The best Indian podcasts

I follow Rajdeep Sardesai on Twitter. One of his recent tweets led to my discovering Indicast, in my opinion the best Indian website for podcasts. Media students will love Indicast and our audiovisual communication students who need to produce a radio feature in the third semster will get some good ideas — check it out here.

And listen to one of my favourites (descriptions from the site):

• Point Blank with Rajdeep Sardesai

In this podcast, Rajdeep Sardesai takes us back to his school days and talks passionately about his cricket, table tennis, and quizzing before drifting into journalism after studying law at Oxford University. His dad, Dilip Sardesai, comes to life in the conversation when Rajdeep talks fondly about the values that he grew up on.

Rajdeep started his career at a time when television was yet to make its debut and in his words, "Journalism wasn't as glamorous as it is today. There was a lot of drudgery involved." Rajdeep reasons out why the quality of modern journalism has been in decadence. Yet he is hopeful that this only presents an opportunity for some interesting stories to be told. He believes that news channels will soon be judged on their credibility and integrity and not on how much noise they  can make. He also uses strong words against the "quick fix" journalism that Indian media indulges in under the veil of "investigative journalism".

Like an experienced Test match opening batsman, Rajdeep Sardesai plays it safe in the "V" until the 9th minute and then cuts loose without mincing words in the slog overs right until the last minute.

(About seven minutes into the interview, Rajdeep talks fondly for some time about his "educational visits" to the newsroom of The Afternoon, the newspaper I helped to launch in Mumbai in 1985.)

Two benefits of Twitter that I can think of

1. You get a maximum of 140 characters for your tweet, so you need to be brief and, at the same time, you have to be clear about what you are saying. Not very different from being a journalist? In any case, Twitter helps to sharpen your editing skills. Here's how:

A recent status message I posted on Facebook:

The next time you're at Subway, go for the Italian BMT — it really hits the spot! Leave out the "pickle" (as I did yesterday), add an extra dose of the jalapeno, and stick to the barbeque and honey-mustard sauces. Important: Ask for the honey-oat bread. Scrumptious!

I had to edit it down for Twitter:

Next time at Subway, go for the Italian BMT on honey-oat bread. No "pickle"; extra jalapeno; barbeque and honey-mustard sauces. Divine!

BTW, I didn't know what BMT stood for. Here's what I learned from Yahoo Answers:

The "B.M.T." sandwich at Subway was originally named after the "Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit." Consisting of sliced genoa salami, pepperoni, ham and your choice of salad, it has become one of the chain's most popular subs. With time, the sub's name has evolved to mean "Biggest, Meatiest, Tastiest."

2. As Neilima Bh. P. (Class of 2012) pointed out in a Facebook conversation recently, you get to "follow" celebs, experts, stars, even well-known journalists (though you have to hope that it's not some PR hacks tweeting on their clients' behalf) and read what they have to say about issues that interest them (and possibly us). I follow Rajdeep Sardesai, for instance, and his tweets bring me up to date on the major news events of the day. One of Rajdeep's tweets also led to my discovering the Indicast Podcast Network, in my opinion the best Indian website for podcasts. Media students will love IPN and our AVC students who need to produce a radio feature will get some ideas — check it out here.

• Satish Perumal (Class of 2011) adds: We think of Twitter and Facebook as networking tools which we use to keep in touch with friends and relatives. I, too, thought these networking sites were good only for having a... er, good time, an escape tunnel from the real world to the virtual one.
  
  But I did a rethink recently after a job interview with a social marketing company, Uncut Donut. The interviewer asked me for my Twitter ID and immediately scanned all my tweets, looked at my profile, and tried to get a fix on what kind of topics interest me. I was taken aback a bit by this turn of events and did not know how to react.
  
  Moral of the story: These networking sites might be fun, but these days they are a launch pad for the careers of many ambitious youngsters. And HR departments use them as recruitment tools too. So go ahead and get cracking with your networking!

How true, Satish. The best advice then for those using Twitter and Facebook would be this: When you apply for a job, you may be judged on the basis of your virtual life. So, mind your language. Think of interesting and intelligent status messages and tweets. And when you post pictures think about how these pictures may influence a potential employer. Sure, you may argue that your privacy settings will protect you, but what's to stop a "friend" from copying and forwarding content from your page? — RP

• Also read: "Facebook: Boon or bane?"