"I've always been a crime beat reporter and I've met a lot of funny characters," says Srinath Rao, author, 'Meow Meow', which looks at the story of alleged drug dealer Baby Patanka ... Read more
"I've always been a crime beat reporter and I've met a lot of funny characters," says Srinath Rao, author, 'Meow Meow', which looks at the story of alleged drug dealer Baby Patankar, who dominated the news cycle in March 2015. He talks to Manjula Narayan about the blackly comic true crime story set in Mumbai that features drug dealers, crooked policemen, double crossed lovers and large hauls of Mephedrone that incredibly turn out to be Ajinomoto! Read more
"Stories about migration, some of which date back several thousands of years and some of which are much more current, still play a toxic role in the politics of South Asia. But eve ... Read more
"Stories about migration, some of which date back several thousands of years and some of which are much more current, still play a toxic role in the politics of South Asia. But every country has its really odd set of migration narratives. The modern narrative on migration is so messed up that it's impossible to attack it head-on. I've tried to do that by pulling back into history in which some of the absurdity shines through" - Sam Miller, author, Migrants; The Story of Us All talks to Manjula Narayan about his new book, that presents the historical movements of everyone from the Vikings, African Americans, and the Jews to the Yahgans, Pocahontas and the Chinese Read more
"The whole history of photography from an archival point of view is not just the history of the nation or the world; it's also the history of the changing means of representation a ... Read more
"The whole history of photography from an archival point of view is not just the history of the nation or the world; it's also the history of the changing means of representation and the changing ways of producing images. We should not flatten visual history to a linear narrative. We have to think of it as multi-nodal and cross-pollinatory to a great extent," says Rahaab Allana, editor, 'Unframed; Discovering Image Practices in South Asia' that includes interviews with lens-based artists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and varied pieces on the visual culture of South Asia by critics, curators and Read more
The period leading up to 1857 in Delhi is written about in very contradictory terms. Sometimes it is called the last flicker before the candle goes out. But this is the high point ... Read more
The period leading up to 1857 in Delhi is written about in very contradictory terms. Sometimes it is called the last flicker before the candle goes out. But this is the high point of Urdu literature and poetry; it is the lifetime of Ghalib, Momin, Zauq, Bahadur Shah, and of Delhi college. It is also the time of the total decline of the Mughal dynasty. There were so many interesting things happening yet it is talked about in cliches. Earlier colonial historians pushed the idea that the period was decadent because it served to then justify British rule and the belief that it was needed for India to progress. Read more
"India has taken off as a country in the last 30 years and as India continues to become a more significant force in world politics, the art follows through. We, as collectors, are ... Read more
"India has taken off as a country in the last 30 years and as India continues to become a more significant force in world politics, the art follows through. We, as collectors, are enjoying the benefits of that. A lot of museums are now very interested in Indian art, which wasn't the case 20 years ago. I think the standing of the nation in the world is projected onto its art and culture." - Umesh Gaur, whose art collection is the subject of Paper Trails; Modern Indian Works on Paper 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 ... 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
