The Yodakin Podcast

In the 25th episode of The Yodakin Podcast, author and activist Harsh Mander discusses his new book Under Grey Smoggy Skies: Living Homeless on the Streets of India's Cities, with Arpita Das, Founder-Publisher of Yoda Press. Under Grey Smoggy Skies brings together Mander's writings on the homeless, where he discusses the compassion and care we ought to show in our ideas of justice and our policies when dealing with India's homeless population. This conversation goes over his vast experience in the spheres of activism, teaching, and his work directly with the government and the Supreme Court. Under Grey Smoggy Skies is available in independent bookstores across the country, and can be purchased online using the following link: https://www.amazon.in/dp/9348566075. Arpita Das on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/arpitayodapressYoda Press on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yodapressThe opening and closing theme song is 'Typewriter' by Eric Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This podcast episode has been edited and produced by Tara Mathur.

The 24th episode of The Yodakin Podcast features a recording of a conversation between Arshi Javaid, author of 'Yaadgah: Memories of Srinagar', and Ekta Chauhan, Assistant Professor at the Jindal School of Design and Architecture, that took place on 31st August, 2025, at Studio Safdar. 'Yaadgah: Memories of Srinagar' was released in May 2025 by Yoda Press, and brings together 14 essays dedicated to the old city of Srinagar. It discusses the city’s transitional urban geography and demography, the gendered urban landscape, and its multicultural neighbourhoods. Through this conversation, Chauhan brings to the table her engagement with collective memory and alteration of urban landscapes, and discusses with Arshi Javaid the myriad inspirations behind 'Yaadgah'. This event would not have been possible without the support of Studio Safdar and Mayday Bookstore. You can purchase 'Yaadgah' at the following link: https://www.amazon.in/Yaadgah-Memories-Srinagar-Arshi-Javaid/dp/934856644XThe book is also available in independent bookstores across various cities. Arpita Das on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/arpitayodapressYoda Press on Instagram: @yodapress The opening and closing theme is 'Typewriter' by Eric Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This podcast episode has been edited and produced by Tara Mathur.

In our 23rd episode, Padmini Mongia reads from her short-story collection, 'Baby Looking Out and Other Stories', published by Yoda Press in 2018. Padmini Mongia teaches literature in English at Franklin & Marshall College. She is a teacher and scholar, a writer and painter. In this special episode, she recites the second chapter of the book, titled "The Bat and His Kite", where a bat named Pond/Chipku, learns to fly a kite. Stay tuned for future readings from the author! The book is available online, as well as in independent bookstores across India: https://www.amazon.in/Baby-Looking-Out-Other-Stories/dp/9382579230Arpita Das on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/arpitayodapressYoda Press on Instagram: @yodapress A special thank you to Devansh Mathur for providing the background score for this episode! The opening/closing song is 'Typewriter' by Eric Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This episode has been edited and produced by Tara Mathur.

Our 22nd episode is a special one, where Arpita Das, Founder-Publisher of Yoda Press, moderates a panel between three of our authors, as part of the 2025 Ananke Literature Festival. She talks to Arshi Javaid, author of Yaadgah: Memories of Srinagar; Neeta Kolhatkar, author of The Feared: Conversations with 11 Political Prisoners; and Namita Waikar, author of Farmers Protest! A Movement for Our Times. The theme for this year's festival was 'Speaking Truth to Power', which we believe each of these titles epitomise, through their powerful words; of hope, of resistance. The panel was originally recorded and uploaded in April 2025. Each of the aforementioned titles are available on Amazon through the links attached below, as well as in independent bookstores. Yaadgah: https://amzn.in/d/gG6ZobEThe Feared (with Simon & Schuster): https://amzn.in/d/gG6ZobEFarmers Protest!: https://amzn.in/d/h0wPWv5Yoda Press on Instagram: @yodapressArpita Das on X (formerly Twitter): @arpitayodapressThe opening song is 'Typewriter' by Eric Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This podcast has been edited and produced by Tara Mathur.

