Mayday Plays - Heroes You Should Know: Sarojini Naidu

Episode Date: July 23, 2021

Caleb and Allegra discuss Indian poet Sarojini Naidu.

Hello there. Hi friends. Welcome back to Heroes You Should Know, the double nerd show where I tell you about historical figures you should definitely know about and don't. And then turn them into D&D characters. As you can see this week, I have my buddy Caleb here. Hey, guys. Hey. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad you're back. I've realized we've done two poets. Both times you've been here. We've done poets. Yeah. I mean, you're trying to call out my freshman year of college, basically, of me sitting there writing really shitty slam poetry and posting it on my Tumblr for attention. Oh boy. I'm all here for it. Takes us all back to being 18. Yeah. Yeah. Although I hope that these historical figures would

never know that that's the caliber, a caliber, a person recreating them in D&D because God, I'm sorry. Like our poetry skills might be down here. Our D&D skills are like probably above that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Above average D&D players, which is all you can hope for and I guess immortal reincarnation sake. Yeah. So we're here today. We're going to talk about Serajini Naidu, who was a poet, a playwright, and an Indian independence activist in like the early, the late 1800s, early 1900s. And she was called the Nightingale of India for her beautiful poetry. Unless there's anything you want to talk about, buddy, let's get into it. No, I want you to hit it. Let's do this. I really want to talk about her. She's so

cool. I like everyone else. She's so cool. So Serajini was born February 13, 1879 in Hyperabad, India. And she was the eldest of eight siblings. Her father was a doctor of science and philosophy who later became the president of the Nizam College, which was in the, in the area. And his name was Agornath Chattopadhyaya. I'm really sorry for my pronunciations. I looked them up. I'm working on it. Fucking choice right there. It was it was that it wasn't the worst. It was worse earlier, but I'm working on it. And her mother was Varada Sundari Devi. And she was also a poet. And they are both Bengali Brahmin,

which is like one of the higher casts in the cast system at that time. As I said, she's her mother at the time was like regarded as one of the greatest posts that ever lived, right? Yeah, she was like incredible poet. Right. That you can have all these people in the same family at the same time. Incredible. I can't imagine being at home with all of these people at the same time. Yeah, like big brain family. Yeah. In both the intellectual sense and the creative sense, it's so it's so cool. So like I said, she was the oldest of eight. Her brother, Vidarandanath, was a revolutionary and another one of her brothers, Harindranath was a poet and an actor. You give yourself like the most generous, like full pregnant pause before you say any of them,

that for a moment of like, we've lost connection. No, no, it's just full on prepping the body in full effect. I just want to make sure I'm getting all the letters in the right order and all the syllables in the right order, because I've done it before where I like fuck up syllables or fuck up letter order. And I feel really bad about it, because I really want to make sure I say their names right. Yeah. So I have to I have to like, let my brain calm down and be like, okay, you can say these words. This is not hard. We should promote to like, like closed captioning graphics, where it comes up in like old word art on the screen as you're saying them. Oh man, that would be, that would be something just like rainbow clip art of names. Yeah, exactly. So so we can see what

it is. Wow, you're trying to say it. Oh man, that's that's an option, maybe. Anyway, so my terrible pronunciation aside, I'm very sorry, I'm working on it. The family was pretty highly regarded in Bengal at the time, both for their work at the college, but also as like famous artists in the area. And especially during like British occupation and like rain and control over India, it was pretty like risky to be an artist. And so to have a whole family who are like, yeah, we're like really highly touted for like, dealing with this school and everything. But also fuck you, we're all going to be poets and actors and playwrights and do whatever we want. Because fuck the British essentially. Yeah, yeah. Which is fantastic. Fuck colonialism,

we're all here to get rid of that shit. Yeah, I could fuck. Oh man, bring it back, buddy. We're here. I love I love too that in the research I was looking at her father desperately wanted another, you know, stem person in the family, but she ended up writing a poem at 13. It was like, oh, fucking, it's too good to argue, like, let another creative be a part of the family. Yeah, yeah. That's that's kind of our next point is that she was like super intelligent. She knew like five languages, English, Bengali, Urdu, Telugu, Persian. And like you said, her dad really wanted her to be like a stem person. And then she was I don't even I think she was actually 12. And she wrote a poem called the Lady of the Lake that was 1300 lines long. And like gave it to him. She's

like here. And he's like, never, never mind, go, go, go, go, go do this. And then I think when she was 13 was when she wrote the play Mahir Mahir Munri, Mahir Munri, which was written in Persian. And so like her dad thought it was incredible. He started distributing copies to like people he knew. And it turned out that the Nizam, who was like the leader of the Kingdom of Hyperabad, read it. And and that that's going to come back, that's going to come back in a minute. Yeah. But so also when she's 12, she's writing poems, she's writing this crazy play. And then she also just gets done at the University of Madras, like, yeah, she's 12. And she's like, all right, I'm done with college, and takes a four year break from her studies. And she's like,

okay, when I'm 16, I'll go to college or I'll go I'll go back to college. Ridiculous. Yeah. So in 1895, a nonprofit organization called the ACH, which is a charitable trust that grants 2000 students per year scholarships to go study. She gets that and she gets that because her dad distributed the Mahir Munri. And the Nizam read it. And he was like, all right, this one, this is one of the ones that's getting the scholarship she's she can go. And so she goes both to the King's College in London, and then later the Gertin College in Cambridge. Which incredible schools, I mean, to be rocking all of that at this age is absolutely the same. Yeah, on like a whim,

on a tour, basically, of the world. So interesting me so pointed that she ends up going to London being, you know, a part of the movements that she was in a part of the the anti imperialism that she represented to understand both their education system and her own in the same lifespan, and then be able to use that in a certain effect against imperialism, like, fuck you, I will take you for what you're good for and then use it against you is all about it. I feel like I feel like her going there was like, very strategic, almost in that like, okay, I like, you know, I went to your schools, you know, I'm intelligent, I like, I am intelligent as a human being, whatever your preconceived notions about people from India may be Brits. But I went to two of your schools when

