0:00

The news moves quickly. Catch up

0:02

with it with our podcast, Here and Now Anytime,

0:04

reflecting the fluid world of news as

0:07

it's happening in the middle of the day. For

0:09

the news you need to know today and the stories

0:11

that will stick with you tomorrow, listen

0:13

to Here and Now Anytime,

0:15

only from WBUR and NPR. A

0:17

note on this episode before we begin, there is

0:19

a mention of suicide in today's story.

0:25

Previously on Rough Translation. They

0:27

call the love commandos. Love commandos.

0:30

They sound like ninjas, right? Love is not

0:32

a sin. You wanna raise your fist in

0:34

the air and be like, yeah, love is not a sin. Love

0:37

is no sin. Please sir. My girlfriend

0:40

is another caste. I need your immediate assistance.

0:42

I was just struck by the amount of

0:45

people that wanted their help. Running

0:47

away with the love of your life, that's where you went.

0:54

This is love commandos from Rough Translation.

0:57

Last week we told you about a group that

0:59

swore to protect love couples.

1:01

On episode two, a story about what that protection

1:04

can look like. The writer Mansi

1:06

Choksi, who joined me last week, will join again

1:08

in episode three.

1:10

Today we begin our tale in the Indian state

1:13

of Uttar Pradesh.

1:14

Hello. Namaste.

1:15

In a four story house in

1:18

mid June, which is sweltering in India, the

1:20

air cooler is on full blast. NPR

1:23

correspondent Lauren Freyer paid a visit

1:25

to a conch shop. Should we come

1:28

in here?

1:28

A conch shop is 25 years old. She

1:31

loves animals. This is Lachu

1:33

the pet tortoise. Oh, he's breathing like.

1:36

She has a pet tortoise that she sort

1:38

of coos over and when I visited

1:40

we had to gingerly step over

1:42

this tortoise as it sort

1:44

of meandered around the patio outside the house.

1:48

A conch shop's got this lovely, shy,

1:51

demure smile. She's

1:54

sort of in the background. She serves me tea

1:56

and sweets.

1:59

Wow, you're a chef! But

2:04

she's got a toughness about her that

2:06

really came out in a story she

2:08

told me that began on her 21st birthday.

2:14

Her parents call her into the

2:16

living room and sit her down. They're so

2:18

proud of the woman she's become. And

2:20

they tell her like they have done their duty as parents.

2:23

They've done what loving parents

2:25

do. And they've arranged a marriage

2:28

for her. And they tell

2:30

her she's now engaged

2:32

to a guy on the other side

2:34

of the country

2:35

whom she doesn't know. They

2:38

show her a photograph of a guy. Her aunt chose

2:40

him. He's from a good family, they say.

2:43

A good match. Then you had quite a shock

2:45

when your parents told you.

2:47

Yes. So

2:51

Akansha says, I also gave them a

2:53

shock, telling them about my relationship.

2:56

That's producer Rakhsha Kumar. You're going to hear

2:58

her interpreting throughout this story. At

3:04

that point she told her parents that

3:07

I cannot get married because

3:10

I love Surya.

3:11

Surya was the son of the landlady that

3:14

Akansha's family rented their house from. And

3:16

by the way, we're only using first names of the people

3:18

in today's story to protect their identities

3:21

out of concern for their ongoing safety and

3:23

well-being. We're

3:24

going to get to that part of the story soon. Surya

3:26

is just a little older than Akansha and they'd been

3:29

secretly dating for a few years at that point. And

3:32

her parents say, tough luck. You're

3:38

marrying this guy.

3:40

Akansha's family is from a higher caste, they're

3:42

Rajput. And Surya's family is

3:44

from a lower caste or scheduled caste.

3:47

But also Akansha is on a different educational

3:49

path. She's getting her master's in zoology.

3:52

He's in a technical college. Her

4:00

parents have big dreams for her. They want her to

4:02

continue her studies. And

4:07

have a rich husband of her own cast,

4:09

of course. So they lock her

4:11

in the house, forbid her to see Surya and take

4:14

away her phone so she can't call or text him.