For our 21st episode, the last of 2024, we have Naima Rashid reciting a few of her poems from Sum of Worlds, published by Yoda Press in September 2024. Naima Rashid, an author, poet, and literary translator, deals with themes of migration, motherhood, and living between different cultures, places, and languages. In Sum of Worlds, Rashid questions the nature of the self as it is shattered and put together again. Sum of Worlds is available worldwide on Amazon using the following link: https://www.amazon.in/dp/9382579974 Yoda Press on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yodapress/ Arpita Das on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/arpitayodapress The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Eric Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This podcast has been produced and edited by Tara Mathur.

In our 20th episode (in our 20th year!), Founder-Publisher Arpita Das is in conversation with environmental lawyer and legal scholar, Arpitha Kodiveri. Arpitha Kodiveri is the author of 'Governing Forests: State, Law and Citizenship in Indian Forests'. Among other topics, the two discuss the centring of forest-dwelling communities in environmental law, how Dalit and Adivasi communities tackle judicial and State oppression, and the extraction of consent from these communities. Arpitha Kodiveri is an environmental and justice scholar and assistant professor of political science at Vassar College. Her work focuses on the role of law in redressing climate harms faced by South Asian indigenous communities. She has previously worked as an environmental lawyer to support Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities in India. In Governing Forests, she describes how these communities bear the cost of both rapacious mining development and increasing pressure for forest land to be set aside for environmental conservation. Despite these challenges, Kodiveri shows how the traditional owners and inhabitants of forest areas are driving creative solutions in forest law. Hope can be found here, in each community’s unique vision of co-governance, expressed in the language of care and repair. Buy the South Asian edition here: https://www.amazon.in/dp/9382579958 Internationally available here: https://www.mup.com.au/books/governing-forests-paperback-softback Follow Yoda Press on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/yodapress/ Arpita Das' Twitter/X: https://x.com/arpitayodapress The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Eric Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This podcast has been produced and edited by Tara Mathur.

In the 19th episode of The Yodakin Podcast, Publisher Arpita Das is in conversation with queer activist and writer Maya Sharma. Maya Sharma is the author of two pathbreaking LGBTQIA titles, Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged India (2006) and Footprints of a Queer History: Life-Stories from Gujarat ( 2022). Among other things, the two talk about queer identities, the importance of listening to queer narratives, lived realities and experiences of marginalised people, and claiming space. Footprints of a Queer History is a simple narrative of queer stories marked by personal journeys, political consciousness, socio-legal struggles, friendships, and love; it puts on record, within the larger historical backdrop, our humdrum and unexceptional acts of everyday-living that are pierced with the pain of stigma and silence. Stories capture the voices of the marginalized, the rarely heard, and only stories can truly and fully capture their day-to-day reality. They transcend the limitations of defining human experiences and show the impossibility of telling the whole truth, arousing the imagination for that un-tellable tale and leaving room for the inarticulate to attempt those spillages of reality that can only be sensed. As you turn the pages in this book, you can hear the untold and the unstated in the stories—both unique and universal, you may find footprints that echo some parts of your journey in the everydayness of our human lives. Buy it here: https://www.thedogearsbookshop.com/shop/books/non-fiction/hobbies/footprints-of-a-queer-history-life-stories-from-gujarat/ Arpita Das's Twitter: https://twitter.com/arpitayodapress Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yodapress/ The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This episode has been produced by Srishti Khare and edited by Srishti Khare and Arsh Kabra.