I was 16. Yeah, let's talk now. And it becomes like, you know, some revolutionaries are fire brands, and even Gandhi has some stories about him being very in your face about the anti imperialism or, or, or, you know, aggressive in his motives. I love that everything came from her from a place of passionate, empowered debate, or empowered conversation where she would go on these missions out to London and to the Brits to talk with them directly on what they were doing to affect her home country. Yeah, like, like this is the direct result of what you have done. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Ladybugs4673 makes the point that she is intelligent based on their standards, which is, which has to be such like a powerful, like, it shouldn't have to be a thing like she

shouldn't have to be intelligent on their standards. But the fact that she is and that she can be like, okay, look, if you're like, you can, you can brush people aside all you want, but I am up to whatever bullshit your racist standards are. So now you're going to talk to me like I'm a fucking person. Exactly, there's nothing you can do to discount what I've done thus far, because I've done it by your rules and mine. Fuck you, I've done it by every rule, you know. So yeah, so she does, she does this, she's just now 19. And she meets Muthiala Govindarajul Naidu, who is a physician, while they're both still in school at in England. And after she finishes her studies, they get married. So this was both an intercast marriage, which was not allowed at the time, but both of

their families approved. So they were like, fuck it, we're doing it. And also an interregional marriage, because Serajini was from Bengal, which is in the east, while Muthiala was from Adra, which is in the south. So they had like completely different cultural backgrounds. And interregional marriages were pretty rare at the time as well. But it was ostensibly a really happy marriage. They had five kids. Yeah. And it's just like another system she's breaking through. Yeah. And like, it's such a show of how progressive that family was. I know we already talked about how intimidating that household would have been, but I was reading that and thinking about being a 19 year old studying to be a physician, studying to be all these things that's

brought into the home of the legendary poet, the legendary poet that is your partner, her father, who is a man himself, basically. That whole family, the brother who is an accomplished actor, and trying to sit down at that table and be like, well, I'm going to take care of her. Well, she's already written an epic poem at 13 that the president read, what the fuck do you have to offer, or whatever it might be. But it's really cool to see how defiant in love and defiant in culture they were immediately. And I think about that regional thing too, because at the time India was so sparse, or I'm sorry, so vastly different in each region that you could go from being one dominant religion to the next, just by switching border

lines and how tough that must have been. Really cool love story that they came together like that. I loved it. Yeah. So they're super happy they're in love. They have five children, including a daughter named Padmajra, who also joined an independence movement and was part of the quit or leave India movement, also known as the August movement, which began in 1942 as a demand for the Brits to get the fuck out of India, which had to be a lot on the Brits because they're still dealing with World War II. And I think that I like that they're like, no, you can deal with this too, because this is you started this problem, you are the cause of this problem, you can end this problem real fucking easily. Let's go. Yeah. So that's that's her daughter

down the line kind of is a part of that as well. So they I'm sure they worked closely together during that time. And obviously their relationship had to be pretty close since since she is the one that carried on her mother's legacy after her passing. One of my favorite parts of the research was seeing how much she admired her mother and then carried on. I mean, she went through with producing her last book of poems and everything. I think it's within the decade after her death that she put in all that effort to make it happen. I think it was like 61 that her daughter put the put the poetry book out. Yeah, so sweet. Super cool. Yeah. Ladybug4673 also points out the the Brits drafted Indians for World War Two. They did in fact, and World War One.

Yeah. So so they're like, we don't want to fight in your fucking war anymore. Leave us the fuck alone, which is so fucking valid. So 1905 her first collection of poems is published. It's called the Golden Threshold. What a name. What a name. Cool ass name. I love all her names. I mean, I've been reading through her poems all this morning and every single one, it's just a banger in the name department. Yeah. And we'll talk about her poetry more a little bit later, but the like imagery in it is so fucking good. Oh, it's gorgeous. I actually based part of her class basis off of a poem directly. So I'm interested to see what you think. Oh, I'm so psyched to see what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Golden Threshold comes out. It's very well received.

Same year. She joins the Indian independent movement after Bengal is partitioned in 1905. So this was a move by the Imperials, the Imperial occupying British forces to separate the largely Muslim Eastern area from the largely Hindu Western area. And so so what what what kind of went on with the Indian independence movement, this is all this is all going to be super simplified. These are basic baby principles of what happened. There are so many more in depth dives on the actual politics and like events that occurred. I encourage you definitely go look at look at those for yourselves. I just kind of wanted to touch on them. So we had a kind of background idea of what's going on right now. So there are boycotts and anti partition, partition movements.

And they're successful actually, because by 1911, the partition is revoked. So they they they pull them all back together like okay, okay, okay. So great. And she is a pretty big part of that. And during that time, she's working with other like political social leaders like Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore and Muhammad Gandhi towards like freedom from colonial imperial regimes of England as well as like social reform. Now, as we know, Gandhi wasn't a great dude. No, but she she worked with him. I think she was she was part of like, like, I don't think one could have existed without the other you know what I mean, because she was very much like a part of a part of that movement alongside him. And she had a pretty significant influence on it.

There was also a quote I saw from her in an interview where she talked about like, what was it? It takes a lot of money to keep Gandhi poor. So I think she was like, I don't think she was unaware. But I think she was trying to like way to like, okay, like, what do I like, what's what's my priority right now? And I think the people of India were her priority over like, him. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's an unfortunate truth about the situation is so many of those freedom fighters were caught in a situation where this man became the guy. And, and, you know, you had to suffer the move, you had to suffer the people of the movement for the movement. Yeah. But that's why I wanted to talk about her because we hear all about Gandhi and we hear about all

these other dudes and we never hear about her. And I think she is just integral to this entire process. And how cool that you have like Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most notorious women haters and terrible misogynists that's ever existed in real history. And she was right here next to him fighting for all of the things that he hated about women at that time, you know, fighting for women's rights even then in the face of it. I think she totally needs to be heard. Yeah, I think she it from from what the research is, it feels like she was like aware of it. And she's like, Okay, I'm doing work that's directly opposing this, I can I can stomach this. Yeah, yeah. Also, just the it takes a lot of money to keep Gandhi poor has a has a level of self

