Welcome to Celebrate The Podcast Season Two: Flip The Script

[This episode has been released on the auspicious occasion of Parakram Diwas (Birth Anniversary of Indian revolutionary leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose).

In 2026, this day also happens to be Basant Panchami -the day that marks arrival of spring in India by celebrating the Goddess of Knowledge.]

Accomplished and British Film and television actor and author, Leena Dhingra is a name, voice and face recognised worldwide as ‘Nani Umbreen’ from the ‘Demons of Punjab’ episode of Doctor Who but for Indians from pre partitioned India, she is the personification of strength and courage of one who has shown that it is still possible to reclaim personal, filial and generational identities through writing and find closure even if they had been forced to be hidden and be unspoken due to adverse political and social circumstances. She is also Auntie Bindu from the comedy show, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Mrs Shah from the movie ‘East Is East’ and most recently, she was Zainab Hyatt in the Channel 4 school drama Ackley Bridge.

Both her debut novel, ‘Amritvela’ and recent book, ‘Exhumation: The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra’ focus on the pain, dislocation, confusion and heartbreak that come from being denied the basic human acknowledgement of having existed and held an identity.

In this episode, Leena ji shares how writing and publishing Exhumation: The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra, part memoir part biography that helped her put to rest lifelong questions of who she was beyond being a constantly displaced child who carried the pain of her parents displaced by the Partition of India, much like her great uncle Madan Lal, the son of a privileged, anglicised Indian family, who while on a quest to find out what he is was destined for ended up being the first Indian freedom fighter to be executed in London.

Who Was Madan Lal Dhingra?

On July 1, 1909, Dhingra assassinated Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a British official and political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India, during a public meeting in London. Madan Lal Dhingra was executed on August 17, 1909, at the age of 24. He had arrived in London in 1905 to pursue engineering. A staunch nationalist since his young days, during his trial, he expressed no remorse instead expressed pride in his actions. His daring act continued to inspire many young Indians until independence, however, along with the marginalization of patriotism of Indian revolutionaries, his contribution too has been pushed to the back seat.

Episode highlights:

1) What ‘exhumation’ means here: waiting to go home, sense of non-belongingness & not talking instead carrying pain as a huge burden

2) Similarities in life patterns with her great uncle despite being separated by a generation

3) Reading book excerpt: on how she first came to know about her great uncle

4) Writing the book being on a self quest- his quest: where did they both belong?

5) The story behind getting his photograph

6) About Pentonville and Indian Sinn Féin-ists

7) How shooting for ‘Demons of Punjab’/ Doctor Who helped her disidentify from the family trauma she had internalised

8) Re-looking at great uncle 's life and times from the present.

9) Visit to the mazhaar of her uncle who had become a sufi saint jumpstarted her acting career 30 yrs after she left drama school

10) Her path to publishing the book

11) How telling her great uncle’s story and her own has now brought dept to her writing and brought healing

12) When will this book be released in India

13) Why she now identifies better as a writer

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1.Leena Dhingra: Author and British Film & television actor.

Leena ji has appeared in Doctor Who, Coronation Street, East Is East and Ackley Bridge. She also has a Ph.D in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is the author of Exhumation: The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra, part memoir, part biography of her great uncle, Madan Lal Dhingra, the first Indian freedom fighter to be executed in London.

2. Dr Enakshi Sengupta : scholar, author, founder & CEO of Borders Without Barbed Wires

She was serving as the Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the American University of Afghanistan when the Taliban rose to power in 2021. Her book, ‘Escape From Kabul’ is based n her experiences during this period. Her debut book was, ‘The Silk Route Spy: The True Story of An Indian Double Agent’ based on the life and times of her grandfather-in law, Nandlal Kapur.

3. Dr Biman Nath : Cosmologist, Astrophysicist & author

Dr Biman did his Postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, Germany and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics and taught at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore for nearly three decades. His debut book, ‘Nothing is Blue’ was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award for Fiction in 2009. ‘The Whisleblower’s wife’ is his latest book.

4. Deepak Thawani: engineer turned businessman from the F &B industry who debuted as an author in 2025 with his novel ‘The Silent Thread’.

5. Tvisha Banerjee : Emerging Gen Z Indie Pop singer and LFW Model who won a Gold and Silver medal for her debut single ‘You’ll Be Mine’ at the Season 4 of the World Artistry Music Award 2025.

6. Pragyan Bezbaruah: computer engineer, graphic artist & photographer turned chef

He co founded Café Yummy Banh Mi with his wife, Barsha Deka, that is the only café in the whole of India’s north east that serves authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

7. Mouli Mehrotra: Visual Artist & Animal Protection Law Expert

She is the founder of The Kind Hour that assists sick and abandoned animals and uses art to teach empathy and responsibility towards animals.