In this episode of The Yodakin Podcast, Publisher Arpita Das is in conversation with renowned historian, Prof. Chinnaiah Jangam. Prof. Jangam translated Gabbilam:A Dalit Epic by Gurram Jashuva from the Telugu into English. Among other things, the two talk about the legendary poet Gurram Jashuva, importance of Dalit narrative traditions, significance of the word 'epic' and the recent reproduction and restructuring of the history of the nation. Gabbilam presents a Dalit man as the hero and protagonist perhaps for the first time in the classical verse-epic tradition of Indian poetry, and is the earliest text to highlight the oppression, exclusion, and dehumanization of untouchables in casteist Hindu society. It occupies a pre-eminent position in the Telugu literary sphere, not just for the depiction of Dalit suffering but also for bringing the language of ordinary people into the classical medium. In its English translation for the first time, this Dalit epic can now be read and relished by a global audience. Buy it here: https: https://www.amazon.in/Gabbilam-Dalit-Epic-Chinnaiah-Jangam/dp/9382579362 Arpita Das's Twitter: https://twitter.com/arpitayodapress Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yodapress/ The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound.This episode has been produced and edited by Srishti Khare.

In this episode of the Yodakin Podcast, Publisher Arpita Das is in conversation with renowned Malayalam author B.M. Zuhara about her book ‘Dreams of a Mappila Girl’ and Fehmida Zakeer, a brilliant translator. Among other things, the three talk about Zuhara’s childhood and her childhood home, what it means to grow up as a woman who asks many questions, the familial critique and backlash Zuhara had to face when publishing her literary works as well as the intoxicating cooking smells engulfing the air in her childhood home. A celebrated award-winning Malayalam author pens her memoir of growing up in a unique community of Kerala. The memoir is translated by one of the foremost translators of Kerala. Buy it here: https://www.amazon.in/Dreams-Mappila-Girl-Memoir/dp/9354792804 Arpita Das's Twitter: https://twitter.com/arpitayodapress Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yodapress/ The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This episode has been produced and edited by Srishti Khare.

In this episode, Arpita Das, publisher and founder of Yoda Press, is in discussion with Lisa Björkman, Assistant Professor of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, and the author and editor of the book Bombay Brokers. Among other things, they discuss how the idea for the book originated, the gendered aspect of the 'brokers', and the paradox of brokers being indispensable and celebrated as well as being moralized by society. Lisa also reads her favorite extracts from the book. Bombay Brokers collects profiles of thirty-six 'brokers' whose behind-the-scenes expertise and labor are often invisible and yet have an intrinsic role in the city's functioning and can be indispensable for navigating everyday life in Bombay. Written by anthropologists, artists, city planners, and activists, these character sketches bring into relief the paradox that these brokers’ knowledge and labor are simultaneously invisible yet essential for Bombay’s functioning. Links to buy the book: https://pagdandi.org/product/bombay-brokers-edited-by-lisa-bjorkman/ https://champaca.in/products/bombay-brokers?_pos=1&_sid=5ae994a1a&_ss=r&variant=39652064133155 Arpita Das’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/arpitayodapress Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yodapress/ The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound. This episode has been produced and edited by Chitraksh Ashray. 

In this episode of the Yodakin Podcast, Arpita Das and graphic novelist and researcher Samarth discuss the experiences that led to the creation of the graphic novel Suit. Samarth talks about how he chose the theme of manual scavenging for his novel, the field trips for research, the influence of comic books while growing up and how he chose the graphic novel as the medium to tell this story.  Suit is set in a Mumbai of the near future, when Safai Karamcharis have been provided with safety equipment, including a full body safety suit which gives them the moniker of Suitwalas. The story explores stigma, social change and mobility through the eyes of Vikas, a young "Suitwala". The book makes the reader question whether anything has changed in reality or is the suit just a cover? The book speculates what change could look like in a profession so steeped in exploitation and exclusion, where the persistent stigma infuses every step towards betterment with a bitter aftertaste. Links to buy the book: https://booksetcstore.com/collections/book-of-the-month/products/suit https://www.midlandbookshop.com/en/product/suit https://champaca.in/products/suit?_pos=20&_sid=119238c18&_ss=r&variant=39573478703139 https://www.amazon.in/Suit-Samarth/dp/938257932X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=106WFDCO3S4SX&keywords=suit+by+samarth&qid=1659003528&s=books&sprefix=suit+by+samarth%2Cstripbooks%2C432&sr=1-1 This episode has been produced and edited by Chitraksh Ashray. The opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound.