awareness that just hits me real good. And it is such a simple fucking drag, like it is so beautifully put that you can encapsulate that much context behind a line that short, she's really quick witted. She's got I mean, like she's got control of the words. And I think that's I think that's one big thing for her. Well, that's a poet to write a writer will tell you in a paragraph, but a poet will tell you in a word. Yeah. So again, we're just lamenting the coolness of this person that we've only found out about recently. Yeah, which is usually what happens to us where we'll just ping pong back on how cool. Yeah. Okay, from 1915 to 1918. So Rajani travels to different areas of India and eventually different areas of the world, including Britain

and America. And I want to say South Africa as well. And she lectures about social welfare, emancipation of women, nationalism, just kind of like putting an end to the imperial rule that Britain has there. And she's like, she's very much like putting it in people's faces and being like, okay, like you can you can read about this in the newspaper or hear about it on the radio. But I am coming to you directly from the area that is being affected. I am by your standards, incredibly intelligent. Here we go. Yeah. So I think that's that's so cool. So then in the middle of all that, in 1917, she helps establish the Women's Indian Association, which tries to bring suffrage and rights to hold office on the same basis as men.

She's trying to like, push women forward and like, just give them more power within the situation they are, that they're living. The same year, she and Annie Basant, who was an English colleague who supported both Irish and Indian freedom, which is kind of unheard of at the time, were pretty, were very loud advocates for universal suffrage in front of the Joint Select Committee in London. So they're just like, this and this is, do you remember when Britain got suffrage? I can't remember, because this is either very soon before or very soon after Britain had women's suffrage. Let me find out. I meant to look that up and I forgot. So women gained the right to vote in 1893. Okay. So it hadn't been. No, I'm sorry. That's not even.

I was like, in Mary Poppins didn't have the right to vote yet, which is not the touchstone I should be using for women's suffrage in Britain, but it is. Yeah, no kidding. 1918 is when it was. 1918, yeah. So yeah, so this is a year before women have suffrage in India, or not, I'm sorry, not in Britain. So like there it is, it's mid fight for them. And I remember when I was, oh man. Oh, and 1928 was India. Thank you, Ladybug. So I remember when I was a kid, my dad gave me this like, this like four pages of stapled information. He was like, here, read this. And I was like, okay. And I was like, I don't know, eight or nine. And, and it was just like,

what women went through in the US and in England for like the right to vote. And it wasn't, it wasn't all like picket signs and like nice hats and, you know, all of that. It was terrible treatment in prisons. People on hunger strikes were force fed food. Like there were like very violent, invasive, terrible things that happened. Yeah, I know just in the US, there used to be propaganda papers, you know, similar to, to, we used to put out during World War Two or, or anything like that. But it, it advertised domestic abuse towards any suffragette, like the, the control of your spouse, if the words are spoken. And, you know, pamphlets would be passed out on how to control a spouse that's talking too much about the right to vote. Yeah, it's insane.

Uh, so this is happening smack in the middle of all that. Yeah, they're working together, both for the suffrage of women and like also just freedom from colonial, like they're, they're going against everything that men want to see in this time, which is cool. Incredible that she, she did not settle at anti-imperialism or, she didn't settle anything. She was like, I'm going to take every core issue I know will not be solved just with me. And I'm going to see how far I can get. Yeah. Um, I mean, she is totally one of those people where you start reading about her and you'll get to a fact and go, how is that not the biggest thing about you? Yeah. I love that. Like a lot of these people are just like,

it's just like a, like a rolodex of like, okay, here's this huge thing. Okay. Here's this huge thing. Okay. Here's this huge thing. And none of them are like, like none of them stand out from each other because they're all massive and important, which I mean, they become pillars of humanity that way. I think it's so easy to stop after one good thing. And I think the reason why we end up talking about people like this is because they never stop after one good thing. It's one after the other. It's so incredible to see. And amazing. Again, I know we say this every week, but like, how the fuck do we not know about her? Like my minor in English did nothing to teach me about Indian poetry. Like this does nothing for me. Like, there's so many, there's so many people

that we just lose because of, all right, I'm not going to go down that road. They're not through our lens, right? And our lens is so shitty in myopic. Terrible. Terrible. Anyway, we'll get back on track to talk about this wonderful woman. So she returned to London in 1919 as part of the All India Home Rural League to continue her advocacy for the end of British occupation and the right people of India to govern themselves, which makes fucking sense. Imperialism pisses me off if you hadn't noticed, friends. What kills me about imperialism is like what they teach you in school is that these were the most primitive cultures you could imagine. And imperialism brought them technology and reform and government. It's complete bullshit because these were fully formed

societies that had been going on for so much longer than us. So much longer. It's like we broke into people's homes and said, this is ours now. And then acted like we were doing them a favor by squatting in their living room. Like, it's ridiculous. I hate it. I hate it here. Yeah. Anyway, also in 1919, the Rowlett Act is passed in India, which makes sedition documents illegal. Which is essentially, which is basically to say any documentation of like, we would like to put an end to the rule of the Brits is illegal. Which is fucking bullshit. Also, that sounds vaguely familiar to lots of other terrible rains. Like, what's, what are those, what are those dudes called from Germany in like 20 years? Hmm. Oh, like the Nazis. Oh, right.

Wild. So that's like a whole like sedition act is a whole thing. Um, doesn't slow them down, though. Literally the next year she joins the Satyagara movement, which is another nonviolent civil resistance movement led by Gandhi. And when he's arrested as like the head of it, she continues on the movement. She's like, okay, cool, you got one of them. Great, my turn now. Oh, it's so awesome. So she's, she's carrying on this movement. I wonder how many people took a really big deep breath. They're like, they just got Gandhi. Who's going to be next? Oh, thank God. Siddharthini, we're good. We're in good hands, guys.

