"What stood out for me about Shivaji is that a man who was believed to have no hope at all emerged as a giant killer. There are numerous instances when previous biographies have go ... Read more
"What stood out for me about Shivaji is that a man who was believed to have no hope at all emerged as a giant killer. There are numerous instances when previous biographies have got it all wrong simply because they have not accessed Marathi documents. Also, Shivaji was traditionally disregarded by people who wrote Indian history. My book is part of the attempt to restore the balance." - Vaibhav Purandare, author, 'Shivaji; India's Great Warrior King' talks to Manjula Narayan about Shivaji's long tussle with Aurangzeb, his rise from minor nobility to sovereign of the Maratha empire, his dream of building a navy, and the sack of Surat. Read more
"The Sindhi language of the common people, which encompasses wonderful ways of thinking, is now lost. For Sindhis in India, the language is gone, the culture is gone, and the histo ... Read more
"The Sindhi language of the common people, which encompasses wonderful ways of thinking, is now lost. For Sindhis in India, the language is gone, the culture is gone, and the history is also gone. That's something that I realised only recently," says Saaz Aggarwal, author, 'Losing Home Finding Home', a collection of personal accounts of the Sindhi experience of Partition, life in the refugee camps, and the subsequent process of recovery and rebuilding. Read more
"Since 2018, the Chinese have been preparing for an AI war. Today they are in the Tibet Autonomous Region and their robots also have real data sets which they have acquired from th ... Read more
"Since 2018, the Chinese have been preparing for an AI war. Today they are in the Tibet Autonomous Region and their robots also have real data sets which they have acquired from the operational area. They will leapfrog the US military, which is their peer competitor, by gaining first mover advantage in the new warfare." - Pravin Sawhney, author, The Last War; How AI Will Shape India's Final Showdown With China, talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast. Read more
"Being female puts you at a much higher risk of depression. Typically, the challenges that women face in each decade are really different - from puberty to childbearing and menopau ... Read more
"Being female puts you at a much higher risk of depression. Typically, the challenges that women face in each decade are really different - from puberty to childbearing and menopause. Now, for men, testosterone itself is a very potent antidepressant. But even if they do suffer from depression, in the Indian scenario, it is tough for them to admit it because men are expected to be strong." - Dr Pallavi Joshi, author, 'Fast but Lost; Overcoming Depression in City Life' talks to Manjula Narayan about virtual fatigue, avoiding negativity, the growing incidence of depression in India and ways to cope with the stress that could lead to it on the Books & Authors podcast. Read more
"Plotting is important in the murder mystery genre, but there have been times when my characters have done things I hadn't planned for them to do, and these have been the most rewa ... Read more
"Plotting is important in the murder mystery genre, but there have been times when my characters have done things I hadn't planned for them to do, and these have been the most rewarding moments in my writing" - Meeti Shroff-Shah, author, The Death of Kirti Kadakia. Read more
"I felt I had the courage to own up to who I am and to my truest authentic self. And that is a superpower." - Kubbra Sait, actor and author, 'Open Book; Not Quite a Memoir', talks ... Read more
"I felt I had the courage to own up to who I am and to my truest authentic self. And that is a superpower." - Kubbra Sait, actor and author, 'Open Book; Not Quite a Memoir', talks to Manjula Narayan about playing Cuckoo in Sacred Games, overcoming being abused as a teen, and keeping calm in the competitive Bollywood #BooksAndAuthors podcast. Read more
Growing up in Amritsar in the 1960s, watching jets flying overhead during the 1965 war, being struck by Hindi film lyrics, domestic tragedies, the contrasting milieu at home and at ... Read more
Growing up in Amritsar in the 1960s, watching jets flying overhead during the 1965 war, being struck by Hindi film lyrics, domestic tragedies, the contrasting milieu at home and at school, fighting street sexual harassment, and memories of school friends... Actor Deepti Naval talks to Manjula Narayan about her memoir A Country Called Childhood, which recreates a vanished time in India's recent history. Read more
"Construction workers are highly invisibilized. Their world is a small world within our world and at points, I thought of the construction site as a metaphor for a growing India wi ... Read more
"Construction workers are highly invisibilized. Their world is a small world within our world and at points, I thought of the construction site as a metaphor for a growing India with its linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity. You find Hindus, Muslims and Christians on the site sharing and collaborating to an extent but also segregated in other aspects of their lives." - Simon Lamouret, author, The Alcazar, a graphic novel based on the lives of workers on a building site in Bengaluru talks to @utterflea about his friendship with the workers, being inspired by Herge's drawing style, and about all the things this project made him think about. Read more
"For women to stay the course, you need to have better infrastructure and better support systems because, really, that is the reason most women seem to not be able to manage. We ne ... Read more
"For women to stay the course, you need to have better infrastructure and better support systems because, really, that is the reason most women seem to not be able to manage. We need creches, homes for the elderly... Typically, it is (the absence of) these things that hold women back." Read more
"Myth is not fictitious. It is actually truer than real life because it talks about an internal deep reality, which is truer than truth." - Meena Arora Nayak, author, Adbhut, Marve ... Read more
"Myth is not fictitious. It is actually truer than real life because it talks about an internal deep reality, which is truer than truth." - Meena Arora Nayak, author, Adbhut, Marvellous Creatures of Indian Myth and Folklore talks to Manjula Narayan about myth and meaning in the Books and Authors podcast. Read more
