Episode 54 with Pulkit Arora
Rabies & Resilience + Six of Cups + Asians Who Eat
Kia ora and welcome to the final episode (and newsletter) of 2024!
Pulkit Arora shares some wildly entertaining stories in this new ep. AI suggested it be titled From Rabies to Resilience: The Wild Adventures of Pulkit Arora - which had me in hysterics. Seriously though, this episode has a rabies story, stories of seeing beauty plus a vipassana story that I am absolutely HIGH-KEY obsessed with.
At the end of our chat, I pulled the Six of Cups from a Tarot deck for Pulkit. (This was after he said he was wary about things like Tarot and astrology š, so all kudos to him for being up to play and not shutting the whole thing down). I edited this part out but now as Iām on my final listen-through before uploading, and hearing Pulkit talk about the sublime and beauty, itās clicking for me about how that card connects.
Six of Cups invites us to look at the world in a way a child might - before the socialised āright ways of beingā and baggage begins to weigh us down. Itās about remembering to experience the present with child-like awe, and how this can be a pure gift. Joyous and magical even. Itās about feeling nostalgic for the past but not living back there. Seeing things with fresh eyes. Feeling with an open heart.
Me? Iām currently feeling nostalgic for my early 20s, when I saw Daft Punk live and moved to Japan the year after. Last week, I saw a special screening of Daft Punkās Interstella 5555 - Creative. Fucking. Masterpiece - and this week Iām flying back to Japan for Christmas and NYE. Iām feeling creatively juiced up, very ready for adventure, and extremely grateful.
IMPORTANT: if youāre TÄmaki-based, keep February 1st free for a special in-person event. More info on that coming very soon!
As always, thanks for reading/listening/supporting.
See you in 2025
JennaĀ x
PS. The next episode with Jenny Gao will be dropping on January 15th. Itās different to every other episode on the pod and Iām looking forward to sharing it!
š§ Listen: Episode 54 with Pulkit Arora
Pulkit Arora is writer-director of Indian origin based in TÄmaki Makaurau. His debut short Milk Toffee premiered at Tribeca and travelled through 8 other international festivals in 2021. His follow-up film Anu won the Audience Award at WhÄnau MÄrama: NZIFF 2023, followed by screening in competition at Melbourne International Film Festival and winning at IFFLA, Cornwall and Film Bazaar India. It released globally on the streaming platform MUBI in May 2024. As a screenwriter, he led development for two adaptation projects with Disney+ and Home Stories, a Netflix anthology.
In this episode Pulkit talks about how heās feeling about summer, a rabies scare, the projects heās working on, devotion to craft, vipassana and loads more.
š Artists Who Eat by ate ate ate Ate Ate Ate
Past podcast guests and dear friends, Sam Low and Jean Teng, recently released Artists Who Eat - a zine and mini podcast season featuring Asian artists, recipes and reflections. Get your hands on a physical copy floating around at cool cafes around TÄmaki and/or check it out online on the Ate Ate Ate website, here.
Find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all good pod places or visit asianinaotearoa.com.