Creating Life

Exploring the Dimensions of Language

Languages are such an important part of our identities, and they resonate with us on a personal and cultural level. As we move to a more globalized society, language is a thread that links us back through space and time to where we come from. Sharanya Deepak's piece "Coming Home, One Word At A Time" reminded us of this when we read it. In it, she explores her personal relationship with Urdu after she starts taking classes to formally learn it, and Urdu's relationship with her hometown Delhi. We spoke to her about how she came to write the piece, her unique family mosaic and how she straddles different identities based on each language that she speaks, and how Urdu interprets the world in its unique way. After talking to Sharanya, we talk about a number of language-related trends that are happening around us - the rise of both a larger English-speaking class and the vernacular Internet in India, how languages carry much more in them than we generally think, and which Indian languages are dying out and what responsibility we have as a culture to preserve them. We also discuss: Sajith Pai's article on the rise of the Indo-Anglian caste in India. The rise of vernacular tech services like ShareChat and Vokal. WikiTongues and its mission to save the world's dying languages. Ganesh Devy and the People's Linguistic Survey of India. How Singlish is being threatened by the Singaporean government. Music Credits: Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Dhaka" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) "Vadodora Chill Mix" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) "Me In Your Life" Music By The Passion HiFi www.thepassionhifi.com Sorrow by Sappheiros | https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US Our logo is designed by @aparna_ramanujam.

The Endgame of an Era

Few film franchises have transformed pop culture worldwide as much as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is 22 films in, and it shows no signs of slowing down. With the biggest film in the franchise, Avengers: Endgame, releasing this week, Nikhil and Sindhu explore the relevance of the MCU as a global phenomenon, how it has become a box-office juggernaut even in markets like China and India (where it had an unprecedented local publicity strategy on multiple fronts), and where it is headed as a global platform for diversity and representation. Joining them for the discussion are guests Siddhant Adlakha, freelance film critic for publications like The Village Voice, Polygon, and /Film, who did a deep dive of all the MCU films leading up to Endgame for /Film in a series called 'Road to Endgame', and Vedang Patel, co-founder of the online merchandise company The Souled Store, an official Marvel merchandiser. After talking to Siddhant and Vedang, Nikhil and Sindhu get into a spoiler-filled conversation around Endgame to discuss how carefully designed it is to ensure maximum emotional and narrative satisfaction, the constraints that the MCU faces with the stories it tells, both from a production and a box-office standpoint, and what we're all trying to get out of the MCU, and whether we're actually at the end of a particular era. And how cool is the logo for this episode? @aparna_ramanujam kills it every time. Music Credits: "Me In Your Life" Music By The Passion HiFi www.thepassionhifi.com Music from https://filmmusic.io: "Chill Wave" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Sorrow by Sappheiros | https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusic Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US Incredibly Close by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Is Hollywood Down with Brown?

After seeing the news about Lilly Singh getting her own NBC late night show and Mindy Kaling and Priyanka Chopra working together on a new film in the same week, we thought we would dig into how South Asian representation has evolved over the years, how much race and ethnicity should factor into a conversation about representation, whether South Asians in their home countries should care about how they are represented in Hollywood, and more! This is by no means the definitive conversation on the subject - but we think it's a good start. Things we discuss: brownhistory, an Instagram account (UPDATE: the student Nikhil mentions was in the US, not the UK!) Lilly Singh's announcement on Jimmy Fallon (Credit: NBC) Lilly Singh's video on back to school shopping (Credit: ||Superwoman||) The Problem With Apu (Credit TruTV) The Party (Credit: MGM) Aziz Ansari Goes To India (Credit: The New York Times) Utkarsh Ambudkar's Dev Patel story (Credit: The Rick Roll Podcast) Priyanka Chopra's Quantico interview (Credit: The Today Show) Mindy Kaling's response on being a South Asian showrunner (Credit: Paley Center) Music Credits: Flying High by jantrax | https://soundcloud.com/jantr4x Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US "Me In Your Life" Music By The Passion HiFi www.thepassionhifi.com Music from https://filmmusic.io: "River Fire" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) "Jalandhar" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Our show logo and the logo for this episode was designed by @aparna_ramanujam.

Building a Brand Outside The Multiplex feat. Ashwin Kakumanu

The Tamil film industry, commonly referred to as Kollywood, is a difficult place to break into and navigate as an artist. Nepotism is a mainstay, misinformation and competing interests regularly run amok, and projects can get stalled at every step of production. How does an actor stay sane in this crazy place? How can he chart a career when so many factors influencing it are out of his control? And how can he maintain a healthy balance between his public image and his personal life? These are the questions we discuss with actor Ashwin Kakumanu today. Ashwin has been working in Kollywood since 2011, when he acted in Nadunisi Naaygal (trans: Midnight Dogs, 2011). He then went on to work with established stars like Ajith (Mankatha) and Surya (7aum Arivu, trans: Seventh Sense), after which he branched out into leading projects himself in films like Megha (2014) and Zero (2016). He recently starred in one of the first Tamil webseries in the industry - Nila Nila Odi Vaa (2018) - available for viewing on the streaming platform Viu. Our discussion with Ashwin is a deep dive into Ashwin's journey in cinema, from starting out a huge Star Wars buff to short filmmaker to actor, and it's also an honest discussion of the challenges he has faced in the industry. He also discusses his move into the digital space - he's working on another webseries - and how he's building his brand outside the multiplex. It's a candid look at Kollywood from someone who has made a career in it over the last eight years. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did. Subscribe to Creating Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whichever platform works for you! Music Credits: save my life again by Barradeen | https://soundcloud.com/barradeen Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US "Me In Your Life" Music By The Passion HiFi www.thepassionhifi.com "Spanish Winter" Music By The Passion HiFi www.thepassionhifi.com Oceans by IvPem | https://soundcloud.com/ivpemofficial Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US Our logo was designed by @aparna_ramanujam.

Sustainable Fitness with Strength System

What role should fitness play in our lives? How do we move past clichéd tropes like crash diets and whey protein and have a more balanced relationship with our journey towards physical wellbeing? How do we overcome crises of motivation in our fitness journey? Is it possible to get addicted to activities like Soul Cycle and CrossFit, and what are the economic privileges associated with most forms of fitness-based activities today? Is it fair to judge people who don't work out? These are some of the questions that we dig into in this episode, and to help us make sense of it all, we're joined by Prashanti Ganesh and Sandeep Achanta, co-owners of Strength System, a fitness center and gym in Chennai. Sandeep and Prashanti's fitness journey is as interesting as their expertise (in their 'past' lives, they worked as a journalist and graphic designer, respectively), and their philosophy is less about six-pack abs and more about being comfortable with your body, wherever that comfort comes from. They're also young entrepreneurs running a profitable business: they launched Strength System when they were only 25! We love how honest and intimate this conversation is, and we hope you think so too. Subscribe to Creating Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whichever platform works for you! Find out more about the show at creatinglifepodcast.com, and you can email us at creatinglifepodcast@gmail.com. Music Credits: Summer Coffee by Barradeen | https://soundcloud.com/barradeen Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US "Me In Your Life" Music By The Passion HiFi www.thepassionhifi.com Our logo was designed by the amazing @aparna_ramanujam.