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An alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, Sudipta Bhawmik, along with an Israeli friend Avi Ziv has been podcasting tales from Mahabharat from King Shantanu to Abhimanyu. And listeners from New York to New Jersey have been intently listening to podcasts about the 'Mahabharata'.
The stories are written and re-told by Bhawmik and Avi are the men behind the sound designing.
It's a partnership that has been working well for the two New Jersey-based electrical engineers. The podcasts are in English and use a dramatic storytelling form with a soundtrack.
What has perhaps captured the imagination of the young subscribers is that 'Mahabharata' is actually the longest poem ever written, with over 100,000 shlokas (couplets) and over 200,000 individual verse lines and long prose passages.
“With about 1.8 million words in total, the 'Mahabharata' is roughly 10 times the length of the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey' combined," the podcast proudly states in its opening lines every time,” said Sudipta Bhawmik.
"The kids of this generation, the Millennials, don't have the time to read the books or watch television serials that were popular with the previous generation. They prefer a medium that is portable, mobile, and accessible anywhere, anytime. I was keen to introduce them to this fascinating story and realized that podcasting is the technology that meets their needs. They can download the episodes on their smartphones or iPods, and listen at their convenience and that is exactly what has happened," Bhawmik added further.
From downloading free podcasts on iTunes, to listening to them on Stitcher Radio and even logging on to the designated website, the new generation Indian diaspora is hooked on to this re-telling of the epic.
