"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
"Antibiotics don't work on Drug-Resistant TB, which should worry all of us. The post-antibiotic era is dawning on us." - Vidya Krishnan, author of Phantom Plague; How Tuberculosis ... Read more
"Antibiotics don't work on Drug-Resistant TB, which should worry all of us. The post-antibiotic era is dawning on us." - Vidya Krishnan, author of Phantom Plague; How Tuberculosis Shaped History talks to Manjula Narayan on this week's Books & Authors podcast about the persistence of TB that has evolved with humanity, about the abuse of antibiotics that has made it more virulent, and about the scientific racism that keeps Indian sufferers from getting the best new drugs. Read more
"Manto is not just a witness to history in his stories; he is an active agent of history. He is the subject of history. It is very compelling" - Nasreen Rehman, the translator, of ... Read more
"Manto is not just a witness to history in his stories; he is an active agent of history. He is the subject of history. It is very compelling" - Nasreen Rehman, the translator, of The Collected Stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, talks to @utterflea about Manto's deep feelings for Bombay, his iconoclasm that made the Progressive Writers Group wary of him, and why his stories continue to move South Asians. 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, 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