Um, 1925, she's elected president of the Indian National Congress party. Um, and in 1929, she presides over the, uh, the East African and Indian Congress sessions in South Africa. So like people are going to a different country to try and gain control of the country that they live in. Yeah, absolutely insane. Um, and she's, you know, she's a leader in both of those circles, which is incredible. When you think about the time that she is again, a woman, and she's a woman who's getting, she's starting to get older. Uh, and she still commands this incredible amount of respect and power that she, that she wields for good. Yeah. Yeah. And she's speaking directly to other British colonies and trying to unify under the imperialism and to

be a voice like that, not only to your own country where you earned your respect, but in countries where you're coming as diplomat and they're unsure of what to think of you. Like the incredible confidence and the power that she wields that she was able to make all of these things happen. Man, people are cool. Sometimes people are really cool. Really cool. A lot of the time I'm like, I hate people, but like sometimes people are cool as fuck. There are shining examples that sort of break through the crowds I could get away with losing. This one definitely, like I, I feel like, sorry, we're going to go on a tangent. Putting this show together and like doing it every two weeks has like kind of brought a little bit of my faith in humanity back because I'm like, okay,

there were people like this in the past. There are going to be people like this now and like they're working and maybe we don't see them, but they're there and they're trying and I want to find them so I can help them in any way that I can. I want to, I want to like, I want to somehow be them. So it's just, it's like, it's heartening almost. It helps so much on the individual level too. I found that like this show in specific is really great for if you're unsure of what you're doing in your life or if you're unsure of where you are in this particular moment in time. It is so great knowing what people have been capable of before and to be able to watch this and go and pinpoint where that person starts to become a hero we should know. It's so interesting because

I'll watch and I'll go, shit, there's so much more I can do before I'm done. Yeah, I mean, like, I feel like I'm old, but I'm like, I'm not even 30 yet. Like, no, no, I mean, so much time to do so much good for this woman to be writing epic thousand thousand page poems at 13. No one has any excuse for being too old or too young. Yeah, you know, these are, are moments that can happen for anyone. Yeah, just kind of keep doing good where we can. Yeah, exactly. Moshi sidebar over now. So it's 1930. And during the salt marches, which are a 24 day nonviolent march to protest the taxes on salt, as well as another civil protest against the British rule. And absolutely insane march to that was part of what I was looking into. And

the map of it is just wild. Yeah, ridiculous to look at. It's super long. They at one point, they boiled water to produce salt. And that was that was one of the like tipping points for the Brits, because she Gandhi, Jawaharlal, sorry, Jawaharlal, Nehru and Madan Mohan Malaviya were all arrested, who were like big, the big leaders there. And they were they were in jail. So they missed the first round of the first round table conference, which is like a discussion that was going to be held between the British and the Indian officials pertaining to like constitutional reform in India. Of course, they're missing from that conversation. I love that. You know, like this

is still one of the the highest arrest rates of any political march that's ever existed. I think over 100,000 people were arrested as a result of this march. Yeah, just like a ridiculous number. Yeah. And you can just see the blatantness of, you know, imperialism in retreat, that they think they have to take away every major player that they can before this huge conversation. Like, how cowardly do you have to be to admit that your other side is bringing up a great point, and then in the same breath to remove every great point they have before the conversation? No, no, no, no, no. It's comically. Yeah. Oh, no, you guys are in jail. We can't talk about what we're doing to you now. But don't worry. In 1931, they did they all did appear at the second round

table conference, which which they they they covered some of the stuff that would have been covered the first time and more. So over the next decade or so, she's arrested multiple times for continuing her work on behalf of Fring India from Britain's rule, the longest of which was 21 months in 1942. Yeah. So she was you know, she was how old was she she was like in her 50s or 60s. And she was like, fuck you, I'm going to jail. Let's go. And what a year to go away. Like, what a year to lose 1942. That's a lot. That that is also the same year that her daughter is involved in the quit India movement. So I feel like I feel like she was like catch and just like talk to a daughter and I was like, I got you, mom. How incredible that that her daughter

immediately takes over for the title, you know, that's incredible. I feel like the British were like, we got them. We're like, this is it. And then she just rises from the deep and she's like, bitch, you thought. Oh, God, they got another one. Fuck yeah. So incredible her daughter takes over for her. I'm assuming her daughter takes I don't actually know. That's just the narrative I've given it in my head. Exactly. If we're making the biopic, that's how we're, you know, that's how we're directing this. Hux the nuclear football over. So five years after this, India finally gains independence from Britain in 1947. Finally. And Siddharthani is named governor of the United provinces, which is modern day

Uttar Pradesh, which is in northern India. And this makes her the first female governor. And she remains in office until her death. Oh, yeah, hold on. Let's let's take a pause on that, because a lot of the first female anything in most other countries is in like, I don't know, the 70s or 60s or 80s. Yeah. 1947. That's incredible. Stop. Yeah. And that's another beautiful poet made into a first female government official. It's totally, totally reminiscent of our first episode. Yeah. So she remains in office until her death on March 2nd of 1949 at the age of 79 in Lucknow. And her last rights were forward to the Gomti River, which is a tributary of the Ganges.

Beautiful river, by the way. I end up like looking into the ceremonies that they do on that river for burial. And oh my God, it was gorgeous. Yeah, they're beautiful there. I'm glad that she she got to have like her moment there. Her last collection of poems was published after her death, as we said in 1961, a feather of the dawn. So these are all poems that were written in 1927, and then posthumously edited and compiled by her daughter, Padmaja. Yeah, so that's, we're gonna, we're gonna get a little bit into poetry right now. So the golden threshold is not only made the name of the collection of poetry, but also it's an off campus annex of the University of Hyperabad. And it's the same building where her father held residence as the first principal of

the Hyperabad College, and is now the Surajin Nehidu School of Arts and Communication. Yeah. And so while her, while her family kind of had residence at that school, they were kind of a catalyst to make it this hub of performance ideas for women in politics, education, the arts, and it was all like super progressive for the time. And like, honestly, some of it's like would be progressive now, which is really sad. Yeah. But just, I just, like the whole family was like, like across the board, just like ironclad and this like movement forward. In her, in her life, people called her poetry so beautiful, it could be sung, which I, which I love. And she received the, so one, one, one less, a couple interesting