4:16

And yet, Surya and Akanksha still figure

4:18

out a way to exchange messages.

4:22

And this is your old

4:22

house. During

4:25

my visit to their village, the apartment

4:28

is no longer occupied, so we're going

4:30

through this. We went to the outside of

4:32

the family home, where Akanksha

4:35

said,

4:37

just look up. You're bathroom,

4:39

right? Oh, I see a wall, and

4:42

there's a window here. There

4:44

is the bathroom window, where

4:47

Akanksha would slide scraps of

4:49

paper. Wow, so you had to climb up

4:51

to that window and put the notes through.

4:54

Tiny little notes that would flutter down. Can

4:56

we see where they go on the other side? Yes.

4:59

And Surya would go grab them. And did

5:01

you also send a note the

5:03

other way?

5:04

Yeah.

5:07

In the years when they'd been secretly dating, exchanging

5:10

texts late into the night, Surya says

5:12

they developed codes for discussing

5:15

their plans,

5:15

including plans about what to

5:17

do if their parents discovered them. I

5:19

think that's why we're so happy that we're

5:21

not going to be able to get married.

5:24

Plan A, convince our families, they'll

5:27

love us, we won't have to leave this house. Plan

5:29

B is we will have to escape

5:35

and run away together, and elope.

5:40

But if they couldn't get married, and they couldn't elope,

5:43

that left. Plan C... I

5:45

think that's why we're so happy. If

5:49

nothing works, we will kill ourselves,

5:53

and that will set an example for

5:55

future generations.

5:58

Kumar explains

6:00

the stakes were already high. Most

6:03

teenagers in India come from

6:05

families which believe that

6:08

there is

6:09

one person that you spend your life

6:11

with. And that kind

6:13

of becomes a finality. So

6:16

at 14 or 15, you're actually deciding

6:18

who you're going to get married to. So it's

6:20

an extremely major decision. Suriya

6:22

and Akanksha had known, even from when they first

6:25

started dating as teenagers, that the

6:27

obvious next step was marriage. So

6:29

I think two kids growing up in a relatively

6:32

rural area, there's a lot of homogeneity

6:34

wherever they look around them. And

6:36

the only exception they find

6:39

is on the screen.

6:46

This is Rough Translation. I'm Gregory

6:48

Warner.

6:52

When Suriya had first told Akanksha that

6:54

he loved her and she told him, I love you

6:56

back, she felt like this was her one chance

6:59

to have a love story like she'd seen in the movies.

7:01

Love is a beautiful feeling.

7:07

And Suriya also pictured their friends

7:10

watching them like they'd watch a romantic

7:12

epic.

7:17

And fighting for this love, it'll

7:19

take bravery and patience and

7:22

the sort of grand gestures that you see

7:24

in the movies. This

7:26

story, it's

7:27

also about the real life costs of

7:29

this choice for the young lovers

7:33

and for everyone who loves them.

7:41

Love Commandos from Rough Translation,

7:43

back after this break. This

7:48

message comes from NPR sponsor Rosetta

7:50

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8:58

We're back with Rough Translation. I'm Gregory

9:00

Warner. Surya, by

9:02

his own admission, is not one to stand up to

9:04

authority. He says he's pretty shy.

9:07

And his courage to fight for a conscious hand

9:09

or even secretly date a girl of a different caste,

9:12

it flowed from the fact that he had someone

9:14

in his life who had pushed valiantly against the

9:17

bounds of tradition. That is his

9:19

mother, Poonam, the landlady in

9:21

our story. Surya's dad wasn't

9:23

around much growing up, so his mom's influence was pretty strong

9:25

in his life. She

9:33

would always tell him to look beyond caste differences.

9:39

Because in her own life,

9:41

Poonam had played by the rules and suffered for it. She was married

9:43

as a young teen. After

9:46

finishing my 8th grade, I got married off. To

9:50

somebody that her grandmother

9:51

thought would be a good match for her. I

9:57

didn't even know what marriage was.

