakistan is confident of hosting cricket matches by the end of this year. Aditya opines that Pakistan has bigger problems and that list is endless. India is not making any healthy headlines either. A 19 year old lost his life to careless college ragging. In cricket, India beat New Zealand and Sehwag became the fastest Indian to score a century in an ODI. May be that's the only good news that we've read in the papers for a long time now.

Pakistan cricket must have stepped closer to its grave with the recent brutal attempt to assassinate the touring Lankan team. Taliban, like a malignant tumor is spreading across Pakistan and the government seems helpless which does not bode too well for India. Back home, the election dates have been announced, but India doesn't surprise the educated world by coming up with options like one Ansari who has a string of legal charges going against him (or for him) on his resume.

While Obama took office in the US, the Indian politics was having a ball of a time in amusing its citizens. What is the former Indian captain, Azaruddin doing in Indian politics, you may ask, but when Sanjay Dutt's wife Manyata is rumored to contest for Samajwadi Party, nothing seems weird. On a more hopeful note, our martyrs were awarded Ashoka Charkra on Independence Day for showing unparalled courage fighting the terrorists. Slumdog millionaire has made it to almost all possible award ceremonies and now it's time for the big one - The Oscars. But we are not too happy with the film makers for paying peanuts to the three young stars of the film who still wake up in their thached huts and have nowhere to go. In another news, Qutub Minar is tilting and the authorities are doing everything to save the monumentfrom collapsing!

2009 has started off with what might turn out to be the largest scam in India Inc's history. Raju revealed how ordinary people can do extraordinary things just like Satyam's website mention. But the week had some positive news with AR rahman winning at the Golden Globe for his work in SlumDog Millionaire. Talking about people in Bollywood, SRK has been listed as the 41st most influential person in the world and Sanjay Dutt has finally decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections on a Samajhwadi Party ticket. We end the episode talking about Pamela Anderson's letter to BMC about being kinder to the stray dogs.

As we get into the new year, we look back at 2008 and talk about the significant events that took place. Sadly, the negative events dominated 2008 and we really had to look for something that cheered us up in the year gone by.

A wounded tiger is far more dangerous than a hungry one. India has lived this cliche for a long time now, but only to the extent of being hungry and wounded. It is far from dangerous; in fact, if you listen closely, you might hear some whimpering. It has been a fortnight since the terrorists ripped through Mumbai. Since then, the Taj has been rebuilt; Trident announced that it will be reopening soon, the CST is back to being a host to millions of people daily and our politicians do not have any concrete answers about why it all happened, what steps should we take now and whether it will happen again. Aditya, who travels through local trains in peak time, shares his observations about how his fellow passengers now double up as detectives and how daily traveling has become an unfortunate adventure.

It's an epidemic of sorts now. It struck again. It lasted for 60 hours. Mumbai bled. As viewers stitched to the TV set like umbilical chords, it was psychologically draining to watch the footage of Hemant Karkare readying himself to take control before he was shot dead with two other ranking cops Salaskar and Kamte, to see the deserted CST station daubed in red, to stare at the burning Taj as the our men with woefully inadequate infrastructure brought it to an end. Amid the chaos, journalists became household names whose voice, sometimes desparate, sometimes hopeful blared through our TV sets. While some sensationalised it, a few others acted responsibly. Yogita Limaye is one such reporter from CNN IBN who clocked two nights straight near the Taj running relentlessly on adrenalin and in this podcast, she gives us an on-ground perspective of the events that unfolded.

With companies going bust and countries filing for bankruptcy, newspapers are hunting for less cliched headlines. One story from NYT caught our attention. It claimed that pets are not recession proof. People who cannot afford to pay their rents are now forced to abandon their pets! In Sports, Sachin Tendulkar gave us a reason to celebrate his world record of scoring the highest number of runs in test match cricket. We cheered for Arvind Adiga who won himself the prestigious Man Booker Prize for his book, 'The White Tiger'.