"The personal is being made political in a very perverse way. My existence itself is anathema to a rising, sizeable force in Indian politics and that upsets me." - Seema Chishti, a ... Read more
"The personal is being made political in a very perverse way. My existence itself is anathema to a rising, sizeable force in Indian politics and that upsets me." - Seema Chishti, author of 'Sumitra and Anees' talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast about her mother's recipes, her parents' inter religious marriage, and about all that India was and can be. Read more
"Partition is such a perplexing event that 75 years on, you cannot assign blame to one community because there are equally heinous acts on both sides and equal misfortunes as well. ... Read more
"Partition is such a perplexing event that 75 years on, you cannot assign blame to one community because there are equally heinous acts on both sides and equal misfortunes as well. So maybe everyone is to blame at some point, and no one is to blame too." - Aanchal Malhotra, author, of 'In the Language of Remembering' talks to Manjula Narayan about the inheritance of Partition on the Books & Authors podcast. Read more
"Technology has made it possible for us to be inclusive irrespective of who we are," says Vijay Mahajan, author, 'Digital Leapfrogs' as he talks to Manjula Narayan about how techno ... Read more
"Technology has made it possible for us to be inclusive irrespective of who we are," says Vijay Mahajan, author, 'Digital Leapfrogs' as he talks to Manjula Narayan about how technology is reshaping consumer markets in India and the social and material changes being brought about by everything from Uber to Paytm and Phonepe and streaming services like Netflix Read more
"Indian anthologists have made it a practice to exclude young poets. This is a disservice not only to young poets but actually to the older poets. I wanted to be as inclusive as po ... Read more
"Indian anthologists have made it a practice to exclude young poets. This is a disservice not only to young poets but actually to the older poets. I wanted to be as inclusive as possible; I was guided by the poems and not by the poets." - Jeet Thayil, editor, The Penguin Book of Indian Poets talks to @utterflea about the definitive anthology on the Books & Authors podcast. Read more
"Even in his life time, not everyone had a favourable view of Akbar. Many thought he was a heretic, and he was aware of this," says Parvati Sharma, author, Akbar of Hindustan. She ... Read more
"Even in his life time, not everyone had a favourable view of Akbar. Many thought he was a heretic, and he was aware of this," says Parvati Sharma, author, Akbar of Hindustan. She talks to Manjula Narayan about writing an accessible popular history of the Mughal emperor that recreates family dramas, power struggles and great battles and also shines a light on a colourful supporting cast of characters that includes ambitious royal nurses, mutinous clansmen, swashbuckling homosexual noblemen, and even favourite elephants and horses. Read more
I had spent a lot of time being critical of Eurocentrism when I realised that one has to move beyond this space of postcolonial critique. Ultimately, we have to take the responsibi ... Read more
I had spent a lot of time being critical of Eurocentrism when I realised that one has to move beyond this space of postcolonial critique. Ultimately, we have to take the responsibility of writing history from the global South. That's when a real dialogue can happen on equal terms." - Parul Dave Mukherji, co-editor of the mammoth '20th Century Indian Art', which looks at everything from the work of Raja Ravi Varma, Abanindranath Tagore, and Amrita Sher-Gil to contemporary street art, regional art movements, works by Dalit and tribal artists, photography and sculpture, and art from other nations in South Asia, talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast. Read more
The fact that we are losing control over our own sense of time, how we spend our money, and the decisional autonomy that we exercise on these social media platforms is worrying. Th ... Read more
The fact that we are losing control over our own sense of time, how we spend our money, and the decisional autonomy that we exercise on these social media platforms is worrying. That we don't have a law in place to restrict how these platforms use our information is what is problematic." - Siddharth Sonkar, author, of 'What Privacy Means' talks to @utterflea on this week's Books & Authors podcast about the idea of privacy in the Indian context, about government surveillance having a chilling effect on democracy, and about the inadequacy of the current laws to prevent corporate entities from having access to vast troves of private information about individuals. Read more
From the Natyashastra to now, there has been no theorizing of theatre in India. I don't know why people didn't try," says Satyabrata Rout, author, Scenography; An Indian Perspectiv ... Read more
From the Natyashastra to now, there has been no theorizing of theatre in India. I don't know why people didn't try," says Satyabrata Rout, author, Scenography; An Indian Perspective, which is rich in details about stage design in both traditional and contemporary modern theatre in India. On this week's Books & Authors podcast, the author talks to @utterflea about his journey, working with BV Karanth, the popular mobile theatres of Assam and the flourishing Surabhi theatres of Andhra Pradesh, and how a scenographer can help the audience imagine visuals Read more
The heady post-independence years of the 1950s when it was believed that democratic planning could take the nation from abject poverty to prosperity, India's Five-Year plans that g ... Read more
The heady post-independence years of the 1950s when it was believed that democratic planning could take the nation from abject poverty to prosperity, India's Five-Year plans that grew out of the attempt to marry liberal democracy to a socialist economy, the role of the Indian Statistical Institute and the dynamism of technocrats like PC Mahalanobis in the now-defunct Planning Commission, and how the zeal for planning permeated everything from films to family life - Nikhil Menon, author of 'Planning Democracy', which paints a great picture of a young India striving to find its unique niche in a polarised world, talks to Manjula Narayan on this week's Books & Authors podcast. Read more
"The idea is to mirror the flavour of snacks to tea and not to contrast it. Contrasting snacks can ruin the taste of tea, though it does work well with masala chai," says Pallavi N ... Read more
"The idea is to mirror the flavour of snacks to tea and not to contrast it. Contrasting snacks can ruin the taste of tea, though it does work well with masala chai," says Pallavi Nigam Sahay, author A Sip in time. She talks to @utterflea about India's finest teas and pairing them with the right teatime treats on this week's Books & Authors podcast. Read more
