Experience Delhi

Ketaki and Anubhav try to understand the caste system. We talk to Akhilesh who tells us how Caste is not the right word to capture the system. The right words in India are Jati and Varna. Caste should be replaced with Jati. Jati was economic and not social. There was a Jati of potters, weavers, goldsmith’s or professions. It pre industrial time each village would have different communities grouped by profession. They shared best practices and lived together. Now lets look at Varnas. There are four Varna’s in India. 1. Brahmin 2. Kshatriya 3. Vaishya 4. Shudra There is a mapping between Jatis and Varnas. This mapping was never fixed. A Jati could move between Varnas. It was not a rigid system. when the Varna system was created, it was not on the basis of birth but it was on the basis of Guna (propensities) and Karma (deeds). Varna were cased on Guna and Karma. Propensity of a human decided his or her Varna. Jati might be best understood as a job family. Today, we look at the caste system in a rigid

Ketaki and Anubhav met with RJ Sarthak Kaushik in Delhi and asked him a ton of questions! We asked him: About his radio career in Delhi Why he started playing English music on radio in English? State of English radio in Delhi? How did he end up without any opportunities in radio even though he was the most recognizable voice in radio at that time? How has Delhi changed over the years? What is the best way to see Delhi? Why does he like Mehrauli? What’s interesting about the Red Fort, Delhi? Where to eat good food in Delhi? Where to hear live music in Delhi? In this episode, we learn about the most famous English radio voice in Delhi. RJ Sarthak shares his story and what he loves about Delhi. Why did he start playing English music? It was because he wanted to be cool like the rest of the kids. Why is radio his passion project and the ups and down in his career. Sarthak reminisced about Forces Request, a radio show, where he would take requests from the Indian armed forces posted all over the large country

What is Hinduism Visitors have a template in their mind on what Hinduism is. They might have seen Christianity or islam or Judaisim. Its important to not look at Hinduism with the lens of both religions. We talk about “isms” and why language limits our understanding of Hinduism. Ism is a particular kind of thought. A narrow view point or the thoughts of a person. Its not a good idea to call it an “ism” but we understand that Hinduism as a name has stuck. In this episode we try to explain Hinduism, its rituals and goals. ...

We are so pleased to bring this Episode to you. Ketaki and I spoke with Devdutt Pattnaik and got his answers to common questions asked by travellers to Delhi, India. Devdutt Pattanaik writes on relevance of mythology in modern times, especially in areas of management, governance and leadership. Trained in medicine, he worked for 15 years in the healthcare and pharma industries before he focused on his passion full time. He is author of 30 books and 600 columns, with bestsellers such as My Gita, Jaya, Sita, Business Sutra and the 7 Secret Series. He was a speaker at TEDIndia 2009 and spoke on Myths that Mystify, East versus West. His TV shows include Business Sutra on CNBC-TV18 and Devlok We cover a lot of questions in this conversation with Devdutt: 1. When travellers check in to a hotel, the hotel greets them with a dot on the forehead or Tilak. These travellers often ask us,  why? What is this supposed to mean? Is that how everybody is welcome home so why don't we start with that? 2. How is the Tilak d

Ketaki and Anubhav read out matrimonials and try to decifer all the acronyms used to save money before moving onto discussing commonly asked questions around arranged marriages. Are they common, how do they work. Ketaki and Anubhav discuss their marriage and then get a point of view of a young girl and a boy on arranged marriages. Finally, we talk about marriage bureaus and the role of neighbourhood barbers and his wife in setting up alliances. www.delhishoppingtour.com

Dr. Swapna Liddle is a renowned historian on 19th Century Delhi and is also the convenor for the Delhi Chapter of INTACH (Indian national trust for art and cultural heritage). Ketaki spoke to Swapna to get her point of view on Delhi and why its special. www.delhishoppingtour.com

The Experience Delhi Podcast helps travellers to Delhi fall in love with our city. Anubhav and Ketaki run the award winning www.DelhiShoppingTour.com and have been helping travellers get a local perspective on Delhi and experience things that most travellers miss when the visit Delhi. In this episode Ketaki and Anubhav Introduce themselves and explain why they wanted to start this podcast www.delhishoppingtour.com