last anecdotes. There's, first off, there's an asteroid named after her, an American astronomer named after her in 1990, which I think is neat. Good job. And also in her life, she received the Kaisar Eind Medal from the British government, an acknowledgement for her work that she did during a plague epidemic in the late 1980 or 1890s, I'm sorry, 1890s. And so in like 1919, she returns that medal in an act of protest over the Jalianwala Bog massacre. Yeah. So, so in, in April of 1919, there was a big peaceful protest against, sorry, they came together and Emre Star to protest the arrest of a pro Indian independence leader, Dr. Saifudin Kichlou and Satya Paul. So they were both arrested. And there were people, there were, there were thousands of people gathered to,

to protest this. And it was, it was peaceful, entirely peaceful. But the Brits couldn't have that. And they had Brigadier General Dyer. He had, so he had all of his troops surround them. And the area already only had one exit due to being surrounded by buildings on all the other sides. And then he orders his troops to fire into the crowd, even as they flee. And so in all 379 people were killed and more than 1200 were injured. So this happens in, in a direct, like, response to a peaceful protest about people who want their own freedom being arrested. And she just gives the medal back. She's like, Nope. Yeah, why would I want this? Yeah, like, this is, this means nothing to me. If this is what you're doing to the people of my country. Yeah. That was one of those moments where I was

like, how is this not bigger about this woman? Like incredible that she was just casually doing plague work, right? Performing medicine on the side and received like a medal of honor for it. I had to look in a different like, I had to look in like three different places to find like the full story of that, because it was just like, like brushed off the cup of like, oh, yeah, plague. I was like, hold on, hold on. She did what in a plague epidemic? Yeah. Like, I found like the medal in one place, the plague epidemic in another, the actual date of it in a different one. And I was like, why is this not bigger? Bigger. Yeah. So yeah, that's, that's most of it. I found a really, a really lovely quote that I, that I liked. It's shall hope prevail where

clamorous hate is rife shall sweet love prosper or high dream have place amid the tumult of reverberant reverberant strife to its ancient creeds to its race and ancient race that mars the grave glad purposes the glad purposes of life leaving no refuge save thy scouring face. I just thought that was really beautiful. Her poetry is there's like the imagery and the like, there's a lot of like natural imagery that goes into it, but also like very, how would, like, how would you describe it? Because I don't, like, I don't have the words for it. Like, I feel like my, by trying to describe it, I'm going to make it less than what it is. She has this beautiful grasp over metaphorical speech that is both

real and exists to, to complexify her point. So you're like caught between imagining the beautiful imagery that she's putting in your head, and then identifying what each piece is actually supposed to be saying. Yeah. And so you're caught up in the beauty of the world she's creating and then the things she's trying to say with the world inside of it. It really is like she creates a story through the poetry. It's so hard to do in the way that she does, because it is line to line. You are taken to different concepts and worlds and like, oh, it's gorgeous, gorgeous. I got caught up in her poetry this morning. Please go look it up. It's all beautiful. I think I read the cradle. Cradle something. Oh man. Cradle song? Yes,

cradle song. I read cradle song like this morning and I read Ecstasy, Corn Grinders, Autumn Song. They're just go, just go, there's a, there's a whole site that has a bunch of her poetry. Yeah. Do yourself a favor and sit down for, I don't know, like half an hour and just read through them. It's, I feel like I understand words better now because I read it. I have some favorites too. I really enjoyed the Poets Love Song. To the God of Pain is really worth looking at. My personal favorite was In the Forest, but there's another great one called the Palin King Bearers and it is so, oh, just so beautifully lyrical just like you were talking like it was meant to be sung. Great, great stuff. Man, super fucking cool person. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So, so, so, so, so buddy. What'd you, what'd you do there? What'd you, what'd you, what'd you, what'd you, what'd you do? I don't know why I'm stuttering like this. I'm sorry. So, I mean, where do I start? Let me start by explaining the concept, like the most important part, which is usually the classes that we talk about, because obviously she's a variant human. All that doesn't really matter. But when I was trying to look at what I was going to do with her, I was thinking the same exact thing. Well, I can't just do another bar. Yeah. I can't just come back and hit with the College of Eloquence, even though that fits every poem, every poet that's ever existed, right? So, how can I sort of contextualize this

woman that was so incredibly talented, both in her written word and in her beautiful fight against imperialism? So, at first, my thought was, well, she's got a little rogue in her. Not, not traditional. Yeah. Yeah. Not traditional rogue. And so, that was my first instinct. And I found down the, down the road, I was, I was wrong. Like, it's there absolutely. And I'm sure that someone could do a rogue version of her. But I don't think it was right. So, what I ended up doing is I found something that felt so right for me. And that was through looking at her poems. So, she is six levels of Bard, and we'll get into that. But she's also four levels of Druid. I'm so glad you did this. I almost did Druid. And then I let, I finagled with it, and I couldn't make it fit right. So,

I really want to see what you did. I was really worried that you were going to do Druid too, because we always have that hive mind. So, I'm glad that you at least thought about it and then fell off. And this was purely because of a poem I read from her. And I really want to put it out there. And it's called In the Forest. So, I'll read a little bit of it. But here, oh my heart, let us burn the dear dreams that are dead. Here in this wood, let us fashion a funeral pyre. A fallen white petals and leaves that are mellow and red. Here, let us burn them in noons, flaming torches of fire. We are weary, my heart, we are weary. So long we have borne the heavy loaded burden of dreams that are dead, let us rest. Let us scatter their ashes away for a while,

let us mourn. We will rest, oh my heart, till the shadows are gray in the west. But soon we must rise, oh my heart, we must wander again into the war of the world and the strife of the throng. Let us rise, oh my heart, let us gather the dreams that remain. We will conquer the sorrow of life with the sorrow of song. Oh, it's beautiful, right? And it is so incredibly druidic in nature, but even more so, it is the nature of fire. That whole poem is engaged in the nature of fire. And so what I went for on her sheet is a Bard 6 with the College of Creation, because as you and I said, incredibly powerful imagery that becomes alive and then speaks her truth as it goes along. I mean, it only made sense to me. And then for our druid piece,

for our four levels of druid, it only made sense after reading this poem that we go off of Tasha's, we go off the new subclass, she is a wildfire druid. It just made complete sense, this idea of flamed renewal, of coming back from the burning and having to purge to become real again. And that, to me, is so truthful to the experience of anti-imperialism. We need to burn dead dreams and scorch earth so that someday new dreams can be born. And that just spoke so much to me, it gave me chills as soon as I thought of it. You said that, and it's very funny because we went a very similar direction, but different classes, and I'm so excited. We still, I mind it a little bit, yeah, we sun and moon, it's normal. So, I mean, Creation Bard really hits the mark, I think.