8. Elena Jessup: Founder of Third Eye Sanskrit, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a faculty member of The School of Ayurveda, U.K.

9. Dr Ruby Makhija: Opthalmologist & Environmentalist

Dr Ruby is the Founder Director of Why Waste Wednesdays Foundation that promotes sustainable living that leads to Zero Waste generation. She is an Earth Day Network Star and brand ambassador for the Delhi Municipal Corporation against single use plastic.

10. Sudha Pillai: Media Professional & artist

After a successful career in media, publishing and marketing, Sudha ji launched her own art line ‘Lines By Su’ and jewellery line, ‘Thulya’.

11. Brinda Roy: Actor, Entrepreneur, Artist, Poet & Fitness Influencer

Brinda owns a state of art tennis academy & fitness facility, won many Bengali Reality Shows,has her own online art gallery and debuted as a poetess in 2025 with her collection of poems, ‘In Between Lines’.

12. Hitesh Bhatia: Past Life Regression therapist, Family Constellator, CEO & Founder of ‘Joining Hands’ a global healing community spread across 22 countries.

13. Danu Morrigan: Speaker and founder of the community- Daughters of narcissitic Mothers. She is the author of ‘You’re Not Crazy-It’s Your Mother’.

14. Dr. Ray Catania: Metaphysician & transformational coach, he is a distinguished faculty member of The Shift Network (TSN) and Lecturer for the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS). Both his autobiography ‘The Atheist and The Afterlife’ and his latest book ‘You are Still Alive, Now Act Like It’ have won numerous awards.

15. Suresh Ramaswamy: Technopreneur turned Light inspired transformational coach and founder of Radiant Field a non profit organization dedicated to raising the state of human consciousness with Light- a very sublime state of consciousness. His book, Just Be: Transform Your Life and Live as Infinity has been honored with over a dozen awards since its release.

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Welcome to Celebrate: The Podcast!

This is a 10 episode series that looks to honour, acknowledge and thank 10 Indian Authors whose writing has been positively impacting people by encouraging them to question, challenge, reflect and introspect on many aspects of our society and nation.

You are listening to Episode 10. I am your host ambalika and our guests for today are Sandeep Kochhar & Rishabh Iyer Kochhar, a rather fascinating father - son duo who are so passionate about inspiring change for personal transformation.

Sandeep is the Founder CEO of www.blewminds.com, an eclectic Leadership Consulting Practice with 30+ years of experience in poetry, storytelling & creative writing. His ‘Wabi Sabi’ StoryTelling Leadership series has helped people around the world make big and radical improvements in their lives & in their way of thinking. His goal in life is to Touch & Transform 5 billion humans by 2030.

Till date he has written more than 4500 stories, each with 500 millions of views and was declared LinkedIn top voice India 2019.

Rishabh is a grade 11 student with a passion for behavioral science, sports, gaming, public speaking and psychology- a combination that has led to his book on parenting, Parenting is a two way street '.

What a delight to welcome Sandeep & Rishabh to the show and heartiest congratulations on the excellent writing performance.

Episode Highlights?

Nah, not this time 🙂

Just a father - son duo talking about what makes them write; how their habits of reading and writing and perspective on these shapes their bond 👏🏽✨

So what I doing in there, then? 😁

Listening in and getting my doubts on reading and writing cleared, what else! 😃

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Welcome to Celebrate: The Podcast!

This is a 10 episode series that looks to honour, acknowledge and thank 10 Indian Authors whose writing has been positively impacting people by encouraging them to question, challenge, reflect and introspect on many aspects of our society and nation.

You are listening to Episode 9. I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is noted Hindi language author and columnist, Ashutosh Garg.

Ashutosh writes majorly in the mythology genre and 'Indra' and 'Ashwathama' are two of his noted bestsellers. Till date he has translated more than 40 bestsellers including, the NY Times bestseller, The Girl on The Train.

Heartiest welcome to Ashutosh & what a privilege to have him on the show!

Episode Highlights:

• A mythology genre author translating thrillers: what's going on? 🙂
• What happened first - becoming an author or a translation?
• Why doesn't India focus more on translation?
• The role of translators in making Indian literature global
• How to become very good with translation
• A win- win formula for translators & publishers
• Re-telling of mythology: good or bad?
• How not to spoil mythology re-telling

Connect With Ashutosh

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Hi there!

And welcome to Celebrate: The Podcast!

