The Mommy Mix Tape

Episode 11 - The Mommy Mix Tape With Pooja Pande & Swaati Chattopadhyay

Motherhood is best described as a roller coaster ride through social, personal, and emotional highs and lows. From the ecstasy of holding your baby for the first time to the depths of despair that come with the baby blues.
Within the Indian context, we have layers of imagined social propriety and cultural narratives that define the visceral reality of motherhood but rarely invoke a deeper understanding.
On the episode today we have Pooja Pande Author of Momspeak - the funny bittersweet story of motherhood in India. Also joining us is Swaati Chattopadhyay, a writer, dancer, and entrepreneur who contributed her own life-affirming experiences to the book.
Links:
Find us on Instagram:
Priya, Bakul, Gunjan, The Mommy Mix Tape
Swaati's Substack
 

Episode 10 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Soumini Menon

As we form life-affirming connections with our kids the value of persistence and resilience grows. Each one of us is wired uniquely. For parents with kids who are on the spectrum, forming connections and coping mechanisms run parallel and this goes hand in hand with navigating life in a neuro-typical world.
Soumini Menon, a seasoned developmental psychologist and arts-based therapist. In our conversation we explore aspects of neurodiversity and the path for parents towards acceptance, advocacy and allyship in order to create positive role models for our kids.
 
Recommendations:
Out Of Sync Child - Carol Stock Kranowitz
The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida
Empathy, Education and Inclusion: A Guide to Real Friendship - Emma Liu
Neurodiversity, The New Normal - Cynthia Coupé
Reimagining Parenting In A Neurodiverse World - Allison Burgess
Much Much Spectrum, Instagram Profile
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Find us on Instagram: Priya, Bakul, Gunjan, The Mommy Mix Tape and Soumini Menon

Episode 09 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Natasha Badhwar

Most of us seek to surround ourselves with people who wear their Authenticity with a certain ease. There is a decidedly transformative power in unabashedly unique women, those who have learnt to embrace all  their idiosyncrasies and celebrate their wonderful worlds. None more so than our guest today- Natasha Badhwar- Her books My Daughters Mum and Immortal for a Moment are the perfect starting point for anyone looking to rejuvenate their life force. 
Show Notes:
Natasha’s website: https://www.natashabadhwar.com/ and her social media handle: Instagram  ,Twitter , Facebook and Substack.
Her books: Immortal for A Moment and My Daughter’s Mum.
Her recommendations: How Children Learn and How Children Fail
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Our Social Media handles, The Mommy Mix Tape, Priya, Bakul and Gunjan
 
 
 
 

Episode 08 - The Mommy Mix Tape, ‘Burnout'

People contain multitudes and we try constantly to strike the perfect balance. As mothers we are weaving together lives while grappling with all the loose ends. 
Burnout is a multidimensional state given the relentless physical, mental ,and emotional demands that come along with raising a family.  Most of us have experienced a diminished sense of well-being at some point or the other. This decreased effectiveness, often leads to us acting outside of our own philosophical orientation towards parenting. 
The feeling of being burnt out is unique to individual context, yet universal in its prevalence. 
One of my favourite authors wrote “ love yourself like you love your child”. I wonder if that could be a catalyst for each one of us to lighten the load. 

Episode 07 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Samina Mishra

Motherhood is an identity that transforms with every passing year. Raising children also means raising mothers and we all seem destined to have distinctly unique journeys based on our context. 
On our show today we have a mom who’s raised a young man of 22 while staying true to her creative and adventurous spirit as she weaves stories and narratives that flow from  a wealth of lived experiences as documentary filmmaker, author and fellow podcasting mum.
We chat about how one develops a sense of belonging for ourselves and our children, our chosen families and the realities of diversity and how she has touched upon all of these through her work. 
 
