New podcast by three friends addresses existential angst

Cyrus Sahukar (centre) with Nikhil Taneja (right) and Aalap Deboor. Pic/Sameer Markande

We are at a cafe in Bandra on a Thursday evening and the debate on the table is Android vs Apple. "I miss my iPhone, but at least with the Pixel, I am not addicted to the phone as much," says Nikhil Taneja. "That's because the interface is not as nice!" quips Cyrus Sahukar, "But as soon as you update to a new OS on the iPhone, the battery dies in five seconds. Just imagine, you are in the middle of a fight, and someone is shouting 'you did this...', and gone! Could be a good thing or bad."

It's a table full of laughs as we chat with Taneja, Sahukar and Aalap Deboor, who are launching their podcast, Work In Progress, this Thursday at India Culture Lab. Taneja just quit his high flying job at YFilms at Yash Raj, and Deboor - head of content at One Digital Entertainment - did the same.

"We all had what we want - good money, creative satisfaction, good positions - but we realised we really weren't that happy. The more people we met, everyone was going through the same thing. We are all at the same place, where we are going through this existential problem, where we don't really understand how it all works. Are we just running after happiness? Aalap and I thought of the podcast to talk about these issues, and then we met Cyrus, who has an interesting take on this race we are running. So, let's see if we can talk, and make sense of it all," explains 31-year-old Taneja.

Sahukar, who says a lot of his life has been spent asking the question "what if life doesn't work out?", says that since things are changing at such a rapid pace, how does one find a way of living that is beyond my job, social life, status or relationship. "I have had a crazy life - growing up only around women, parents separating at three, being in Mumbai at 18. And so we wanted to do this, and talk. We have been reading up, and listening to people. It's not about us. There is a certain panic, even in people who have achieved much. There is the life we have, which is the Instagram posts, and there is the existence we have, which is all drama. We don't judge each other about our problems - if I have a problem with the paint chipping in my room, well that is it. It's not like, 'Cyrus, look at Rajesh who has no legs'," says Sahukar, whose dark humour has us in splits.

Taneja, who shared his experience of anxiety on his Facebook, says it's a common issue among all of us. "When I read that someone like Nikhil, a happy person, had anxiety, I knew there must be many out there. We may not even have the right words to describe what we are feeling, but this is about starting a dialogue," says 29-year-old Deboor.

The podcast will address emotions we usually don't allow ourselves to feel, be it conditions like depression or even social media anxiety. As Sahukar explains, they will pose a question in every episode and break it down with chatter, sharing pop culture and news snippets about the same, talking about stuff they've read or heard. "We are not experts, but we are here to try and figure it out," says Taneja, as Sahukar adds, "So, we will take up a question like 'how dare you be happy?', because people even feel guilty about feeling bad, or depressed. Maybe we will find answers, or maybe, we will just b'''h about our toast and go home. Let's find out."

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