大象传媒

India is the second most populous nation in the world (1.2 billion people), and British-Indian is the largest ethnic minority in the United Kingdom (1.4 million people). So after Radio 4 broadcast A Beginner's Guide To Pakistan last year, it feels only right to broadcast A Beginner's Guide To India as without India there wouldn't even be a Pakistan.

Our guide will be Aditi Mittal, a Mumbai-based comic who has already appeared on The Now Show and on The Asian Network's Big Comedy Night. The Times of India listed her as one of the top ten comedians in India; Forbes Magazine India put her in their 30 Under 30, ranging across every sphere of life from science to law to sport to theatre to comedy - and she's written articles for everyone from The Financial Times to Grazia. Radio 4 has brought her to the UK to perform A Beginner's Guide To India because she, like all Indians, loves the British - the last time they got some, they kept them for 200 years.

Aditi is young in a country with more history than most; she's a woman in a country that sees street harassment as 'Eve teasing'; she's an Anglophone because of the legacy of the British Empire, but India was independent before her parents were born; she's an atheist in a country that has given the world four major religions and also one actual God (Sachin Tendulkar).

Episode 2: Youth.
Speaking as someone who lives in one of the oldest cultures on the planet, Aditi looks at the challenges facing India's youth - of whom India has more (350m) than any other country in the world, from education to jobs to body image - including the booming industry of skin-lightening cream.

A Beginner's Guide To India will look at an undoubtedly significant and increasingly important country from a point of view that is rarely heard, performed by the most exciting stand-up comedian India has generated. As with A Beginner's Guide To Pakistan ("Stylishly cynical, brutally newsy, bitingly funny, this is political stand-up done with gusto", The Sunday Telegraph) it is informative, educational and entertaining, broadening the range of voices in Radio 4 comedy.

Written and performed by ... Aditi Mittal
The Voice of the Guide ... Ritula Shah
Production Coordinator ... Tamara Shilham
Produced by ... Ed Morrish

A 大象传媒 Studios Production.