Miss Conduct : Introduction

Miss Conduct is a true-crime podcast about Indian women that committed some heinous (and sometimes, hilarious) crimes.

The co-hosts of the podcast are Ragavi Ramesh and Nisha Chandrasekaran (more about them later).

We put out episodes every Wednesday from 30th June 2021.

Miss Conduct is available on the IVM Podcasts Network and wherever you get your podcasts.

Please do subscribe to this Substack if you’d like to receive updates as and when we release episodes.

Who are the hosts?

Ragavi is a Bangalore-based lawyer. She is well-versed in legal research, criminology, and the Indian justice system. She also works pro-bono with beneficial tech start-ups, and wastes a lot of time of Reddit. Ragavi has two ginger cats. Her Instagram handle is @ragi.dosai.

Nisha is a Bangalore-based PR professional (although she currently lives in Chennai with her family, till this whole global pandemic thing blows over). Nisha knows how the Indian media works and is very interested in the public perception of female criminals. She is an amazing singer and has a background in college radio. Nisha is allergic to Ragavi’s cats. Her Instagram handle is @just.nishful.thinking.

Okay… but who asked for this?

Well… Women that chose a life of crime are often painted by Indian society and media as victims. Or worse — a product of their circumstances, from which they had no other way to escape, and eventually resorting to crime. Movies and TV shows stress that women on the wrong side of the law were usually wronged themselves, or are looking for justice or revenge. While it may be true in some cases, we believe that this stereotypical portrayal of female criminals is largely unfair. Women have motives, intent and agency, even in wrongdoings. And we think that they should have their stories told and their motives investigated.

In short, no one asked for this. We just wanted to do it.

Who are you going to cover?

We will cover murderers, con-women, bandits, political corruption and, our personal favourite, white collar crime. We'll explore their actions and motives, and how law enforcement and the public responded to them. 

Each episode will focus on the acts these women have committed, media coverage of the incidents, and how law enforcement and the judiciary did (or did not) do their jobs. We will wrap up with a short musical recap, to quickly run you through the episode. Just in case you took a nap while we were speaking and missed something!

The podcast is intended to be informational, shall be thoroughly researched, and humourous where appropriate.

Sweet! But what’s this blog for?

For you! We’ll use this page to provide you with:

• a brief on the woman and what she was up to

• links to source material, interviews, and articles

• the research and recording process

  • our feelings, because therapists are expensive.

Is this a feminist issue?

Of course not.

Unless you want it to be. Whatever gets us listeners honestly.

Please tell your fellow feminists about us. Please tell your fellow women-haters about us. It’s all the same to us as long as we get that sweet, sweet online traction.

Last question — who designed your lovely artwork?

Our incredibly gorgeous artwork is by Shruti Shrivastava. You can see more of her work on her Instagram! Give her some platonic love, please. :)

Love (also platonically),

Ragavi & Nisha