In the large expanse of Delhi, Noorie goes underground and discovers MEETHA world. She meets KINARI, India's first transgender rapper whose razor sharp lyrics and hypnotic beats are an expose of labor, lust, identity and rebellion. Noorie travels along with Kinari and Mithran, her manager, who tell her about their quest to construct a trans imaginary, which is genre defying,shape shifting, radical and fierce.

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In the past couple of years, KINARI has emerged as one of the foremost voices for the LGBTQ+ community in India's hip-hop scene. She celebrates her identity as a kinnar in her lyrics ("pretty avaz baby mai kinnar" on "PURRRRR") and also brings her firsthand experience in Portland's ballroom community to India (as on her debut EP Jimmy Vogue, released Nov 2021). Sampling disco tracks, riot grrrl rock, house music, clips from Paris Is Burning, and interviews with Indian trans activists consistently demonstrating a singularity of vision. Her hip hop mixtape 'Kattar Kinar', is a radical sonic expression of life in Delhi's Khirkee Extension. Intertwined with the beat of wedding bands outside her window, the coruscating pulse of gaana songs and cuts of Mari Selvaraj films, 'Kattar Kinnar' is a celebration of the present- a trans imaginary is found out on the streets, with the people, uncompromising and unafraid.

LISTEN: https://open.spotify.com/album/2xlj0leSV6hezgrmEgh0ac

RT Samuel (Mithran) R T Samuel is an editor and independent cultural producer working between London and New Delhi. He is the co-editor of the collection, The Blaft Book of Anti Caste SF.

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Concept: Ekta & Angarika, maraa a media & arts collective

Voice of Noorie: Ekta & Angarika

Recordings: Gaurav Krishna & Ishan Gupta

Sound design: Gaurav Krishna & Advik

Design Concept: Ekta

Design & Illustrations: Thara Thomas

Video Podcast: Malavika Mishra

Production Support: Team Maraa

With support from Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan

Traveling east on the Darjeeling mail, Noorie meets Veecheet, the lead singer of a Nepali folk-rock quartet called Gauley Bhai. He tells her the story of the Gorkhaland agitation, an assertion of political and linguistic identity in the Kalimpong-Darjeeling-Teesta region. Of the ongoing resistance against the dams and highways that are encroaching on the area, and a search for cultural consciousness. Gauley Bhai's music embodies loss, love and longing, set against an everchanging landscape. Noorie discovers the power of music as a way of memory keeping, resistance and celebration.

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Gauley Bhai (brothers from back home) is a Contemporary Folk-Rock quartet formed in 2017 when Veecheet, Anudwatt, Joe and Sidhant met in a studio in Bangalore. Their sound emerged from a shared memory of growing up in small towns- Veecheet, Anudwatt and Sidhant grew up in Kalimpong, and Joe in Calicut- and migrating to big cities. Their musical inspirations draw from sounds of childhood like Nepali folk (Jhalakman Gandharva, Bir Bahadur Biswakarma) and South-Indian Singari rhythms as well as blues, rock n roll and hip hop. The result is a sound that is strongly rooted yet nomadic.

JORO: https://open.spotify.com/album/5NZQMCVRrH98PwKonS4wRy?si=UX71Co78QaGi3m8vPFcTCw

Sunbari: https://open.spotify.com/album/6a6rMzNY6QEBcjJ7Cmu0rT?si=rmVlEM5VTpqui2u09EKSkg

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Concept: Ekta & Angarika, maraa a media & arts collective

Voice of Noorie: Ekta & Angarika

Recordings: Gaurav Krishna & Ishan Gupta

Sound design: Gaurav Krishna & Advik

Design Concept: Ekta

Design & Illustrations: Thara Thomas

Video Podcast: Malavika Mishra

Production Support: Team Maraa

With support from Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan

Have you ever followed a song, a tune or a melody? Even though you cannot fully understand it, you feel a strong connection with it, as though you know it from a different life, a parallel reality.

Purbi was like that for Noorie, follow her search from the labour colony in Bangalore to the long train journey on Sanghamitra Express and all the way to Ara in Bihar. She feels at home even though she is meeting with Raju, Piyush, Sunaina and Sipahi, who take her through the different spirits and moods of songs from the Land of migration.

It is these songsthat keep people who have migrated to far away lands connected to their loved ones. The pain of separation is hard to express, but in their songs they are able to carry that pain out, so that people can find refuge and a sense of solace. Noorie finds Nirgun, a mood that sets the tone of her inner voice. Here, songs are passed on like life lessons,the memory for which is etched in the minds of the receiver forever.

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Raju Ranjan is a theatre artist and a jangayak. He comes from Farhada, and has performed all over India. He is aligned with several anti-caste and socio-cultural movements across India. Raju’s research practice considers diverse folk practices of Bihar through lives and struggles of folk artists and public performers.

Sunil Ram, better known as Sunaina, is a renowned senior naach artist from Chanakewatiya. They stopped singing and dancing due to old age, but continue as a percussionist. Raju urged Sunaina to return from his retirement as a singer and dancer-performer because only with their presence, we could explore the practice of Nirgun.

Sipahi is a naach performer from Kanaela. He performs at weddings and baraaths, festivals, political rallies, and in traditional folk programmes. Off season, he migrates to Talegaon to work as a rose picker.

Piyush is an artist and researcher whose work tries to locate how caste plays out in everyday life and deeper histories. Part of his work is creating collective productions of anti-caste discourse. He runs a research and production studio called zeropowercut.

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Concept: Ekta & Angarika, maraa a media & arts collective

Voice of Noorie: Ekta & Angarika

Recordings: Gaurav Krishna & Ishan Gupta

Sound design: Gaurav Krishna & Advik

Design Concept: Ekta

Design & Illustrations: Thara Thomas

Video Podcast: Malavika Mishra

Production Support: Team Maraa

With support from Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan