Loud Murmurs

Hosts Diaodiao, Afra, and Izzy talk about Mindy Kailing’s new Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” a coming-of-age comedy about Devi, a second-generation Indian American girl in California.We talk about our own past as overachieving high school nerds (more than one of us were also in Model UN ahem), the feeling of othering when you move to a new country, why the show only manages to tell one specific story from Devi’s perspective, and last but not least, the show’s unabashed female gaze. (Afra actually sought out Paxton’s fan page.)We also included an interview segment with our special guest: Saisha, who grew up in India, studied and worked in China, and currently lives in New York City. Saisha talks about what she loves about the show and why she finds the show to be more like India in the 90s. She feels nervous about some of the ways the show portrays Indian Americans’ attitude towards marriage and religion: “There’s a war over identity going on in India right now. You want to show that story very carefully