"I wouldn't say that everything I've written in this memoir is true. Some of it has been added on, invented, embellished. It's been a long process of remembering and becoming as I ... Read more
"I wouldn't say that everything I've written in this memoir is true. Some of it has been added on, invented, embellished. It's been a long process of remembering and becoming as I remembered. This is why I talk about the boundary between memory and fiction being blurred; because while you are writing something, there is some other process that takes over." - Sara Rai, author, Raw Umber, talks to Manjula Narayan about her memoir that touches on growing up in Allahabad, her grandfather Premchand, the ordinariness of death, and drawing from a pool of languages in her writing. Read more
"Dals have been a part of the human diet for centuries and they are a substitute for more expensive animal-based proteins, and they are also very diverse and versatile. Dals are ac ... Read more
"Dals have been a part of the human diet for centuries and they are a substitute for more expensive animal-based proteins, and they are also very diverse and versatile. Dals are actually used all over the world. After my book on biryanis, my family urged me to work on another book and we decided on this because dals are an intrinsic part of everyday cooking in every Indian home" - Pratibha Karan, author, The Book of Dals, talks to Manjula Narayan about everything from Telangana sambar and Maharashtrian amti to puran poli, papads, payasams, Kashmiri dals and rajma chawal, among many other fantastic preparations made from lentils. Read more
"One of the principles of Ashoka's dhamma is tolerance and respect for all religions and that really impressed me. Also, the whole idea of inscribing messages on rocks may have com ... Read more
"One of the principles of Ashoka's dhamma is tolerance and respect for all religions and that really impressed me. Also, the whole idea of inscribing messages on rocks may have come from the Middle East. The Persians did this, but when they did it, they were bragging. They said things like, 'I, Darius, conquered all these people; I slaughtered these people; I built these cities.' They were bragging about it but Asoka uses the same medium not to brag but to tell people to live better lives and he's kind of sad that they don't do so. He's really unique in history. I can't think of any other ruler who's done this," - Coleen Taylor Sen, author, Ashoka and the Maurya Dynasty talks to Manjula Narayan about Ashoka, his grandfather Chandragupta, the Arthashastra, the rock edicts, the figure of Ashoka in Buddhist texts, the colonial effort that reinstated him as a major figure in Indian history, and his significance and place in contemporary India. Read more
"It's not the picture of Vivekananda that people have but he was extremely funny. He tried not to be too hard on the Americans so he did a lot with humour and teasing" - Ruth Harri ... Read more
"It's not the picture of Vivekananda that people have but he was extremely funny. He tried not to be too hard on the Americans so he did a lot with humour and teasing" - Ruth Harris, author, Guru to the World; The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda talks to Manjula Narayan about the connections Vivekananda forged in Europe and America, his guru Ramakrishna, the contribution of his disciple Sister Nivedita, and his own radicalism and rejection of orthodoxy. Read more
"History has become a big bone of contention in our society. A lot of people are excited by chewing on that bone of contention and I'm very happy about that. People who are writing ... Read more
"History has become a big bone of contention in our society. A lot of people are excited by chewing on that bone of contention and I'm very happy about that. People who are writing for serious general audiences are doing a great service but I think that those kinds of books also need to be reviewed very seriously by people who are familiar with those fields and are able to do some amount of public introspection on the art of writing history, on the method of interpretation, and the impact of certain ways of telling narratives on the current struggle over how we tell India's histories." - Annapurna Garimella, editor, The Long Arc of South Asian Art, talks to Manjula Narayan about the essays in the volume that touch on a wide range of subjects including 18th century Udaipur painting, the ancient St Thomas crosses of Kerala, the Shiva temple established by Tamil traders in China in the late 13th century, and Queen Victoria's picturesque Indian servants Read more
"The elite local forces that the CIA had established and operated with since the early years of the war in Afghanistan were both effective and very brutal, and were responsible for ... Read more
"The elite local forces that the CIA had established and operated with since the early years of the war in Afghanistan were both effective and very brutal, and were responsible for scores of civilian deaths" - Andrew Quilty, author, August in Kabul, talks to Manjula Narayan about the 10 years he spent covering the country, trying to presents facts so the reader can draw her own conclusions, death of Indian photographer Danish Siddiqui, the suicide bombing among the crowd at Kabul airport desperate to escape the Taliban, and the militia killings of Talibs in the chaos that accompanied the American withdrawal from the country. Read more
"I always try to bring in a people's history point-of-view into my work. So, in the telebhaja, sweets, and the dak bungalow sections, I have mentioned the people who created the di ... Read more
"I always try to bring in a people's history point-of-view into my work. So, in the telebhaja, sweets, and the dak bungalow sections, I have mentioned the people who created the dishes. I like to bring in their stories to make it more human. The lives of the makers are equally important to me," says Nilosree Biswas, author, Calcutta On Your Plate. She talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast about everything from Bengali sweets, the history of cookbooks, the influence of Awadhi cuisine via Wajid Ali Shah on Bengali food and how the Victorian "good wife" code was transported to the bhadralok and the effect it had on the region's food culture. Tune in! Read more
"People come from all over the country to Mumbai and it is cosmopolitan. But if you look at the history of the city, there has been tremendous violence and communities have clashed ... Read more
"People come from all over the country to Mumbai and it is cosmopolitan. But if you look at the history of the city, there has been tremendous violence and communities have clashed every 10-15 years," says Jitendra Dixit, author, Bombay After Ayodhya, which chronicles events that affected the city over the last 30 years. The journalist who has experienced and covered many of the events that form part of the narrative of this book talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast about the city's gang wars, communal riots, police encounters, the real estate boom and increased ghettoisation, natural disasters, and the unionisation of Bollywood that could push the industry out of the city. Read more
"I took it as a mission to do this anthology because a lot of things are known about Bihar but literature is not one of them. This book is also an invitation to literary translator ... Read more
"I took it as a mission to do this anthology because a lot of things are known about Bihar but literature is not one of them. This book is also an invitation to literary translators to explore the rich world of Bihari literature" - Abhay K, editor, The Book of Bihari Literature, talks to Manjula Narayan about the many languages of Bihar, its ancient history, the challenges of translation, and this anthology that includes a range of writing from poems in Pali by Buddhist nuns from 600BCE and pieces by 19th-century writers like Sake Dean Mahomed and Avadh Behari Lall to stories by such stalwarts as Phanishwar Nath Renu and contemporary figures like Abdus Samad and Anamika. Read more
"Looking at a cookbook should take the reader down memory lane and inspire them to recreate the dishes," says Nandita Iyer, author, The Great Indian Thali, which features vegetaria ... Read more
"Looking at a cookbook should take the reader down memory lane and inspire them to recreate the dishes," says Nandita Iyer, author, The Great Indian Thali, which features vegetarian dishes from across the country. She talks to Manjula Narayan about foraged foods, the great variety of vegetables and fruits in India, putting the spotlight on lesser known foods and such wonderful recipes as amrood sabzi, chenna poda, the cheesecake from Odisha, and Manipuri Chak Hao, among many others! Read more