In this episode, Kanchana Viswanathan reads some extracts from Chellammal's Journal: A Woman's Memoir of a Joint Family in Twentieth-Century India. Chellammal’s Journal records the journey of a woman in an upper-caste joint family in early twentieth-century Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. It excavates the complex familial relationships within the walls of the house, and the interplay of love, hurt, affection, disappointment, anger and control which thwart the aspirations of a young woman. Written at a time when dissent or disagreement by women in Chellammal's circumstances would have been frowned upon, the book provides the reader with a rare, contemporary look at the interior of an upper-caste twentieth-century Tamil household, even as her daughter Kanchana Viswanathan’s translation brings the narrative to life for non-Tamil speaking readers for the first time. Buy it here: http://yodapress.co.in/chellammal-s-journal. This episode has been produced by Tanya Singh and edited by Chitraksh Ashray. Opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound.

In this episode, Sophia Naz reads some poems from Open Zero. Open Zero is at once a visceral close up of the stark ground realities of loss and an evocation of its many shapes; the ongoing erasure of a syncretic culture in the manufactured narratives of nation-states post Partition; the slipping away of self-esteem in the face of sexism and misogyny and the ravages of rapacious capitalism on an increasingly fragile planet, our collective, imperiled home. With an innovative structure that straddles manzanitas and Mohenjo Daro, ancient mausoleums and modern media; often incorporating Urdu in Naz’s signature bilingual homonyms, Open Zero is an affirmation of the power of language to transcend, to avenge loss by creating lasting beauty from a vanished world. Buy it here: http://yodapress.co.in/open-zero. This episode has been produced by Tanya Singh and edited by Chitraksh Ashray. Opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound.

Author and professor, Dolly Kikon sits down with Arpita Das to discuss her book Living with Oil and Coal. Among other things they discuss the idea of extraction in the North-East India, the haats that were at once places of connection and resentment and gender that plays a pivotal role in the coal economy.  The Yodakin Podcast is hosted by Arpita Das. It is edited by Tanya Singh. Intro music is by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound. 

In this episode of The Yodakin Podcast, Arpita Das talks to Kavita Daiya about her newest monograph, Graphic Migrations: Gender and Precarity in India and the Diaspora. Among other things, they discuss the external and internal solutions that the modern states have offered to the question of migration, the ways in which depiction of Partition has evolved in the popular media and print culture, the term 'fugitive narratives' and the work of 1947 Partition Archives and their enduring effort in keeping the Partition memory alive.  The Yodakin Podcast is hosted by Arpita Das, founder-publisher of Yoda Press. It is edited by Tanya Singh. Intro song by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound. 

Arpita Das sits down with author Anuradha Kumar and talks to her about her latest work of literary fiction, The Hottest Summer in Years. Among other things, the two discuss Anuradha's literary influences, how she brought 1950s India to life in her novel and her journey as a writer writing across genres and how she moved from fiction to non-fiction writing.  The Yodakin Podcast is hosted by Arpita Das, founder-publisher of Yoda Press. It is edited by Tanya Singh. The intro song is by Mac Taboel via Epidemic Sound. 

In this episode, Arpita Das, publisher and founder of Yoda Press, is in discussion with Anne-Cathrine Riebnitzsky about her book, The Women's War: A Female Soldier’s Account of Her Time in Afghanistan. The book narrates the gripping true story of Riebnitzsky's tours to the Helmand Province in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009. There she comes into contact with the Afghan women who are fighting against oppression, domestic violence and the horror regime of the Taliban, and together they initiate a covert collaboration. The women receive the necessary aid to establish dressmaking rooms, beauty salons, chicken farms and other projects while being aware of the fact that the international military forces are their only chance to get rid of the Taliban.  Das and Riebnitzsky discuss how this book emerged out of the friendships built by a soldier with Afghan women who helped the international military forces in unexpected ways. It is a book by a woman in the armed forces about what war does to women, about the looming risk of taking chances in wartime and about grief over fallen friends, but more importantly, it is about how women in one instance found the will to not only survive but to make something out of the terrible conditions that war brings. 