This is a 10 episode series that looks to honour, acknowledge and thank 10 Indian Authors whose writing has been positively impacting people by encouraging them to question, challenge, reflect and introspect on many aspects of our society and nation.

You are listening to Episode 8. I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is Ruby Ahluwalia.

Ruby is a former bureaucrat, an experienced financial advisor, artist, author and the founder of Sanjeevani Life Beyond cancer- an award winning trust that focuses on delivering comprehensive support from awareness to rehabilitation of cancer conquerers.

This episode was recorded 2 days after her birthday :)

Episode Highlights

• The essence of her book, Fragrance of a Wild Soul- Cancer, creativity and spirituality
• In writing about her life, did she also crack the code to conquering uncertainty?
• The importance of re-looking at one's life from a spiritual point of view
• Cancer isn't gender specific. Yet, cancer awareness seems to have a gender specific mindset. How to change this?
• Adverse life events cause people to get self -disconnected and go into isolation. What's the fastest and best way to beat it?

Connect With Ruby

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Sanjeevani- Life Beyond Cancer

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Welcome to Episode 7. I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is Rajiv Gupta.

Rajiv ji is a well seasoned, successful C suite leader with over 30 yrs of experience. While his specialisation includes Sales & Marketing, cross functional leadership, managing profit and loss in multi national companies, joint ventures and family owned businesses, he has also managed to channelise it all as the author of a very, very important book!

So here he is today thanks to his incredible book, The Good Employee's Guide to Surviving A Lala Company.

Delighted to welcome Rajiv ji with heartiest congratulations on the wonderful response to your book!

Episode Highlights

• How much of his own journey as a professional influence him in writing this book
• His writing style: matter of factly+ hard hitting truths+ humour
• How have the Lalas of the world responded to the book
• Is this book for new joiners or full fledge professionals
• What is Rajiv writing next?

Connect With Rajiv Gupta

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Facebook

The Lala Company Book Website

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Dr. Theyiesinuo Keditsu is a feminist poet, folklorist, writer, lyricist and educator. She is the co-founder of Centre for Indigenous Knowledge & Alternative Learning (CIKAL) and advocates the revival of Indigenous Naga textiles and women’s narratives through her popular Instagram account : @mekhalamama for which she has been featured in The Vogue magazine

Her two published books of poetry are Sopfünuo and Wake and Her poem, “Whore” was translated into Gujarati by Sitanshu Yashaschandra.

So delighted to welcome Theyei to the show and heartiest congratulations on the excellent performance of her writing & the storytelling journey of Mekhala Mama!

Episode Highlights

• How can multiple identities co-exist peacefully maintaining their uniqueness
• Voiceless-ness / lost voices due to cultural beliefs, colonization, convertion & globalization
• Is creativity trapped between cultural norms & corporate guidelines?
• Oral tradition vs the written
• Is feminism really about "let's smash patriarchy" ? Men bashing? A battle between the sexes?
• Keeping up appearances - body image issues & fashion trends

Connect With Theyie

Instagram

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Welcome to Episode 5!

I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is Chandrachur Ghosh.

Chandrachur ji is an author, independent researcher and commentator on history, economics and environment. He has co-authored Conundrum: Subhas Bose’s Life After Death, which features among the bestsellers in Amazon. He is also the author of the most authentic biography on Netaji- Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist is a national bestseller. His most recent book is India: Birth of a Republic 1947-57.

He is one of the founders of the pressure group Mission Netaji that has been the moving force behind the declassification of over ten thousand secret document pages in 2010 related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Such an honour and privilege to welcome Chandrachur ji to the show!

Episode Highlights:

• the transformation of a young Botany graduate to being a biographer for India's last greatest freedom fighter: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
• is he an accidental author or an intellectual who is leading a revolution through writing?
• the defining moment when the Environment Consultant transitioned to Founder, Mission Netaji
• From Yahoo Chat Rooms to Triple Agent Addas on YouTube: how technology has helped the cause
• Is nationalist consciousness getting diluted today?
• Secret behind his emotional resilience
• Synergy with Anuj Dhar in a world of paid and unequal partnerships/collaborations
• Yesterday's Freedom Fighters Vs Today's Freedom Activists: gloomy or glorious?

Support Mission Netaji through anyone of the following options

Paytm/GPay/PhonePe - 9818457947 || Bank transfer - Ac name - Chandrachur Ghose, Citibank, Ac No - 5027720228, IFSC - CITI0000002 || PayPal - chandrachurg

Consider signing this petition for publishing the complete works of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and setting up of a dedicated, authentic Netaji Research Centre by clicking on this hyperlink

You can also read more on why this is urgently needed for our country's progress ahead on this link

Connect with Chandrachur here:

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YouTube

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

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