9:59

what marriage was. He worked

10:03

in the coal mines near their home.

10:05

But he was often hurt on the job,

10:10

he racked up debt, and the way Punam

10:12

talks about him, he just becomes

10:14

more and more of a burden on her.

10:17

She's still a teenager when she has three children

10:19

in quick succession. I didn't

10:22

begrudge my family for arranging this

10:24

marriage. I mean, I thought that was my destiny. Instead

10:39

of blaming anyone,

10:40

I resolved to change my destiny.

10:43

And did you change your destiny?

10:48

You bet I did, sister. So

10:53

she homeschools herself through high

10:55

school, and she talks her way into

10:58

a job as a police woman.

11:01

Ultimately,

11:01

she ends up being this like troubleshooter,

11:04

fix-it woman for the whole community. I'm not

11:06

a woman, I'm a woman.

11:15

And she also runs this women's

11:17

empowerment circle out of her home

11:20

every week. And I happened to be there when they

11:22

were doing this.

11:27

She's no longer in the police force, but

11:29

she's still a bit of a detective.

11:32

Like, people come to her if

11:34

they suspect their spouse is having an

11:36

affair. And so she's like, really respected.

11:39

Punam had no daughters of her own, and

11:41

she doted on Akanksha.

11:43

She said she never thought for a second that

11:45

the tenant's daughter

11:47

might be in love with her son.

11:48

Akanksha's

11:54

mother told me that

11:56

the two of them ran away together.

11:58

Suri

12:00

and Akanksha had gone all in on plan B.

12:03

They'd run away. Suri had borrowed

12:05

a motorbike. Akanksha had snuck out of her parents'

12:07

house and jumped on the back of it. No one knew

12:10

where they were now.

12:10

I

12:13

fainted right there in front of Akanksha's

12:15

mother. What have

12:17

these two done?

12:21

Her

12:23

mother said to me, do whatever you have to

12:25

do to find Akanksha and bring her

12:28

back. She also

12:30

asked me to take Akanksha's father along.

12:35

This isn't just a cry for help from one

12:38

mother to another. It's also a test.

12:40

She needs to go find Suri

12:43

and Akanksha, bring them home, return

12:45

Akanksha to her parents,

12:47

and do it quickly because

12:50

the whole community is watching. I

12:52

have to bring them back. The

12:56

only thing in my mind was, I have

12:58

to bring them back. I have to bring them back.

13:01

Because if she doesn't, if she let this happen,

13:03

she could be ostracized or even targeted for

13:05

violence by Akanksha's relatives. Because

13:07

if Suri and Akanksha were playing out their Bollywood

13:10

movie by running away from home, Poonam

13:12

had seen the same films and she knew her

13:15

role, the role of the parents, defend

13:17

tradition. I have to bring Akanksha

13:19

to my parents. If I could

13:21

not bring her back, then I would not

13:24

come back either. That's

13:26

what I promised her mom.

13:32

Her first act as

13:34

a detective in her own case

13:37

is like forensics work, try

13:40

to trace her son's phone.

13:42

But Suriya knows that.

13:46

And so as he and Akanksha are fleeing by

13:48

train, I switch on my mobile for

13:50

five minutes and then switch off. They

13:55

go on this zigzag journey

13:58

to different cities in India. They

14:00

go to Nagpur. They

14:02

go to Ranchi. Turning

14:05

the phone on briefly

14:08

and then off again in each city, because

14:10

he knows that his parents will

14:12

be able to track his phone.

14:14

And

14:20

so he's trying to throw them off.

14:27

Eventually, Poonam traces them to a city 12 hours

14:29

away, and that's where she and a conscious father

14:32

travel. They eventually get

14:34

Surya on the phone and say,

14:36

come back. Just

14:39

come back. We'll let you get married.

14:46

We just need to right this wrong, and

14:49

you need to come back with us. Did

14:51

you intend to get them married, or

14:53

was that a trick? No.

