Send us a text Giri Sivaraman, Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, spoke with Nandini Sen Mehra about the larger questions of racism in Australia, the institutions and structures that need an overhaul, and the genuine concerns and issues that everyday Australians are facing, across communities and ethnicities. He talks about the critical need to implement the anti Racism Framework that includes the establishment of the Anti Racism Taskforce with representation from government...

Send us a text When Rabbi Shergill says, ‘write the truest line you know,’ he isn’t only quoting Hemingway. In a way, he is capturing a lifetime’s quest for authenticity. In word, in artistic expression , and in navigating a life that didn't always fit into neat boxes. In this soulful conversation, he speaks of the awakening of his passion for Panjabi, which for him is the language of love, of his grandmother’s sweet phrases, of poetry rooted in everyday life. He says art co...

Send us a text The 2025 Australian federal election has been called for May 3, 2025. Members of the 48th Parliament of Australia will be elected. All seats of the House of Representatives (150 compared to 151 in the previous election) and 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate will be contested. Two exceptional thinkers and leaders, Sukhmani Khorana and Varsha Yajman join me on Pause to talk elections, media and civic literacy, disinformation, and the issues that impact the South Asian Diaspora. &...

Send us a text Gaza has been front and centre for many of us as we watched the decimation of a land and its people with horror and dismay, each of us wishing we could do more. More than the sharing, the bearing witness and the fund-raising. On the cusp of a potential ceasefire, still hanging by a tenuous thread, it is our honour to have Dr Sanjay Adusumilli as a guest on this show. Dr. Sanjay was in Gaza on a medical mission. He is a General and Colorectal Surgeon from Sydney who is also a ...

Send us a text At 2:30 am Brisbane time, I got a message saying as of now the professor is alive. Just another night in Gaza. A family goes to sleep, not knowing if they will make it to dawn. At a time of violence, at a scale that has horrified the world, along with protests, petitions, BDS, we simply bear witness. We listen to the stories of people who are living through the worst times of their lives and we are there with them, in whichever way we can be. Without enough bandwidth to get on ...

Send us a text An extraordinary human being with an even more extraordinary story, Himanshu Kumar is an activist with a lifelong passion for social justice. In this conversation, he takes us through his days in Bastar, the unspeakable cruelty of the powers that be, his crusade to awaken people to the realities of corporate greed and its impact on ordinary lives, and most of all, to afford a life to dignity and centrality, to those deemed to live forever on the margins. His is a message...

Send us a text I’m in conversation with historian, journalist, political commentator and Marxist thinker #vijayprashad on NRI Affairs. Vijay is the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the author of forty books. Vijay is on a speaking tour across New Zealand and Australia. p.s. I can’t say i agree with everything he said, and for sure, I don’t know enough. But this conversation will stay with me for a while. There were moments of connection over Palestine ...

Send us a text Our guest on this episode is the extraordinary Sunita Viswanath, the co-founder and executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, that advocates for pluralism, civil and human rights in South Asia, Australia, the UK and North America. From a childhood of transplantation from India as a migrant, to watching the ugly face of racism as a child in the UK, to a curious choice of study; mathematics and sociology, her journey is anything but typical. Sunita says she doe...

Send us a text My guest is the indefatigable Indu Balachandran, an independent candidate in the upcoming New South Wales Local Government election, standing for the Gordon Ward in Sydney's Ku Ring Gai Council. With a track record in sustainability and over 20 years in leadership positions across housing, family services and first nation sectors, Indu brings the will and the skill to make a difference. She is also a passionate musician, actively engaged in community initiatives, r...

Send us a text Bangladeshi-American academic, Dr. Farhana Sultana, professor at Syracuse University, and Indian political and social commentator who writes extensively for the Wire, Shuddhabrata Sengupta come together on Pause with Nandini to discuss Bangladesh, reimagined. We cover the challenges and opportunities ahead for Bangladesh, its relationship with India, the protection of minorities, and the dangers and impact of misinformation and false narratives. We als...

