It may be the 21st century but there are very few shunning the garb and un-filtering the world to us millennials and Gen Z and Garima is one of them. Her lockdown baby – ‘Popkast with Garima’ is all things sass and more. Breaking the stereotypes along with records, her podcast is setting society’s rules on fire.
Garima was just your ordinary small town girl hailing from Rajasthan, India, before quitting her mundane job and moving to France. She remembers the love of her life being the mic she was first acquainted with in the 6th grade. Garima recalls, “Ever since that day, I’ve always loved myself on the mic and knew it was my calling. The first time I held the mic, I never wanted to let go, it gave me a rush to do something in life.”
Life was nothing but a road of U-turns for Garima. She hopped, skipped and jumped her way through several jobs including RJ-ing and working with Bombay Times but nothing fit her fancy. 4 days prior to the lockdown, she moved to France, jobless with her beau and an open mind to try new things. Garima recalls the turning point in her life that was about to kick start her life-long dream, “After moving to France, one day on the bus I saw a girl holding on to the latches and she had visible armpit hair and an attitude of ‘I don’t care’. As shocking as it was to me, I realized how it isn’t like this in India”. Although India has a rich culture and are the leading pioneers, it’s all become a victim of society’s filters. France changed Garima’s perspective to life and gave birth to her podcast – ‘Popkast with Garima’.
Her latest episode named Mr. India is with Instagram sensation Ankush Bahuguna on metrosexuality & Indian men.
15 years ago, Garima was just a young girl trying to figure life and understand why her family wouldn’t have the ‘closed door conversations’ with her. Inspired by this and Ambika Anand from NDTV Good Times, Garima set forth on the journey of reconditioning India’s stereotypical childhood conditioning that is everything far from right, through her podcast.
‘Popkast with Garima‘, a product of the pandemic is needed more than wanted and it is here to serve all those shying away from reality. Pop culture, 90’s music, sex toys, and cannabis is just the cherry on top of the cake that has led the listeners to ‘binge hear’ the podcast, something unheard of before?! Garima differentiates her podcast with the others by consolidating it down to a 25-minute frame of time and keeping it popping with 90’s music and her specially curated playlist called ‘THE POPKAST PLAYLIST’ for her listeners. You can check out the playlist on Spotify:
However, it hasn’t always been a merry ride for ‘Popkast with Garima‘. She recalls, “People often say that the best tip is to just start recording the podcast. But this isn’t entirely true. I first made a PPT of what I wanted to do, how I wanted to segment it, the guests, the topics, from every minute to major detail. This is what actually enabled me to start with a clear mindset and goal for my podcast.”
This was just the blueprint, the show was yet to run. Being nobody’s in the industry, the struggle was hard to put ‘Popkast with Garima’ on the shelf. From emailing more than 20 templates to guests and brands and getting a response from one to finding the right people at the right time and fitting their schedule to editing for 8-10 hours straight, it’s been one hell of a ride for the podcast but isn’t it all worth it in the end?
Today, Garima with her immense passion and hardwork has put ‘Popkast with Garima’ on the map. From getting her first listeners to her first subscriber to her first campaign called ‘#HaathMeinNirbhar’ going viral on Twitter all of this within the first 90 days of commencement, the podcast has come a long way and the sky’s the limit. Wrapping up Season 1, Season 2 is back with a lot more tadka and sass with new concepts like pop shots that will make you unlearn with a short and snack-able form of content, so be sure not to miss it.
But this isn’t it for ‘Popkast with Garima’, in fact, this is just the very beginning. With many more upcoming seasons in diverse languages and showing the world the right way of creating podcasts, Garima has paved the way for unlearning and relearning and this is just the first step to their ladder. Listen to the podcast right here: https://podfollow.com/popkast-with-garima