14:58

It was definitely a trick. She's

15:01

crying and telling me that come

15:04

to me and we go

15:07

to home and we will fix it

15:09

whatever happened.

15:10

And

15:13

that was a difficult

15:15

long time. Yeah.

15:19

When did you think you would see your mother again?

15:29

I don't know.

15:35

Surya hangs up, confused,

15:38

and he turns to Akanksha. And you

15:40

said what? I trust my mother.

15:42

No, no, no. Give them a chance. Akanksha

15:45

told Surya, no, I'm extremely scared to go home. Let's

15:50

please not go. And

15:54

then Surya said, but it's not a problem.

15:56

It'll all turn out well, so let's go.

16:01

That night, Suri and Akanksha have the biggest

16:03

argument they've ever had. Suri,

16:05

who hates standing up to authority, tells Akanksha it's

16:08

her decision to make. And she

16:10

doesn't want to be the rift between Suri and his mom.

16:12

So the reason you went back

16:16

is because family ultimately

16:19

is

16:21

the most

16:22

important thing. Yes.

16:26

It's just that you can't do it, you can't do it.

16:41

So Suri calls his mom back and says, okay,

16:44

we're going to come home. And they are

16:46

about to meet the parents when Suri gets a call,

16:49

and that's Suri's brother, who says,

16:51

are you mad? Do not come back home.

16:53

It's a trap. What's interesting is this

16:55

is a brother with an arranged marriage,

16:58

who's part of the system, betrays

17:01

his parents and calls Suri and say, don't

17:03

do it, it's a trap.

17:05

Suri doesn't want to believe him because

17:07

believing him means seeing his mother

17:09

totally differently than the mother he's known growing

17:11

up.

17:12

They were still hoping for plan A, and

17:14

they're still

17:16

trying to salvage some

17:19

of plan A. But

17:22

just in case they're wrong, they think, we'll

17:25

just get married quickly before we go.

17:35

So they've already told their parents they're coming home,

17:37

but they stall them for two days. They book

17:40

a temple and quickly get married.

17:42

I've seen a photo of their wedding

17:44

ceremony and they're just beaming. But

17:48

her dupattas borrowed and his pagdi

17:51

turban is borrowed. This was a

17:54

five or ten minute ceremony

17:56

in what's kind of like a Vegas

17:58

chapel.

17:59

They literally go

18:01

in, put these borrowed clothes

18:03

on that belonged to the temple, get their

18:05

snapshot taken in the

18:07

next couple steps up. Families

18:11

such a big part of any wedding, but especially

18:13

Hindu weddings, and their families

18:15

weren't there.

18:20

Suri and Akanksha are coming out of the temple

18:23

when Akanksha sees her

18:25

father. I'm very emotional that

18:28

time and I'm

18:30

also scared. Scared,

18:34

she says, about going home. So

18:38

I was also crying a lot.

18:40

So they board the train with their parents. Suri's

18:43

mom is still trying to keep the peace. She says that

18:45

Akanksha's father was still furious, saying...

18:48

This

18:50

is going to cause an incredible stir in our

18:52

community and our town. And

18:55

the honor of both families

18:57

is at stake. So

19:02

we need you to take off a special

19:04

necklace that signifies you're a

19:06

wife. And we need you to wash

19:09

your face from the vermilion

19:12

paste that's

19:13

on your hair line that signifies you're

19:16

just married. And

19:19

we're going to quietly slip back

19:21

into town,

19:23

the four of us. Surya's

19:25

mother, Surya, Akanksha's father,

19:27

Akanksha. And

19:30

we'll deal with the community afterward. And

19:32

that's when Surya leans over to Akanksha, and

19:35

he tells her what might be the most

19:38

important words of their whole journey.

19:41

Whatever happens, just wait for me. I

19:43

will come get you. And

19:57

Akanksha keeps promising him, yes, yes, I

19:59

will.

19:59

wait for you.

