The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma Ep 311: The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale
08:08:28
Jumping in the Well
- Shanta Gokhale's mother jumped into a well.
- She did this to teach herself to swim.
Finding a Mate
- Shanta Gokhale's mother found her own husband through a newspaper ad.
- He was seeking a "free woman with character."
Marriage and Roles
- The structure of marriage often confines men and women to traditional roles.
- This can be seen even in progressive relationships.
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Introduction
00:00 • 2min
The Scene and the Unseen
01:47 • 5min
A Memoir of a Man in a Hurry
06:58 • 4min
My Dad Was a Writer, a Journalist and a Storyteller
10:35 • 4min
My Childhood Was a Wonderful, Lovely Childhood
14:45 • 3min
You Know, I'm a Dalit Scholar, Isn't It?
17:39 • 4min
My Father Was Different, My Mother Was Different
21:09 • 6min
Do You Cover Your Mirror With a Sheet?
26:53 • 2min
The SS Arcadia - A White Hulk
29:13 • 2min
You Don't Worry, You're Not a Feminist
30:51 • 4min
What Is Remarkable About Your Mother?
35:17 • 2min
My Mother Was a Feisty Woman
37:41 • 5min
The Structure of Marriage Is Such a Thing
42:28 • 6min
Are You Making a Man the Center of Her Existence?
48:17 • 3min
Are You an Atheist?
51:33 • 4min
Feminist Theory - What I Learned Through Experience
55:52 • 2min
Do You Have a Problem With Lakshmi?
57:52 • 5min
Don't You Want All Men to Be in Prison?
01:02:30 • 3min
Are You a Young Feminist?
01:05:32 • 3min
Is There a Shift Away?
01:08:39 • 4min
Are You a Vishfaguru?
01:12:44 • 2min
The Three Languages of Politics by Arnold Kling
01:15:10 • 6min
The Expanding Circle Is Expanding for Humanity
01:20:46 • 3min
The Concrete and the Abstract in Art Writing
01:23:41 • 3min
Do You Focus in on Specifics When You Write?
01:26:19 • 3min
How Are People Formed?
01:29:25 • 3min
Can't Bear Unjustice
01:32:42 • 1min
The Unfairness of Contracts
01:34:09 • 5min
The Distaste for Flashiness
01:39:01 • 2min
Do You Feel You Have Softened Up in That Regard?
01:41:15 • 5min
I've Done It My Way and I'm Kaga's Son and I Don't Want You to Go After Money
01:46:10 • 3min
How I Feel When I'm Not Working for Anyone but Myself
01:49:00 • 2min
The Art of Clear Writing by Shanta G
01:50:40 • 4min
I Was a Marathi Teacher and I Was an English Medium Teacher
01:54:40 • 3min
I Have to Hug the Walls
01:57:39 • 4min
How to Make People Love Your Language
02:02:07 • 5min
Is There a Trade-Off Between Hindi and English?
02:06:59 • 3min
The Medium Is a Medium
02:10:11 • 2min
Is There a Disappointment in Marathi Literature?
02:12:05 • 4min
The Marathi Novel Is a Trap
02:16:20 • 4min
The Creator Economy Is Changing for Writers
02:20:38 • 5min
Writing Is Probably the Last of the Creative Arts
02:25:24 • 49sec
What's the Limitation of a Story?
02:26:13 • 5min
Sakharam Baidar
02:31:24 • 2min
Shivaji Underground in Bhimnagar, Mohal
02:33:43 • 5min
'Tangri' and 'Sivaji Mandit'
02:39:12 • 3min
We'll See the World a Little Different
02:42:22 • 3min
We Don't Even Have Libraries
02:45:14 • 3min
Bookshops in the City
02:48:38 • 3min
How Much Screen Time Should Young People Have?
02:51:25 • 4min
Your Relationship With Books
02:55:15 • 4min
I Grew Up in a Certain Kind of Environment and I Was Shaped by It a Lot
02:59:05 • 6min
Your Shoes I Can't Give You So I'll Beg Borrow Not Steal for My Education
03:04:41 • 2min
The Joy Comes From Doing What You Love
03:06:19 • 3min
The Joy of Writing
03:08:55 • 4min
You Know It's a False Dichotomy
03:13:00 • 3min
The Scene and the Unseen Is That Funny Place
03:16:26 • 3min
I'm a Student at the Scottie School and I'm Going to Be a Senior at the End of the Year and I Was a Junior at the Time and I Thought I Had Finished School but I Didn't Have to Appear for a Written Test And
03:19:14 • 6min
I Was in a Co-Ed School and I Was Very Shy and Out of My Depth
03:25:07 • 3min
I Was at Sea for the First Half of Term and I Was at Home for Christmas and Easter Breaks
03:28:12 • 3min
The English Way of Life of a Certain Class
03:31:22 • 5min
I Was a Student at a Very Good University and I Loved It So Much That I Went on to University and I Loved It a Lot More Than I Thought It Would Be.