I mean, even if I'd gone further into Creation Bard, I think it really hits her. The subclass gives you some funky stuff. Let me see if I can, like, College of Creation gives you this thing called the mode of potential, which is this really cool way of doing bardic inspiration, where instead of just passing out words and giving out, you know, beneficial songs, you actually create little, like, beings of creation, little, like, wisps that come from your songs and everything. And part of the flavoring is how you create those wisps, what they look like when they come out, how you create them. And so, I love the idea of her words becoming real, and then those words drifting off and giving bardic inspiration to the party. It does some crazy stuff. It allows you to

affect your attack rolls a certain way with them. But you can basically choose, are you giving that person an ability check inspiration, an attack roll inspiration, or a saving throw inspiration. So, you choose how you inspire each of them. You also get the performance of Creation as an action. You can create one non-magical item of your choice in an unoccupied space, creating something from nothing. And I thought that, you know, added into the idea that she's creating these worlds with her words. She also gets counter charm, which I think comes in handy when you're fighting anti-imperialism as an action you can perform until the end of your next turn. During that time, you and any friendly creatures gain advantage on saving throws against being

frightened or charmed. We will not be held back. We will not be told to turn around. And then, you know, you get animating performance, which is pretty crazy. I mean, that was a little harder to justify as a real person. But the thought of this woman making objects come to life for her, I thought was interesting. In the druid portion, which I think maybe is the most important for her, with wildfire, the funky stuff you get is the wild companion. That's like your fire buddy, basically. It's a familiar that takes shape out of the fire that's in your soul as a druid. And for that, it only made sense that it be a nightingale. She has this little nightingale made of fire that flits around her the entire time.

And I was even thinking of skinning, you know, the color of the fire in the same colors as a nightingale. That would be so dope. Exactly. And so she's, you know, rocking around with this bird that is made of pure flame. And she has this unique control over the purging and creation of new fires. I thought that was really important to her, that she had the ability to take action into her own hands. And you know, the idea of your wildfire shape being nightingales are not big and imposing. They're sort of a symbol of innocence in a way, or at least in beauty, in small beauty. And so for that to be the source of your power, the source of your fire, I love it to death. Yeah, Ladybug says, obsessed with this tiny ember bird image. Thank you for the, like,

that's exactly what I'm thinking about is this tiny little bird of fire. Or like stimming its wings along something and just setting it alight. Exactly. Like, that, okay, so that sort of touches on what I gave her equipment wise. I didn't really go for anything crazy in equipment this time, but I did give her another weapon because I love, you know, skinning. Yeah, so like a Phoenix, Erin says, definitely like a Phoenix. Um, but for her weapon, I gave her a dagger that it returns to her hands when a command word is spoken. Nice. And it also warns you of danger. So you have advantage in initiative. It's like a dagger of alarm. But it is called, let me bring it up right here. It's called The Feather of the Dawn.

And I thought that it could be named after, you know, that last collection of poems, The Feather of the Dawn. And I imagine the hilt is being like an actual feather hilt that's, you know, blue and black metal that's stylized in the same as the Nine and Gale feathers. And then the actual blade would be like the tip of an ink quill that sort of swooped in dagger quality. That is the vibe we like. Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, that, that's the bulk of what I've done with her here. I also went with some, some cheesy feet. So I gave her linguist and, and Prodigy, which the linguist gives you like four different languages. Prodigy gives you two skills in a language and in addition to your stats there. I'm trying to think of any big skills. Oh, skill wise.

Also our spells too. Spells, we can totally bring up spells. Let me bring up spells. I mean, for cantrips, we went with control flames, create bonfire, dancing lights, guidance, message, prestidigitation, some really normal ones. At the first level, you've got stuff like fairy fire, which I thought was very, her and I imagine the Nightingale being the one to cast that over the enemy. We also went with comprehend languages since she was such a speaker. Protection from evil and good because it's perfect for cure wounds because apparently she was a doctor. Apparently she was, apparently she could do that. Yeah. Yeah. And less, less a restoration for the same reason. Nice. I went with some crazy scorching array, flame blade, because I like the imagery

of that little feather catching fire. I also did some protection spells, things like warding wind and enthrall and earthbind. So things that were of the earth and could protect a circle of area. I'm, you know, I was trying to imagine, you know, if you're there to continue a march, if you're there to protect the people, if you're there to stop imperialism, obviously the land is your tantamount concern there. I also did intellect fortress, which is one of my favorites. It gives you resistance to psychic damage is advantage on intelligence, wisdom and Christmas saving throws. Just the idea that she could keep every voice out of her head. I loved. And then hypnotic pattern and major image. Nice. In terms of skills,

I think her highest is performance and that's just in her words alone. Yeah. Next up was, you know, medicine and insight because she's obviously an insightful person, persuasions up there. You know, the usual skills that would lend yourself to talking your way out of a situation, but also having a really great understanding of the person on the other side. Yeah. Oh, dude, I'm so glad you figured out how to put Jared in there because I was like questioning myself over and over again. I just couldn't make it work. But I did do a similar idea. Okay. Because I did sorcerer for wizard six. And I did Phoenix soul. Yep. Okay. Yep. I nearly did it too. I nearly did it.