20:07

The train comes to a stop, not at their hometown,

20:09

but some miles before that, and a conscious

20:12

dad tells her,

20:13

come on, we're getting off here.

20:14

Yes, my uncle and my

20:18

cousin brother. And a conscious

20:21

Surya and Poonam describe how they

20:24

all suddenly see four

20:26

to five big SUVs

20:28

full of male relatives

20:31

of Akanksha. That extended Rajput

20:34

clan, Akanksha says they take her on

20:36

this eight-hour drive to their native

20:38

place, to their ancestral village.

20:39

Our family is too strong in

20:42

that area. A lot of relatives and a

20:44

lot of power also. Political

20:47

power and some bow-willy

20:49

type. Political power and muscular

20:52

power.

20:55

A few days later, Surya gets a text

20:57

from an unfamiliar number. Can you read

20:59

the message? Surya shows

21:02

us this message he

21:05

still has on his phone. It

21:09

says, this is Akanksha.

21:12

I'm alive, but I think they're going to

21:14

kill me. And

21:17

where she is in the ancestral

21:18

village. It's the only

21:20

message he gets from her, and he doesn't

21:23

dare reply.

21:26

Surya says that got me really nervous.

21:29

I started crying. And now Surya is

21:31

going to need some powerful friends of his

21:33

own. That's when rough translation

21:36

returns.

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22:09

We're back with rough translation. I'm Gregory

22:11

Warner, telling this story with Lauren Freyer

22:13

and Rakhshakumar. Now, the village

22:16

where Akanksha says she'd been taken to and

22:18

held against her will by her relatives.

22:20

It has an extremely, extremely

22:23

dramatic history. Basically,

22:25

it's known for illegal

22:28

weapons, which cost you about 500

22:31

rupees, which is what,

22:33

less than $6? $6, yeah.

22:37

The legislator from that

22:39

particular place has been

22:42

in and out of prison, is known

22:44

to have like, there are these legends

22:46

about this man. He terrorized

22:49

the entire region.

22:50

He belongs to the same caste as Akanksha.

22:53

It's a stronghold. So let's just

22:55

say it's not a place you want to roll into

22:57

and say, someone has my wife

22:59

here.

23:00

Surya doesn't dare. He doesn't call

23:03

the police either, because he knows they won't help

23:05

him.

23:06

There is one number that he does call,

23:08

a hotline of sorts.

23:09

He speaks with a man on the other end of

23:11

the line named Sanjay

23:13

Satchtif. Now, at this point, it's now 2018.

23:16

It's

23:22

been six years since that Satchimiv Jayati

23:24

daytime talk show in 2012.

23:29

This

23:34

clip of Sanjay Satchtif defending love

23:36

on that show,

23:37

it is still being shared on people's

23:39

mobile phones. And now here Surya

23:42

was talking to Satchtif on his.

23:46

Now, the love commandos have no

23:48

authority, at least officially. But

23:51

Surya will come to realize the guy he is

23:53

talking to on this phone knows people.

23:56

He knows the personal phone numbers of police lieutenants.

23:59

He knows which priest.

23:59

will marry a couple in secret for

24:02

the price of a bottle of whiskey in his robe. And

24:04

he knows journalists who would be eager

24:07

to write a story about a young wife held

24:09

captive by her own parents. And

24:13

so now, suchdev calls the police. And

24:18

suchdev tips off journalists. And

24:20

it's only then that the police… They

24:25

go to a conscious family home, and they

24:27

tell them, you have to bring Akanksha into

24:29

the station.

24:29

You have to have her give a statement.

24:35

Meanwhile, Akanksha knows none of this. She

24:39

says she's locked in her uncle's house. And

24:41

they take turns beating her.

24:44

Akanksha's father.

24:46

Akanksha's grandmother. And

24:51

she says she remembers the rings on her

24:53

father's hands. As the

24:55

blows strike her cheekbones.

25:02

We did not reach out to Akanksha's

25:04

parents out of consideration for her present well-being.