03:36:21 • 2min
Growing Up Anxiety
03:38:30 • 1min
The Colour Bar in London
03:39:47 • 5min
Growing Up and Coming of Age - Layers Peel Away
03:44:47 • 2min
Is Caste Important in Hindu Society?
03:46:42 • 6min
Atheism and the Atheists
03:52:23 • 3min
The British University Is an Open Space Whether It's Gender or Race
03:55:17 • 3min
The Badminton Club and the Queen G Spatrenage
03:58:17 • 3min
How You Come to Know What It Takes to Be a Woman and What It Means to You
04:01:20 • 4min
Love of Country
04:04:53 • 5min
The Other Layer of Awareness That Women Carry With Them
04:09:24 • 2min
Men and the Ego
04:11:32 • 6min
The Sneeze in the Fart
04:17:10 • 2min
Is There a Difference Between a Man of Action and a Woman of Character?
04:18:53 • 2min
How Did You Navigate These Conflicting Impulses Within Yourself?
04:20:49 • 4min
I Don't Want to Divorce Viju
04:24:36 • 4min
Why I Don't Regret the First Marriage
04:28:37 • 4min
I Learnt a Lot About the Navy
04:33:05 • 2min
Marriage Is an Old Institution That Has Run Its Course
04:35:18 • 5min
Marriage Is the Only Way
04:40:04 • 3min
The Intentionality of the Engaged Observer
04:43:13 • 5min
How to Create an Orderly Environment in Your Mind
04:48:08 • 3min
The India Uncard Podcast
04:51:08 • 5min
I Was a Student at a College and I Was in a Class With a Degree in English
04:55:42 • 4min
Teaching - Teaching the Same Book You're in and You've Been Out
04:59:33 • 3min
The Dangers of Being a Student at HR
05:02:07 • 6min
How Do We Read Books?
05:07:42 • 6min
I've Just Reread the Classics
05:13:21 • 4min
Is There a Translation of Spriti Chitre?
05:17:29 • 6min
Is There a Classic in a Book?
05:23:09 • 5min
The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards
05:27:41 • 5min
Woodhouse and Wave and the Marathi Culture
05:32:16 • 2min
Is It Possible to Write or Not to Write?
05:34:42 • 4min
How to Write Journalistic Stories
05:39:03 • 4min
Avinash - The First Novel
05:43:26 • 4min
Writing Hard-Nosed Reporting
05:47:41 • 2min
Writing a Short Story
05:50:04 • 4min
Writing a Novel in Marathi
05:53:59 • 4min
The Importance of Humility in Writing
05:57:35 • 4min
She's been a novelist, a playwright, a critic, an essayist, a memoirist, a journalist, a writer for cinema and a historian of theatre -- in both English and Marathi. Shanta Gokhale joins Amit Varma in episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her remarkable life and times. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Shanta Gokhale on Amazon, Wikipedia and her own website. 2. One Foot on the Ground -- Shanta Gokhale. 3. Living With Father: A Memoir -- Shanta Gokhale. 4. आमची आई : इंदिरा गोपाळ गोखले -- Shanta Gokhale. 5. The Engaged Observer: The Selected Writings of Shanta Gokhale -- Edited by Jerry Pinto. 6. Rita Velinkar (Marathi) (English) -- Shanta Gokhale. 7. Tya Varshi/Crowfall (Marathi) (English) -- Shanta Gokhale. 8. Playwright at the Centre: Marathi Drama from 1843 to the Present -- Shanta Gokhale. 9. Shivaji Park: Dadar 28: History, Places, People -- Shanta Gokhale. 10. Satyadev Dubey: A Fifty-Year Journey Through Theatre -- Edited by Shanta Gokhale. 11. The Scenes We Made: An Oral History of Experimental Theatre in Mumbai -- Edited by Shanta Gokhale. 12. Avinash: The Indestructible -- Shanta Gokhale. 13. Smritichitre: The Memoirs of a Spirited Wife -- Lakshmibai Tilak (translated by Shanta Gokhale). 14. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 15. The Adda at the End of the Universe -- Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 16. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Never Never Nest -- Cedric Mount. 18. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mrinal Pande). 19. The Female Eunuch -- Germaine Greer. 20. The Second Sex -- Simone de Beauvoir. 21. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma. 22. Agarkar's Donkeys: A Meditation on God — Amit Varma. 23. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Kavita Krishnan Files — Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 26. The Will to Change — bell hooks. 27. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 28. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 29. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 30. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 31. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer. 32. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris. 33. Phineas Gage. 34. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident — Amit Varma's column on Chris Cornell's death. 35. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Arun Kolatkar and Dilip Chitre. 37. GN Devy on Amazon and Wikipedia. 38. Navyug Vachanmala and Arun Vachan -- PK Atre's series for elementary school and middle school respectively. 39. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 40. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Storytel. 43. Pu La Deshpande, Raag Darbari and Kashi Ka Assi on Storytel. 44. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Stage.in. 46. A Doll's House -- Henrik Ibsen. 47. Looking for Ibsen in Maharashtra -- Shanta Gokhale. 48. The Vintage Book Of Indian Writing 1947 - 1997 -- Edited by Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West. 49. The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature -- Edited by Amit Chaudhuri. 50. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 51. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 52. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 53. Namdeo Dhasal on Amazon and Wikipedia. 54. Alice Munro on Amazon and Wikipedia. 55. Squid Game on Netflix. 56. Yada Kadachit (Part 1) (Part 2) -- Written and directed by Santosh Pawar. 57. Sakharam Binder (Marathi) (English) -- Vijay Tendulkar. 58. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 59. सप्तरंगी कोरिया एक अनुभव -- Sudha Hujurbajar-Tumbe. 60. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity -- Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Alice in Wonderland -- Lewis Carroll. 62. Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, JB Priestley, George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare on Amazon. 63. The Lost Daughter -- Elena Ferrante. 64. The Lost Daughter -- The film by Maggie Gyllenhaal. 65. The Shadow Lines -- Amitav Ghosh. 66. Enid Blyton on Amazon. 67. This Life At Play: Memoirs -- Girish Karnad. 68. Sunil Shanbag and Shanta Gokhale in conversation with Girish Karnad. 69. Aranyer Din Ratri -- Satyajit Ray. 70. Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World -- Tim Harford. 71. A Room of One's Own -- Virginia Woolf. 72. A Passage to India -- EM Forster. 73. Kumar Shahani on Wikipedia and IMDb. 74. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 75. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 76, Far From the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy. 77. Vanity Fair -- William Makepeace Thackeray. 78. Ulysses -- James Joyce. 79. Picnic at Hanging Rock -- Peter Weir. 80. Why Read the Classics? -- Italo Calvino. 81. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 82. Hercule Poirot on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 83. The Golden Age of Murder — Martin Edwards. 84. PG Wodehouse on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 85. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 86. The Creative Process: A Symposium -- Edited by Brewster Ghiselin. 87. Nissim Ezekiel and Satyadev Dubey. 88. Avadhya -- CT Khanolkar. 89. Masaan — Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover. 90. Tanjore Painting and Prabhakar Barwe. 91. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 92. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma. 93. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 94. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 95. Memoirs -- Habib Tanvir. 96. Sulabha Deshpande on Wikipedia and IMDb. 97. Sunil Shanbag on Wikipedia, IMDb and Instagram. 98. Atul Pethe on Book My Show and Facebook. 99. Shanta Gokhale's cameo in Ardh Satya (at 1:36:10). 100. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma. 101. Bend it Like Beckham -- Gurinder Chadha. 102. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 103. Indira Sant on Amazon and Wikipedia. (And a translation of Ekti by Vinay Dharwadkar.) 104. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 105. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 106. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 107. Ranjit Hoskote, Arundhati Subramaniam and Jerry Pinto on Amazon. 108. Alt News, The News Minute and Scroll. 109. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 110. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 111. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 112. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on Demonetisation). 113. Enabled by technology, young Indians show what it means to be a citizen — Amit Varma. 114. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health — Amit Varma. 115. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad -- Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 116. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 117. The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 118. The World as India -- Susan Sontag. In addition to the links above, Shanta recommended: Books: Women in Love (DH Lawrence), Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka), Ways of Seeing (John Berger), 84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff), The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway), The Tin Drum (Gunter Grass), The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, Hungry Tide (all Amitav Ghosh), Solo (Rana Dasgupta), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), Respected Sir (Naguib Mahfouz), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie), The Sense of an Ending, Flaubert's Parrot, The Noise of Time, Levels of Life (all Julian Barnes). Hindustani Classical Vocal: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amir Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Padma Talwalkar, Dinkar Kaikini, Venkatesh Kumar, Ulhas Kashalkar, Uday Bhawalkar (dhrupad), Mukul Shivputra. Carnatic Vocal: MS Subbulakshmi, DK Pattamal, TM Krishna, Sanjay Subrahmanyan. Instrumental: TR Mahalingam (flautist), Lalgudi Jayaraman (violin). Others: Geet Varsha (Kumar Gandharva), Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo (Farida Khanum), Dnyaneshwari (Lata Mangeshkar). This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Reading the World' by Simahina.