49 episodes

Carolina Desis Gurtej Singh and Rashmili Vemula explore life as the children of Desi immigrants in today’s America. Constantly immersed in and inspired by two contrasting cultures, these South Asians raised in the American South discuss their experiences with “living a double life” and the challenges in reconciling the cultural and societal differences surrounding them daily.

Thought-provoking, sharp, and occasionally silly, Gurtej and Rashmili question and flesh out the South Asian experience in the Western world for Desis and non-Desis alike. Join our hosts as they find common threads, not just among Carolina Desis, but also across the human experience as a whole.

The Carolina Desi Gurtej Singh & Rashmili Vemula

    • Society & Culture

Carolina Desis Gurtej Singh and Rashmili Vemula explore life as the children of Desi immigrants in today’s America. Constantly immersed in and inspired by two contrasting cultures, these South Asians raised in the American South discuss their experiences with “living a double life” and the challenges in reconciling the cultural and societal differences surrounding them daily.

Thought-provoking, sharp, and occasionally silly, Gurtej and Rashmili question and flesh out the South Asian experience in the Western world for Desis and non-Desis alike. Join our hosts as they find common threads, not just among Carolina Desis, but also across the human experience as a whole.

    CD49 Definition Please, a Conversation with Sujata Day

    CD49 Definition Please, a Conversation with Sujata Day

    Sujata Day is a performer, creator, writer, and director known for her work on HBO's Insecure as well as her film directorial debut Definition Please (now streaming on Netflix), among others. Join us as Sujata discusses her background, her work, how she turned her creative ideas into reality, the specific challenges her team overcame in film production and distribution, and so much more!
     
    https://www.sujataday.com/definition-please
     

    • 52 min
    CD48 Sufi Scholarship with Arpan Bhandari

    CD48 Sufi Scholarship with Arpan Bhandari

    Today we are joined by Arpan Bhandari, PhD candidate of Islamic Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, for a fantastic conversation around Sufism and scholarship. We discuss Arpan's background, surviving in academia, the value of the humanities, the basics of Sufism, its influence on Bollywood and modern pop culture, and some of the most prominent Sufis in history (Rumi, Al-Hallaj, Hafiz, etc). It's sure to be an exciting conversation you won't want to miss!
    IG / FB / Twitter: @arpandholi

    • 57 min
    PODSWAP: Brown People We Know (Ranjan Ravaliya)

    PODSWAP: Brown People We Know (Ranjan Ravaliya)

    Brown People We Know, hosted by Suraj Kandukuri, is an interview podcast with South Asian Americans taking non-traditional career and lifestyle paths. By sharing these stories, the podcast aims to break down stereotypes about South Asians and to reduce social pressures from within the diaspora community to take a certain path.
    In this episode, Suraj interviews Ranjan Ravaliya who is a retired engineer who earned her PhD in Chemistry in India during the 1980’s. At 62, she decided to come out of retirement by visiting Haridwar in India and training to become a priestess. Today, at 67, she goes by the moniker The New England Priest as she officiates weddings. In this episode, Ranjan shared the story of her family leaving Tanzania during Idi Amin’s time and about earning the nickname “Rapid Ranjan” as she hiked Kilimanjaro years later. They talk about her decision to pursue higher education despite her father’s wishes, and the funny way that she convinced him to pay for it. And she reflected on parenting as a single mother of two and what she sees her role as a grandparent today.

    • 44 min
    CD46 Southern Fried Asians with Keith Chow

    CD46 Southern Fried Asians with Keith Chow

    The Carolina Desis teamed up with Keith Chow (@the_real_chow) of the Southern Fried Asians (@southernfriedasians) podcast and the Nerds of Color (@thenerdsofcolor) to put out a special episode discussing this year’s rise in awareness towards AAPI issues as well as the general complexity involved in being labelled as “Asian-American”, especially for those of us living in the American South. What are the similarities in our stories? Who gets to be counted in the coalitions being built? And what does solidarity look like between all of us? Join us as we discuss all these questions and more!
     
    IG & Twitter: @the_real_chow
    IG: @southernfriedasians
    Twitter: @southernasians
    All channels: @thenerdsofcolor

    • 48 min
    CD45 International Choreographer and Filmmaker Tricha Kumar

    CD45 International Choreographer and Filmmaker Tricha Kumar

    Tricha Kumar is a professional dancer and filmmaker who also happens to be the Bollywood film industry's #1 dance choreographer of Bhangra. Join the Carolina Desis this week as Tricha sits down with us to discuss current projects, her philosophy on dance as a career and an artform, the state of Bhangra in Bollywood, the value of labor as a backup dancer, adjusting to Covid, and so much more!


    IG: @tricha.k
    Twitter: @trichakumar
    Website: trichakumar.com
    MOON: facebook.com/moonthefilm
    MOON: https://moonthefilm.com/
    Witness to a Devouring Monster: https://www.instagram.com/wtadm_film/
    WTADM Fundraising: https://seedandspark.com/fund/wtdamfilm#story

    • 53 min
    CD44 Invisible India with Jessica Kumar

    CD44 Invisible India with Jessica Kumar

    We've spoken before about the immigrant experience coming from South Asia to the US, but never the other way around! This time, we get to know Jessica Kumar, an American Midwesterner and Co-host of the Invisible India Podcast. Over time, Jessica found herself building a life with her husband and children halfway across the world in India. We sat down to ask Jessica about her work, her transition to life in India, raising bilingual children there, the misconceptions she had before arriving, and much more.
    Invisible India episode mentioned:
    Debunking Misconceptions about India @InvisibleIndia on IG @IndiaInvisible on Twitter @TheInvisibleIndia on FB

    • 27 min

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