What Lies Beneath, A Feminist Exhumation
In this episode, Safina narrates bitter-sweet experiences of reporting within one’s own community and listening to women who are so rarely heard by anyone, let alone the mainstream media. Having found her feet in freelance journalism without giving in to the temptations of sensational breaking news, she states how free she feels when she is not bound by the editorial processes and policies of the newsroom.
In Kashmir, ‘young’ and ‘addiction’ have become synonymous. Now, a band of youngsters enjoying their youthful time around a lake is seen with intense suspicion and concern rather than amusement and well, nostalgia. (Jawaen chu jawaanihun lutf tulaan, as they say in Kashmir).
Food has been an issue for most of my life. It has stood like a giant question mark between my relationships, my friendships, outside my home, inside my home.
In November 2021, a group of eleven women found themselves sitting together in a room in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Three of us (Anushi, Ekta and Angarika) had traveled from Bangalore, and the rest from different parts of Madhya Pradesh. There was a nervous energy in the room. “Why do you think we’ve all come here?”
The fourth episode features Neha Dixit who claims that journalists need their legs more than their brains. As she narrates experiences from sting operations and press releases, she demystifies investigative journalism and reveals how it’s not one mysterious tip but rather mundane legwork that breaks the biggest stories.
The third episode features Nidhi Suresh who takes us to Lakhimpur and Hathras, and makes visible the violence that takes place on the scene post the crime. She negotiates quid pro quo with local reporters and highlights the importance of slow and quiet questions even (and especially) when hordes of reporters are covering one story.
Among the many gifts that the classroom throws in my face, one that I am equally envious and enamored by is the beehive of female friendships all around me.
Prisons are taken for granted within ‘civilised’ societies; we often do not think of the what and why of the institution. Often, we find ourselves at one of three points on a continuum: being oblivious and uninterested, feeling secure in knowing that there is a prison, or being concerned about the people who reach prison.
The second episode features Neetu Singh, who built her career with Gaon Connection, and by consistently challenging the notion that a journalist’s job stops at the report. With tremendous insight into how to work with local structures to get a job done, Neetu Singh reminds us that it all begins – and ends with – details, details, details.
The first episode features Priyanka Dubey, who talks to us about her journey of documenting violence and crime, her inner life and mental landscape after doing this job for the last 14 years, and how she carries grit and poetry to every scene of crime.