25:07

But what Akanksha says happened next

25:09

is that her family gave her an ultimatum. You

25:12

know what you have to do now, they said. You

25:18

have only one option, which is to file

25:20

a police complaint against Surya. You

25:26

have to say that Surya mixed some

25:28

kind of a substance in your food, tricked

25:31

you into going with him, and then draped

25:33

you.

25:35

And this is a really common tactic used

25:37

by parents and other relatives to basically

25:40

use the police to break up love

25:42

couples.

25:42

And Akanksha says she keeps getting told

25:45

she has to file a case against Surya.

25:47

She has to go to the police station and

25:50

file charges against him. It's the only way

25:52

to preserve her family's honor. Akanksha

25:55

has watched a lot of

25:58

Hollywood

26:00

growing up. She knows that everything

26:02

she's been through up to this point, it follows

26:04

the tropes of one of those cinematic love stories. Even

26:07

the violence that Akanksha faced from

26:09

her own family, that is a recurring

26:12

scene that she would have watched before. But

26:15

this is the moment that she turns to her parents and

26:18

she goes off script. After

26:20

a few days, I think

26:22

eight days, she

26:24

relents and says, fine. I'll

26:30

file the case.

26:32

I'm spent.

26:35

Take me to the station. I

26:39

told my family that I'll tell the police

26:41

whatever you want me to say.

26:44

It is hard to think of a scene in a Bollywood

26:46

movie where the girl agrees to give

26:48

up on love.

26:51

And it's around this time that Surya, knowing nothing

26:53

of Akanksha's promise to her parents, gets

26:55

a call from the same police station. He

26:59

doesn't know the reason that Akanksha's come to the station. All

27:02

he knows is he's got to get down there as soon as possible. Sanjay

27:05

Satchtiv puts him in touch

27:08

with his local love

27:10

commandos volunteer who lives in the state

27:12

capital where all this is going down. A man

27:14

named Nitin. Nitin

27:16

sir? Nitin sir, which

27:19

is what Surya calls him. So this guy Nitin says, I'm

27:21

Rajput. I

27:26

think we can approach this village. Where

27:28

she's locked up. If

27:30

you come with me, I think we'll be okay.

27:35

Meanwhile, Akanksha enters an interrogation

27:37

room flanked by her parents. My father

27:40

and mother's safety at N. And Akanksha

27:42

says she's broken. She's

27:45

been locked up for eight days. The

27:48

ancestral village that she associated

27:51

with happy childhood in the summers

27:53

has become a

27:55

prison for her. A

28:00

kangshia says it was horrible.

28:07

It felt like everything had come

28:09

to an end.

28:11

And the officer has a tape recorder

28:13

on the table. Clicks record.

28:19

An officer says, do

28:22

you know a man named Surya? And

28:24

she says, yes, he's my husband. And

28:30

I want to be with him.

28:32

And the parents are like, that's not what you were supposed to say. They

28:40

asked me again, they said, you know, Surya? And

28:42

I said, yeah, I've been married to him and I don't want

28:44

to live with these people and I want to live with Surya. My

28:52

parents asked me, why did you lie?

28:55

And I said, but well, because even you

28:57

lied.

29:02

You said you'd get me married.

29:04

Instead, you got me locked up.

29:12

Confronted by their daughter in this way, her

29:14

parents walk out of the

29:16

police station. They leave her there. Maybe

29:19

expecting her to crawl back home. She

29:21

has no money, no phone, no

29:24

way of knowing if Surya got her message. But

29:27

still she waits for hours.

29:30

And then... So what did you think when you saw

29:33

her at the police station?

29:37

I can't express that feeling. I

29:40

can't express that feeling. He

29:43

says, it's like putting a fish back into water.

29:46

I

29:50

can't express that feeling. But

29:52

I can't express that feeling. I can't

29:54

express that feeling. Akansha

29:58

says that she was so happy.

29:59

that they were back together again and

30:02

that they were going to start a new life together.

