How I Met Your Father: ‘Shuddh Desi Gay’ Podcast Is A Witty Insight Into Gay Relationships

How I Met Your Father: ‘Shuddh Desi Gay’ Podcast Is A Witty Insight Into Gay Relationships

In a world that feels more divisive by the day, good storytelling and personal narratives can allow a space for relatability and thus a space for empathy and love. When we take out time to listen to each other we get a glimpse into the other’s life and create a space for understanding how similar we are than different. For Yogi and Kabeer, their podcast, Shuddh Desi Gay is a way to tell their stories, in turn, catering to three different kinds of audiences – those who are closeted find a sense of support in their journey, those out and proud and those who are curious about gay relationships.

What we don’t understand we tend to fear, Shuddh Desi Gay – India’s first Hinglish podcast is, thus, an attempt to create a larger conversation by reaching a larger audience through its bilingual approach. In a world where the personal is political, the mere existence as a gay person is a political act but the podcast’s attempt is not at activism. At the heart of the podcast lies storytelling, a way to talk about personal histories, own experiences and find a way in humour to put their point across.

“With this format, we can have an actual conversation with local references which listeners can identify with, and the reality checks are more clear for the listener,” said Yogi in an interview with The Hindu. The attempt is not just tolerance but normalising and accepting gay people and that is why the bilingual nature of the witty podcast is more important than we can imagine.

Yogi pitched the idea to Kabeer by saying, “I want this to be a ‘how I met your father’ journal for our kids someday!” The couple have now been together for over six years and at a personal level, the podcast has been both cathartic and a way to know each other further. Of the themes that the podcast tackles are monogamy in relationships, fitting in, and other themes surrounding love and marriage. Expanding on the idea behind the podcast, Yogi added in the interview to The Hindu that, “There are podcasts on the LGBTQI+ community in India, but none just for the gay community and relationships. Yes, love is love, but I wanted something personal. There is such little literature on gay relationships out there.”

The Spotify podcast releases weekly, you can listen to it here.

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