Radio Azim Premji University

Ed Sheeran would have been very much at home among the ancient Greeks. Because they, too, were in love with the shape of…everything, actually. Shape. And area and volume. And angles. The ancient Greeks were on a quest for precise measurement and perfect shapes. If their architecture is anything to go by, they knew a thing or three about proportion. Using simple tools they measured to precision and...

What is the mood in the streets of India on August 14, 1947? If you expected cheering crowds and processions of jubilation on the eve of Independence, here’s the sobering truth: not everyone is celebrating. For some princely states, accession to the Indian Union is not a natural choice. Punjab, Sind and Bengal, cloven by Partition, witness scenes of horrific violence and the displacement of millio...

Remember that dreaded figure your teacher scrawled on the margin of your math test paper? It’s the hero of this episode. Our much-villainised zero has a fascinating history. The Babylonians, as we discovered in Episode 1, may have arrived at a placeholder for zero, but the actual symbol did not enter convention until the 7th century in the Indian subcontinent. It later became a foundational elemen...

Cohost Seetal joins expert Josy Joseph in conversation in this penultimate episode of The India Project. As they unravel the story so far, they bring on stage the key characters for a curtain call. What became of Travancore Diwan Sir C P ’s machinations in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on him? What were the moves being planned by the Nizam of Hyderabad? In the wake of the Japanese Arm...

Babylon, as the story goes, is where applied mathematics took baby steps. “What, really?!” asks Shraddha. Remember the place value system that makes it easy to represent small and large numbers? That originated in Babylon, according to historical records that show that Babylonians had independently discovered the place value system as early as 2000 BCE to 1900 BCE. That’s more than a millennium be...

In August 1947, as India took the final steps towards becoming an independent nation, numerous actors thronged the chessboard in the northeast of the country, contemplating their moves. Among them was the Governor of Assam, Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari, who initiated talks with the respective princely states and ethnic dominions of the northeast, including the Naga Hills, Khasi Hills and Mizo H...

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And it’s no surprise that Ghalib is one of the most adored, emulated (and imitated) Urdu poets. More than a hundred and fifty years after he passed into the ages, Ghalib’s legacy lives on and has acquired new vigour in contemporary music, literature, cinema and pop culture. Perhaps the most enduring of his legacies is the ghazal, a poetic form that is o...

From online to offline to online again. Zoom classes with the cameras off. Halloween under blankets. This wild, exhilarating spell of college through the pandemic has been equally testing and redeeming. But all good times end in a bittersweet mash of memories and musings. For this special valedictory episode, the Radio APU Campus Cast crew whips together a melange of voices from outgoing seniors....

So far in this series, we have explored various facets of Ghalib — Ghalib the lover, Ghalib the mischievous, Ghalib the belligerent. Yet, the question has always lingered after reciting his verses: Was Ghalib being a deliberately difficult poet? Did his poetry demand grappling with the intellect in an effort to understand it? Or, was it trite and meaningless and merely designed to confound? If you...

Did you know that Bhopal has a rich history, and a role to play in the cloak-and-dagger drama that preceded Independence? Before it came to be the capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal was the second-largest Islamic princely state in British India. In fact, Bhopal State had a long lineage of rulers, including a succession of female Nawabs or Nawab Begums, unique in Indian history. The last ruling Nawa...

Mental health is so vast and layered a subject that it’s not ever possible to confine the discussion to a single episode. Yet, here we have made a start, addressing the elephant in the room. From being mindful of our moods, to understanding our emotions. From being wary of self-labelling and labelling others, from knowing how to speak about mental illness to seeking help for it, we have all the co...

Ghalib is timeless, but he is equally very much a man of his times. In this episode, we revisit the man in the moment. We eavesdrop on the days of his youth, a teenaged poet writing in chaste Persian. We hobnob with his coterie of disciples and patrons, friends and foes. We hear from Ghalib’s contemporaries in the poets’ society, some of whom taunt him saucily for the apparent incomprehensibility...

Happy Ugadi/Baisakhi/Gudi Padwa/ Pohela Boishakh from Radio Azim Premji University! We returned from semester break to a Bengaluru blushing with a floral tribute to the change of seasons. The peachy hues of Tabebuia, the comforting mauve of Jacaranda, the stunning firecrests of the Flame Of The Forest, the hot pink of Cassias, the deep purple of Pride of India… no wonder they once called this the...

A car chase in Bombay climaxes in a cold-blooded street murder and a foiled abduction. A cornered potentate, chastened by a scandal, agrees reluctantly to abdicate. Amid the power play of dangerous liaisons, this episode of The India Project packs it all in. After our exploration of the fraught politics of The Princely States in Episode 1 and the mutinous designs of Travancore to renege on the Uni...

Ghalib on religion would have crashed Twitter. Much ink, and blood, have been spilt over religion and faith throughout human history. Yet, nothing stopped Mirza Ghalib from playfully exploring these realms, where even the boldest present-day poets tread with caution. Ghalib on Twitter would have been a powder keg but, in those arguably more patient and forgiving times, not only did his tongue-in-c...

What About Science? Ep 2 - 30 shades of TMT Proteep Mallik is passionate about staring into space — with purpose. To those who need an introduction, Proteep is with the School of Arts and Sciences, where he teaches the undergraduate course in Physics. He has a master’s degree in Optical Sciences and is an astronomy aficionado. In this engaging episode, he talks about the 30-metre telescope that is...

Episode 2 - Speaking To The Beloved In this episode of Yun Hota To Kya Hota - The World Of Ghalib, host Amit Basole ponders the enigma of Ghalib the lover. How did Ghalib speak of love? Whom did Ghalib love? He transports you to the heart of the ghazal. Zia Mohyeddin, the British-Pakistani actor renowned for giving voice to the lyrical seduction of Ghalib’s poetry, died on February 13. Ghalib is a...

Because it’s February, this is the love episode. What’s the worst Valentine’s Day gift you can give anyone? Find out on Campus Kya Kehta Hai! From being broken-hearted to being broke, from breaking up over WhatsApp to enduring cafeteria grub because you enjoy the company (aww), how far will you go for love? In Explore More, discover a confluence of passion and purpose at Sarla, an artist’s residen...

A man of great contradictions… that is how the learned and venerable reformer and technocrat Sir Chetput Pattabhiraman Ramaswami Iyer is introduced in the second episode of The India Project with Josy Joseph. In the summer of 1947, Sir CP had drawn up an aggressive plan for independence… not of India, but of the princely state of Travancore, of which he was the Diwan from 1936 to 1947. As the cloc...

Neanderthals. Never since dinosaurs has an extinct species caught the fancy of so many. Still, many of us are still in a haze about who Neanderthals were, why they are no longer around, and -- the 10 million Swedish Kronor question -- how similar are they to you and me? On this episode of ‘What About Science?’, journalist and host Nandita Jayaraj catches up with computational geneticist Shweta Ram...

Episode 1 Campus Cast is a lively radio magazine produced by Radio Azim Premji University. Exactly how lively? Episode 1 sets the trend, riffing on the Republic Day sentiment with a jaunty take on the Preamble to the Constitution of India. Making holiday travel plans for Republic Day? Make a quick dash to Dhammagiri Buddha Vihar on the outskirts of Bengaluru. And while you’re there, you can’t help...