30:16

The Kaksha and Surya have no easy script

30:18

for what comes next. In all the movies

30:21

that they've seen of this reunion moment, it's

30:23

followed either by the parents bursting

30:25

in in a climax of forgiveness or

30:28

the couples are doomed by their actions and

30:30

they die by the end of the film. But

30:33

instead, they

30:35

got on a bus to a shelter in

30:37

New Delhi. And there they would

30:39

enter a story that, while

30:41

they didn't know it, had played out hundreds

30:44

of times before.

30:46

Welcome.

30:47

It is our base shelter. Base

30:50

shelter of the love commandos. And that

30:52

story? They would put couples to a whole different

30:54

kind of test.

30:57

That's next time on the love commandos

31:00

from Rough Translation.

31:07

So

31:27

go to plus.npr.org

31:29

slash embedded or look for the embedded

31:32

channel on Apple to find out more.

31:35

Speaking of ambitious storytelling,

31:37

you know something I believe? That

31:40

telling people's stories with care and curiosity,

31:43

it can have a transformative effect. It

31:45

can give us such a fresh perspective on ourselves and

31:47

the things we're going through.

31:49

Those are the kinds of stories that I have been looking for for

31:51

years on Rough Translation.

31:54

And I'm going to keep bringing you those stories on

31:56

my sub-stack. It's called Rough Transition.

32:00

where you get stories, but we're also going to talk about tools

32:02

for talking to strangers. And

32:04

we're having a great old chat. You should stop by. It's

32:07

totally free to sign up. So go to substack.com,

32:10

search for my name, or search for Rough Transition.

32:13

Stories from a changing world. Love

32:18

Commandos from Rough Translation is a collaboration

32:21

with NPR's international desk. It

32:23

was reported by Lauren Frayer. Our guest

32:25

co-host is Monsi Choksi. The

32:27

series was written and edited by me, Gregory

32:29

Warner, and our senior producer is Adelina

32:32

Lansianis. Our senior editor is

32:34

Luis Treas, and our consulting editors

32:37

are Miranda Kennedy and Sana Krasikov.

32:39

The Love Commandos team includes Ariana

32:41

Lee, Parth Shah, Elena Twarek, Justine

32:44

Yan, Dan Gurma, Kimberly Izar,

32:46

Bhaskar Chowdhury, and Jess Jang. Our

32:48

producers

32:49

in India include Raksha Kumar and

32:51

Sushmita Pathak. Fact checking by Nicolette

32:53

Kahn, Mary Glenn-Dinning is director of research

32:55

at NPR's RAD department. Legal

32:58

support from Micah Ratner and Johannes Dergi,

33:00

NPR's standards and practices editor is Tony

33:02

Cavan, mastering by Josh Newell. The

33:05

Love Commandos theme song is by Vasu and Amira

33:07

Gill. It's inspired by Rough Translation's

33:09

original theme from John Ellis. Additional

33:11

music in this episode by John Ellis, Nick

33:14

Dupre, Ramtina Rablui, First Comm

33:16

Music, Blue Dot Sessions, and Audio

33:18

Socket. To see the original

33:20

illustrations for this series by Vartika Sharma,

33:22

visit npr.org slash rough translation.

33:25

Our visuals editor is Emily Vogel. Bela

33:28

Shah will enter voice of this episode. Translation

33:30

support for this series from Syed Bismillah Gilani

33:32

and Ana Priyadishini. Irene Noguchi

33:35

is the executive producer of the Enterprise Storytelling

33:38

Unit. Liana Simstrom is our supervising

33:40

producer. Didi Skanky is chief editor,

33:42

and Nishant Dhalia is deputy supervising

33:45

senior editor of NPR's International Desk.

33:47

Anya Grunman is NPR's senior

33:49

vice president of programming and audience development.

33:52

I'm Gregory Warner. See you next time for episode

33:54

three of Love Commandos from

33:57

Rough Translation.

34:04

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide

34:07

or is in crisis, call or text 988

34:10

to reach the Suicide and Crisis

34:12

Lifeline.