Bhairavi: The Runaway, by Shivani urf Gaura Pant, has been translated from the Hindi for the first time in English by Priyanka Sarkar. On the eve of this book's launch, Arpita Das, founder-publisher of Yoda Press, sits down with Mrinal and Ira Pande, Shivani's daughters and esteemed writers, and with Priyanka Sarkar, to talk about Shivani's process of writing, her inspirations, how she carried the role of a writer in the 1970s and 1980s India and how much of an effect her resilient female characters have on young women even today.  Bhairavi: The Runaway is the first book in the joint imprint of Simon and Schuster India and Yoda Press. 

Publisher Arpita Das and author Thomas Crowley discuss his upcoming book, Fractured Forest, Quartzite City and delve deeper into the history and politics surrounding the Ridge in Delhi. In this conversation Crowley not only maps the ancient past of the Ridge but also deciphers the future of this ecological wonder that will ultimately shape the environmental impact it could have on Delhi. 

Bhaswati Ghosh and Arpita Das sit down to discuss Victory Colony, 1950, Ghosh's debut novel on the aftermath of the Indian Partition. They discuss the inspiration behind the novel, which is set in Calcutta, its deeply resilient protagonist Amala Manna and how history has treated the Partition on the eastern border of India.

Arpita Das and psychotherapist and author Nupur Dhingra Paiva sit down to discuss the effects of lock down across the world due to COVID19. How children are the most affected but are also the most resilient. Nupur Dhingra Paiva also talks about the way children's coping mechanisms have a lot to teach us about how we view our self isolation. Tune in!

On 13th December 2019, Goldsmiths Award nominee, Sarah Ladipo Manyika sat down with Arpita Das, Publisher-Founder of Yoda Press. Their candid conversation over coffee included Sarah's inspiration behind her extraordinary novel, her love for stories that remain untold and most importantly, why she feels that it is the young people of today that grapple most with the anxiety around ageing.

This excerpt is from our book Open Couplets written by Torsa Ghosal. Somewhere in the dingy lanes of north Kolkata, a young girl born to a family of idol-makers learns to carve goddesses with her own hands, a right that her artisan father had reserved for her brother. But, years later, when Ira Chatterjee—a breezy, jet-setting ethnographer born in the same neighbourhood—comes looking for the girl, no one knows where to find her.Elsewhere, in the middle of America, Ira lives with her friend, Fasahat Zaidi, a poet, translator, but mostly, a raconteur extraordinaire from Lucknow. One day Fasahat is reciting ghazals at a bar in a saree, another day he is emailing Ira outlandish tales starring the likes of Mir and Insha. Until one day he goes mysteriously missing and no one can tell what became of him.Determined to find those who nobody remembers, Ira embarks on a labyrinthine journey, a chimera-chasing adventure, only to confront her own state of oblivion.Buy it here -http://yodapress.co.in/open-couplets

In this episode of The Yodakin Podcast we bring to you Miss Hadd from Padmini Mongia's collection of short stories titled 'Baby Looking Out and Other Stories'. One evening Miss Hadd sits down and tells young children a frightening story---a story that could come true because all her stories are true. All you have to do is look, and see.

The quiet, bookish narrator who walks with a limp and often feels like the odd one out is drawn to the story of the beautiful Mohua who died a hundred years ago but still resides in her ancestral mansion on Moira Street in the heart of Old Calcutta. He finds himself outside the dilapidated mansion one day, sipping cha at a local tea stall and listening to the oddball cha wala narrate the story of the Deys who once owned the mansion. Unable to resist the temptation to make his life more meaningful the narrator enters the mansion, only to find that his life will never be the same again.