That track, that track, this all tracks for us. Yeah. Yeah. So I did sorcerer four with Phoenix soul and then wizard six with abduration school. Really? That is so interesting to me because just the thought of going from being sourcer to whiz, like the multi class, they're so interesting because you're, you're changing the way your brain thinks, which is so perfect for her. That was definitely one of the things I was thinking about. And also like, I know, like the thing is, I never understand how people like multi class into sorcerer. I feel like that's weird because like sorcery is pretty innate. Yeah, you know, but I've always looked at it sort of like multi-classing into warlock. Like for me, the only way I see myself doing

sorcerer as a multi-class is if something crazy happens, like, right? If the thing that makes me a sorcerer actually happens at the table, then I multi class in because otherwise I'm thinking the same thing. Like, isn't that something you're born with? It's a little tough to multi class. Yeah. Maybe it's Maybelline. Yeah. So sorcerer, she's a Phoenix soul sorcerer. She has all the normal sorcerer stuff. For MetaMagix, I gave her careful and subtle spell. Perfect. Same reasons. It's the reason you'd expect, you know, if you're fighting imperialism, you don't want anyone to know your cast and a spell. And you don't want to hurt your people. Yeah, you want to pick and choose that AOE. So for Phoenix, she gets, sorry, wrong tab, ignite at the first

level, which is you gain the ability to start fires at a touch. Which I, which would, like, I think what is the word I'm looking for? Metaphorically, I liked the idea of like setting fires in people's minds of like, okay, like, here's this, think about it. But also like in a practical sense of like, okay, like, they need to be distracted here, the fire. Yeah. I think you could take it, you know, to so many places, but fire really hit me to reading through all of her, not just that poem, but all of her. And like, you could even take it to like Prometheus with the flame and giving knowledge and giving understanding to these people who had lost so much and trying to spark understanding. Oh, yeah, fire seems to just like fit her just like the grit of what it

just, it, I felt like fire just float. This is more like a vibe build than like an actual specific reason build, just because, right, this is, this is kind of what I feel coming from her. And I think we brought ourselves to that because the first one was so characteristic to who, who, yeah, in Hedjuana, who we were building at the time. And so with this one, we got a little more conceptual. Yeah, which I think is cool. Also with Phoenix, she gets mantle of flame, which is a bonus as a bonus action, you magically wreathe yourself in swirling fire on your eyes glow like coals for the following minute you gain the following or for that for one minute you gain the following benefits. You shed a bright light when a 30 foot radius and dim

light for an additional 30 feet. Any creature takes fire damage equal to your charisma modifier if you hit it with a melee attack or from within, excuse me, from within five feet of you or if it touches you. And whenever you roll fire damage on your turn, the roll gains a bonus equal to your charisma modifier. So just like untouchable, you can't burn me. I am the flame kind of vibe. Yeah, a ladybug brings up this awesome idea of, oh, what about fire patterns on her? Sorry. I'd be incredible, incredible to think like this sort of detailing that we could do in character design for embracing those flames. It would be so pretty. Yeah. Yeah, so that's basically all she gets from sorcery. Because in school of abduration,

let me see. So I gave her abduration. Yeah, because it's protection and it's oh shit, gotta medic your cats. I every every time I do this. So like abduration emphasizes like blocking and banishing and protecting. And that that's, that's what she wants to do. She wants to like 100% people and banish the British like that's, it can't be any she can't be any other kind of wizard. I mean, she can't tell you this is the first time I've ever seen an abduration wizard like period. Really? Yeah, I don't know that I've ever met a person that's played abduration through. I mean, I always see it and think, Oh, that could be fun. But I've never touched it because mainly defensive, but coupled with Phoenix soul, like that's a combo right there.

I feel like I'd play I haven't ever played a wizard because I'm afraid I'm not smart enough, which is silly. But I feel like I'd play abduration. There was like another one that I was looking at that I was like, Oh, I could play this too. But like abduration is up there. I really like, first of all, you'd be plenty smart enough to do a wizard. I played a wizard. So don't even worry about it. But there's that new one they did that's based off the elves version of doing magic blade singer or whatever it is. That that one really interesting to me. That's what I looked at. And it was like lore. It wasn't lore. It was it doesn't matter. Oh, I know. Order of scribes, right? The one where it's all on paper, right?

I like that one too. But we're talking about abduration abduration. So for that, she gets the abduration savant, which means time and gold to copy abduration spells is halved arcane ward, which you magically you weave magic around yourself for protection. When you cast an abduration spell at first level or higher, you can simultaneously use a strand of the spells magic to create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest. So the word has hit points equal to twice your wizard level plus your intelligence modifier. So for her would be 50 like 15 hit points worth of protection around her. That's pretty rocking. Yeah. And whatever you take damage, the word takes the damage instead. And if the damage is reduced to zero,

then like it carries over to you. And while the word has hit zero hit points, it can't absorb damage, but the magic stays there. So whenever you cast another abduration spell at first level or higher, it regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell. So you can just like putting magic into it. Now when you cast, does it add on if it's still as HP? Like say you start with 15, then I cast the next turn. Does it cap over 15? I don't know. I don't think it says. Oh, okay. I think it's once, once it's hit zero, then it like re-reups. Which is that's pretty crazy. If you keep casting, you're still protected. That's awesome. Yeah, I like that one. And then she also gets a projected ward, which is when a creature that you

can see within 30 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to cause your arcane ward to absorb the damage. So like, and of course, if like it hits zero and they're still damaged, the person takes the damage, but you can like send your shield essentially over to protect them, which I thought fit for her super well. Yeah. Yeah. Also one of the reasons I wanted to play an abduration wizard because I don't like that I can't protect my friends. For spells, so, so she can't, so she doesn't have like, she doesn't know spells above a third level, but she can cast up to fifth level because of weird multi-classing bullshit. Yeah. So I gave her a fair amount of third level spells because there are, you know, five empty spell slots that would

benefit from having, you know, third level spells available. So third level, I gave her counterspell, dispel magic, tongues, glyph of warding, remove curse, protection from energy, and intellect fortress, which are all, which I think, you know, when you're dealing with like a, like an occupying force, like that, like a lot of those can be really, as like a, as a, in a fantasy world, they could be very like useful, remove curse, tongues, dispel magic and counterspell in particular. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And then third low, or sorry, second level, she has knock suggestion and see invisibility. For similar reasons, I think

suggestion would be, would be like, interesting in the like, putting like, not even, because suggestions not even like, you have to do it, it's just putting it, or I guess suggestion is technically have to do it, but like the idea of putting it in someone's mind. Yeah. Is, is very interesting knock for, you know, if they get arrested and need to get the fuck out of judge. And then alarm protection from good and evil sleep and shield. I didn't give her a whole lot of like actual combat magic, it's a lot of, it's a lot of support. I think the only real like combatty stuff I gave her was sleep, and then firebolts for a cantrip. But everything

else, because everything she was a part of was nonviolent as well. So I was, I was trying to like honor that nonviolent-ness, but I also didn't give her a weapon. So I tried to like honor the nonviolent side of it while also making her like, utilitarian in a battle. Yeah, she only has 56 hit points and she has an 11 armor class, but she's a wizard sorcerer, so we can't, we can't complain too much, right? Yeah, I think we had 43 hit points on mine and an AC of 14 at the highest. But she can tank in wild shape. So yeah, that's very true. Um, yeah, I think that's, that's about it. That's, those are our, our little builds there.