Samina’s Recommendations:
Timmi In Tangles
Moin and The Monster
Pratham Books
Afo And I
Hello Sun
Dugga
Beauty Is Missing
Paper Chor
Duniya Meri
Ek Tara Books
Pratham Books
Social Media: 
The Magic Key Centre
Samina’s Instagram
Happiness Class Film Instagram
Samina’s BLOG and Writings
Samina’s Work:
Films
Happiness Class
I Am The Grass
The Teacher And The World
Two Lives
The House On Gulmohar Avenue
Stories Of Girlhood
Books
Nida Finds A Way
Jamlo Walks
Shabana and the Baby Goat
My Sweet Home: Childhood Stories From A Corner of The City
101 Indian Children’s Books We Love
Madhav and the Magic Balloon
Looking Through Glass, short story in Whispers in the Classroom, Voices on the Field, an anthology of school stories (Wisdom Tree / 2012)
Magical Wishes: The Adventures of Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne, retold in English for a picture book (Scholastic India / 2012)
The House At The Corner, short story in First Proof: The Penguin Book of New Indian Writing 7 (2011)
The Goat Who Got Away, story in Eid Stories, republished by Scholastic in two other anthologies (Scholastic India / 2010) 
My Friends in the City, an illustrated book for early readers about animal inhabitants of the city. The book is a dual language text and is available in four Indian languages in combination with English. (Tulika, Chennai / 2007)
The Magic Key, a collection of six children’s stories, written by Dr. Zakir Husain, which she translated from Urdu into English (Young Zubaan / 2004)
Hina in the Old City, a non-fiction book with colour photographs on the Walled City of Delhi for children (Tulika Publishers, Chennai / 2000 and republished by Eklavya, 2019)
HYBRID MEDIA
The Hum Hindustani Poetry Podcast (2023), a curated selection of poems written by children for the Hum Hindustani project, available on all major podcast platforms
The Incredible Child (2022), an exhibition of children’s art and writing emerging from the Simurgh Children’s Art Workshop, a monthly art programme at Simurgh Centre, Khirkee, Delhi, set up by Max Mueller Bhavan to support the Afghan refugee community in Delhi
Hum Hindustani (2022-23), an interdisciplinary research project on children and citizenship, TESF India 
We the Children of India (2020), children’s poetry on the idea of being Indian
Torchlight (2017 onwards), Editorial team and core group member on this web journal on ‘libraries and bookish love’
Home and Away (2004), a multi-media exhibition that uses photographs, text, sound and an html presentation to explore the lives and world of second and third generation British Asian children living in London. The exhibition was displayed at the British Council, New Delhi in July 2004 and in the International Symposium of Electronics Arts (ISEA) in August 2004 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Episode 06 - The Mommy Mix Tape

For Most Indian Parents Schooling figures on top of the Parenting Pyramid. It’s the decision that sets the tone for what bulk of the childhood experience is going to be like.
Schools are a microcosm of the mindset of our society. The challenges brought by increased  peer orientation is something that our parents never thought about.  
How are parents supposed to navigate social structures and academic curriculums that have not really responded to the needs of children in the times we live in?

Episode 05 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Hamsaanandani Nanduri

What is so great about our genetics or bloodlines? Do they make us who we are ? 
Families are created by people committed to sharing a life together. The family we choose for ourselves in whatever form make our journeys richer. 
As a change maker in her own right, this incredible mum filed a motion to ensure maternity benefits for adoptive mothers in India that is up for consideration in the Supreme Court.
On today’s episode we have a mum who along with her partner created one of the most idyllic families I have come in contact with. Their story is inspiring, encouraging and dispels the misconceptions that have plagued narratives around adoptions. 
Show Notes:
. Families of Joy
. Central Adoption Resource Authority
. Sudatta
. Adoptive mother seeks equal maternity benefits
 

Episode 04 - The Mommy Mix Tape

Guilt - There are very few emotions as resilient in the context of motherhood. It is for most of us all consuming, that niggle that stays with you no matter how hard you try to let it go. Self deprecatory for most of us the power of guilt is undeniable. What if we could flip the narrative on mommy guilt and look at it as a means of self reflection and give ourselves the permission to delve into the dark recesses of our minds where guilt begins to fester.
These are conversations we need to have with ourselves in order to mitigate the often crippling effects of guilt that seem to come free with motherhood. 
Hosts: Priya Mathews / Bakul Dua / Gunjan Grover Gupta

Episode 03 - The Mommy Mix Tape

Is there a Parenting Playbook and what does it look like ? Did our parents think about how they were perceived by the children they nurtured into entitlement? Why do parents today need labels to define themselves? 
Nurturing a child's individuality and opinions does not need to be done by hiding one’s own flaws. The best role models for kids are people who are able to be kind to themselves and accepting of all facets of their being.  Parenting Jargon makes google searches easier, sure, but we don’t need to be confused by the language or dragged down by the weight that the words of others may carry.

Episode 02 - The Mommy Mix Tape

Our lives are defined by choices, ones made for us and those we make for ourselves. In the constant tussle, between opinion and explanations, what ends up getting lost is probably the only one that should matter - the opinion that we have of ourselves. 
In our second episode we chat about the family we choose and the possibilities and purpose of the decisions we take.
Hosts: Priya Mathews, Gunjan Grover Gupta & Bakul Dua
 
Social Media: Instagram, Twitter