episode 2 babu
In episode 2 we meet Babu. He was great talker and I had a hard time editing 45 minutes of conversation down into a reasonable podcast time. Its still a bit long but I can’t find 5 minutes to take off. If you have thoughts on that, leave them in the comments as it will help me in future shows. In the meantime, listen to the outtakes by clicking on the players below the photos.
Click this player to hear the podcast.
right click here to download podcast
Click here to download hindi transcript
I forgot to take a photo of Babu. You will have to imagine him. Instead, since this podcast is called Meter Down, I have included some photos of meters. click on the thumbnails for larger views.
Outtakes.
Babu tells a long funny story (5 minutes) about the passenger before me. He speaks of batameezi and the give and take of not having chillar. He uses colourful language so know that this outtake carries an ‘explicit’.
Babu talks about what he would do if he won the lottery.
4, August 2007 at 10:11 am
Dear Cubby
I must say that I am extremely impressed by your project. It promises to be a valuable archival resource of contemporary Bombay history.
J’anticipe avidemment ton progres.
Bisous
Sachin
6, August 2007 at 10:01 pm
This is such an interesting project….seriously…
Your experience as a taxi-driver would be of such great help… 
Looking forward to read more experiences…
7, August 2007 at 5:47 am
This is astounding. I have never come across a project like this. Would you permit me to write this as an article for some paper, giving the credit for the source material and photographs to you? I am a freelance journalist based in Kolkata and of course I would not dream of using your interest without your clear permission. I felt it might make readers know how varied are the interests of people today and also, bring more visitors to your blog.
20, August 2007 at 2:11 am
Kabi-
The two short outtakes were brilliant… the 4 rupee story and the other one…. That is a great way to get in more minutes of the pod without increasing the overall length of the main part.
My favorite part of this one was at the very end, where he said hai ki nahin, madam? and you reply very softly — just barely audible – “bahot.”
The slam of the car door right after the tick tick tick… ping at the end is really great…makes you feel like you are in the taxi. I don’t know if you added the car door sound for this episode –or if it was there before — but its great.
Babu’s answer was hilarious when you asked him what he’d do if he won the lottery! I liked hearing you both laughing heartily — obviously the two of you clicked.
Just a technicality, but I wonder if you can draw more attention to the “about” hyperlink right in the bottom left of the first image that comes up. Its so tiny… and easy to overlook… but I feel newcomers to this pod are likely to miss it altogether
Next time don’t forget the drivers photo… it is nice to see him along with hearing his words.
awaiting episode 3!
love paige
21, August 2007 at 8:22 am
hi paige,
yes, that was my favourite part also. up until the very last edit, that is how I ended the podcast. but since the podcast was too long, i decided to put it as an outtake. even then, the podcast runs long.
it took a bit of time for the clicking, but yes, we really clicked. lots of laughter and back and forth talking.
cant do anything about where the about it. wordpress gives these choices of forms to use for what the blog pages will look like and how they will act. I chose this one because it allows for the biggest banner picture. i also have aesthetic and practicality problems with it. but either i learn to code in CSS or find someone else who does, i cant do anything about it unless wordpress comes up with another design that has a big banner picture that works better.
episode 3 very soon. get ready for guptaji. (and his photos)
but babu was very special.