Yeah, I think it was really interesting what we both came up with. It's funny. I was worried the fire thing would not be enough to, to hold up and then both of us did the fire thing. So yeah, you know, it's, it's funny, like an old theater professor always used to say that you don't have to worry about finding the truth. The truth will find you. Yeah, it's funny how that works of like, I, you know, was so caught up of like, I don't know if anybody's going to see that and then we both saw it off the bat. Yeah, it's really cool to see that this person can resonate that way in the same way for us. And, and it's a testament to who she was. Yeah. So that is Sadajini Daidu. Please go, read some of her poetry. Please go educate yourself on the,

the intricacies of the, of the independence movement in India. It's super interesting. I just barely touched on it. There's so much more information to find out. Please go look it up. Caleb, my friend, thank you for, for joining me this week. Is there anything you want to shout out or plug or whatever? Well, tomorrow on Spot Hidden's Twitch, we're going to be playing another one shot, just like you were a part of, what was that, last week? This is just last week. Crazy. But we're going to be playing, I think this scenario is called The Lightless Beacon, which it was compared to the horror movie, The Lighthouse, which terrifies me because I have to be a part of it now. But I'm excited. I put together this character

that is like a real piece of shit. So I really wanted someone that no one would mourn when he dies. So there are more left to you than just an arm. Oh, I don't think so, to be honest. I was looking at my stats. Okay, so London, when he gives us these assignments, will put out that, did he give you the little blurb that's like, these are some skills you should look into? Yeah, I messaged him privately too. I was like, what would be useful for you as a GM to have at the table? Right. So I took one look at that list and I was like, no, thank you. So I think I have, I think I have a spot hidden role. And that's about it. Everything else is completely useless here. No one had a spot hidden, not a single God. Well, there you go. So it's good that you did it.

Yeah, that's the COC player in me. I know that it's going to come up eventually. So I'm like, I'll do whatever the fuck I want and spot hidden. It'll be funny. I'm playing basically a full charisma character in a place where there's no charisma. That's my boy. Yeah, I thought I might as well pull my brand here. But if you guys want to check that out, we're going to be playing that on spot hidden's channel tomorrow at, I believe it's 6pm, 6pm, 6pm. There you go. Yeah. But yeah, stop them by. That's what we're doing. And then just keep your eye out because Ahsoka, I mean, are we, are we, how close are we to the end here? End of this week. This week. It is, it is all coming to a close. Yeah. At the end of this week, please keep an eye out for Ahsoka

Precious Cargo episode 12, our finale. It took us two sessions to play. Who knows how long the audio is going to be. Oh my God. I definitely cried more than once. So look forward to hearing me cry in your ears. This Friday, if you would like to send me messages on Twitter that are nothing more than a hug, that would be appreciated because Friday is a doozy, doozy for me. Just weaving. Yeah. That. Oh God. I just remembered. Oh, I just remembered that part too. Yeah. Oh my boy. Yeah. A lot, a lot goes down. It's Eli, Eli runs, Eli always runs a seller game, but just fucking next level kills it. Sergio says so much, but the elves and what he's referring to is that there's a good like 15 minutes where we just talk about how hot elves

are. And I think it's just you too as well. It is. I love me some elves, man. That's why we put elves in space for you, Bubba. Oh, you did? They're in? Okay. Thank God. Oh, perfect. Yeah. So keep an eye out for those two. As always, our regular programming Mondays, Aaron is on the sheep farm. He's been playing through hit farm. It's been, or not hit farm, Jesus hit man. And it's been horrifying and hilarious. So check that out. Tuesday, we're back doing Star Forged, and you will see yours truly there this week, which is sure to be horrifying and sad. Um, I'm so nervous about it. Um, yeah, and keep an eye out as well for our, uh, our, our, our betweeny times content. Uh, we're, we're in the middle of recording, doom to repeat, arc two,

which is, oh my God. Yeah. If you listen to Friday and you're stressed, just wait because we're not even like halfway through the damn thing. We're technically halfway through, I think. Are we? I think so. It doesn't feel like it. It doesn't feel like it. Sergio, Sergio's bringing fire to destroy all of our souls. We're, we're like stressed about it because we have to play it, but hearing it, I think is going to be dope as hell. Uh, he had some, he had some help from, from a fellow, a fellow DG podcast, Vince from over on Black Project Gaming, uh, gave him a little bit of a hand. If you are a fan of that, you will, you will, you'll see Vince's influence. Yeah. Yeah, there's so much that we go through. Also, I just found out from Ladybug in the chat

here that apparently Anchor and Rad are a ship and. Oh yeah. Uh, man, that's incredible. Lex on, on Twitter asked what the, what the ship name for Anchor and Rad was and I, I decided it was Cocaptains, so. Cocaptains is great. Yep. Oh my God. How did I miss this on Twitter? Lex also said Ranker was a good one for Anchor and Rad. Ranker is incredible, but I'm, I'm a fan of Cocaptains. Um, so yeah, if you want to hear, hear more about this ship that Caleb and I have come up with our own names for other ones, but if you want to hear more about Anchor or Cocaptains, tune in, tune in the end of this week and you'll hear some more. I mean, maybe you'll hear, I will. I don't know. Thank you guys for joining us. We'll, we'll sign off this rambling and, um, take care of

yourselves, be safe, you know, all that good stuff. Um, and have a good night. Bye. Bye guys.