Ugly Betty's sequel on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.af5088c2-6f01-4aae-897c-8f7c4dff10a2?

One Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81087583

Outro Music: Boyaquito Sigo Siendo by Jorge Velosa

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=J9iYYG4L-zM

Vivek's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elindioandino/

Vivek's Twitter: https://x.com/Ondippulee/

We have been discussing Carnatic Wars on this substack, and so many questions came up, which Prathamesh is the right person to answer.

Highlights: Why was there such a scramble for Trichy’s rock fort? How was it normal for Hyder Ali’s relatives to all be serving in different armies, which were often at war with each other, and even switch sides a few times? Were “small European armies” superior to “large disorganized Indian armies”? Are Indians uniquely disunited, which lets outsiders take us over? Why didn’t we all unite and throw out the British or the Nizam?

Posts about the Carnatic Wars:

https://lila.substack.com/p/tipu-sultan-3-a-riotous-history-of

https://lila.substack.com/p/tipu-sultan-4-chaos-in-the-carnatic

https://lila.substack.com/p/tipu-sultan-5-robert-clive-dupleix

https://lila.substack.com/p/tipu-sultan-6-the-game-of-thrones

Prathamesh:

https://itihasik.com/ translations of Maratha documents

https://x.com/prathgodbole Prathamesh on Twitter.

The assassination attempt on Tagore's life in San Francisco

Links to Arnab’s content:

* His blog,

* All his books. Shakchunni, Sultan of Delhi, Mahabharata Murders, and The Mine, which we discuss

* His Twitter

For more like this, subscribe to The India House List

In this episode, we meet the Santaan, the Children of the Mother. Mohendra has a crisis of conscience.

This one’s a little longer than I thought it would be, and also involves poetry.

Footnotes for this episode:

* Vande Maataram. Interestingly, Sri Aurobindo, who translated this book into English, went on to edit a publication named Vande Maataram. Here’s the version of the song by AR Rahman. It’s beautiful.

* Mir Jafar and The Battle Of Plassey, the starting point for British rule in India.

* I was also pretty impressed with Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Vande Maataram. Translating poetry/lyrics from one language to another seems difficult, to keep the musicality as well as lyricality and rhyme scheme of the original in the new language. Fun fact: Sri Aurobindo’s father raised him in London from a very young age, so he would speak English like a native language, and be able to qualify for the Indian Civil Service (back then, you could only take the exam in England). When he came to India as a young man, he learned Bengali, rediscovered his roots and turned revolutionary.

This week, we see what happened to Mohendra in the meantime. Listen on for an episode as action-packed as the title suggests.

Footnotes:

A couple of words in this episode that might be unfamiliar:

Saheb - An honorific, often used by itself to refer to someone of higher status.

Havildar - Sergeant.

Random advice: Burning the roof of your mouth with pizza before recording a podcast is not a great idea.

In this episode, Kalyani undergoes some trials, and is rescued by a mysterious figure in a white robe. Who is he? And what’s happening to Mohendra?

I found myself a little more organized making this episode. I switched from Garageband to Audacity, which makes editing a more intuitive process. The audio quality is better as well.

Footnotes for this episode:

* Gaudiya Vaishnavism of Bengal.

* Famines in British India. When I look at the chronology of the famines in the Madras presidency, it fits in with the timeline of my ancestors migrating to the princely states of Mysore, Hyderabad, and as far away as present-day Pakistan.

* The song Kalyani hears, and which is featured in the outro.

This Thursday, I decided to do something completely different. How does a podcast episode sound?

Seeing as I’m currently fascinated by the post-1857 pre-WW1 era of Indian history, I reread Ananda Math (Abbey of Bliss) written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1882. This is one of those books that kickstarted the Indian freedom movement, and gave it its slogan - Vande Mataram (Glory to our Motherland), which is of course the title of our National Song.

I couldn’t find an audiobook of this book, though there’s been several movie versions, and thought, why not do it myself? I’d been procrastinating on this thought for weeks, and decided to bite the bullet and fool around with a mic and Garageband. The result is the first two chapters of this novel.

It was originally written serially, and hence each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. How fun!

This will be what I’ll be posting here for the next few weeks. And hopefully, my diction and audio mixing will get better with time, and subsequent episodes will bring you more joy.

Tell me how you like it, and tell all your friends to sign up and subscribe!