Send us a text A woman who asks too many questions offers a window into her world. For Chinki Sinha, war is never elsewhere. Armed with James Baldwin's politics of love, she finds hope in protests, reads from her grandfather's stolen diaries, finds herself locked up in a brothel, goes to Kashmir to cover silence, and eats kulfi for dinner, spent after a day chasing stories. Of all the people who have come on Pause, Chinki is probably the most mercurial, enigmatic in the wa...

Send us a text Gender, colourism, identity, code-shifting , all of this and more in an animated and unfettered discussion on the new book Growing up Indian in Australia. Published by Black Inc, the book has been edited by Aarti Betigeri with contributions from a wide cross-section of Australian-Indians. Aarti joins us in this conversation along with Preeti Maharaj - 'Tangle of Tenses', Swagata Bapat - 'The Dance Performance' and Rakhee Gelani, the author of 'Navratri'. In their storie...

Send us a text Kashmiris, Tibetans, islanders, ancient feuds between Hindus and Buddhists, and the politics of war. Abhishek Majumdar in his new book, Abhishek Majumdar, Collected Plays, goes into spaces that are often unvisited, and within those spaces, he arrives with and offers more questions than easy answers. With acute humanity, and unmitigated curiosity, Abhishek explores themes both diverse and interconnected; the environment, violence and non violence, the p...

Send us a text On the heels of Dalit History Month, we at NRI Affairs, wanted to begin a conversation on caste that looks at this social evil from the lens of the caste and generationally privileged, one that accepts that caste discrimination exists, that we continue to benefit from it, and explores ways to take greater collective and individual accountability. We share our own journeys of learning about caste with the hope that it opens dialogue on the need for a clear-eyed ack...

Send us a text Each year Australia marks National Reconciliation Week between 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey - the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. The first date marks the May 27 referendum in 1967, which saw more than 90 per cent of voters support the inclusion of all Indigenous Australians in the census. In the first National Reconciliation Week since the failure of last October's ...

Send us a text As elections are underway in India, this is an important conversation. Human rights, hate speech, caste dynamics, the silencing of dissent and the idea of government working with civil society for the greater good - we cover a lot of ground in this truly special conversation with the inimitable Meenakshi Ganguly. Wise, experienced, and a true humanist, she is truly a force for good in this world. Meenakshi Ganguly is also the Deputy Director of Human R...

Send us a text Megha Singh's journey as an entrepreneur will possibly resonate with many people who have had to restart or reimagine careers, balance passion with purpose, and create opportunities for themselves. She says the working title of her autobiography could be Love. Money. God. and in this freewheeling conversation, Megha speaks with refreshing candour about her relationship with all three, and more. Today Megha helps entrepreneurs get started and on their way to their ...

Send us a text Ravijeet Dang is a techie with a difference. A believer in creating social impact through technology and community engagement, as the Managing Director of Iotasol, he is passionate about mentoring the next generation of technology leaders. In this episode we explore an uncommon journey that led him from India, to Europe, Singapore and now to Australia. We talk passion and purpose, continual learning and the path to fulfilment. We also get a peek into the ex...

Send us a text Was the Delhi Sultanate a barbaric and bloodthirsty line of rulers who imposed Islam in the Indian subcontinent by the force of their sword? Were there Muslim rulers in the South of India? How so we separate fact from fiction in understanding our complex and multi-dimensional past? Syed Ubaidur Rahman, a New Delhi-based author and columnist answers all of this and more, as we take a walk down the not too distant past. Syed has written extensively on medieval and modern I...

Send us a text For countless Bengalis, Anjan Dutt is an emotion. From Bela Bose to Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbo Na, Mary Ann to Bhalobasha, his songs captured a particular zeitgeist of 90's Kolkata. For a generation coming of age at the time, in his music, they found an unforgettable voice for their heartbreaks and hopes, their aches and aspirations. Anjan Dutt is also an award winning actor and filmmaker. From Mrinal Sen's Chalachitro, (for which he won the best newcomer actor award at the Ve...