A Book A Day - A Literary Podcast from India

Rigveda, the oldest scripture known to mankind, has its own view on the creation of the universe, much like many other religious scriptures. I recite a few passages from the book.

Dylan Thomas's famous poem has been an inspiration not only to you and me but also to the characters in fictional stories. Let's recite this once more.

I read out a chapter from Jiddu Krishnamurti's famous book Freedom from the Unknown. The chapter is on consciousness and throws some interesting questions in our quest to understand ourselves.

In this poem Elizabeth Barrett Browning tells us different ways of loving our lover. Let's take time to appreciate the poem and enjoy this beautiful feeling called love while we can.

From the ancient Greece to the digital age, philosophers have consistently argued over the idea of humour and have come up with different theories. I discuss in this podcast.

The famous poem by Paul Verlaine describes the emotional condition of a speaker who does not understand why he is feeling unhappy. I narrate it for you.

What is mindfulness? How does it help you especially in terms of your mental well being. Let's find out with the help of today's book.

Let's explore the most common mental problem i.e., Depression through the lens of literature and books.

Trying to make sense of this vastly complicated subject through the lens of literature, art and philosophy.

Dr BR Ambedkar was arguably the finest Indian intellectual in 20th century. His writings are brilliant, especially when it comes to critiquing India. Irfan Habib, historian and writer, presents selected writings of Indian thinkers on the idea of Indian nationalism. I read out the chapter on Ambedkar in this podcast.

Ibn Khaldun was an Arab scholar of Islam, social scientist, philosopher and historian who has been described as the founder of the modern disciplines of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography. Let's learn a little bit about him through his great works.

Bliss Carman's spiritual poem titled Vestigia touches the heart and soul and provoke the mind.

In their book The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, Edward Burger and Michael Starbird explain how we can train our mind to think in an effective manner. I give you the overview of the book in today's podcast.

In her book "Divided by Partition United by Resilience: 21 Inspirational Stories from 1947", Mallika Ahluwalia brings the stories of some famous Indians who witnessed the horrors of the partition. I narrate the story of Gulzar in this podcast.

Reciting a fun poem by Irene Rutherford McLeod as it talks about one of our favourite subjects: a dog.

Arundhati Roy's non-fiction work revolves around her role as a social activist. I read through some of her essays in this podcast.

A letter written by Leo Tolstoy and published by Mahatma Gandhi. What can this letter teach us in today's world?

Is there an Indian way of thinking? What does the great 20th century poet AK Ramanujan think about this? Let's see.

In this podcast, I throw light at some of the basic ideas of Sikhism and explain what this religion is all about.

Harsh Madhusudhan and Rajeev Mantri bring a new idea of India. That of India as a civilisational state. Which is not really a new idea but an ancient one. How's this shaping the new India? Let's find out in this book.

Titania McGrath is a fictional character created by comedian Andrew Doyle. She has written a couple of books which poke fun at modern social justice movements. Let's see.

I read out this beautiful, short poem by Emily Dickinson.

Devdutt Pattanaik in his book 7 Secrets of Shiva unfolds many stories related to the Hindu God Shiva. I read a few pages from the book.

The popular work from the 20th century holds a great value even today. Let's read a little bit of it.

Nathu Ram Godse, who murdered Mahatma Gandhi, had his own version of the political events of India. I share some of these controversial ideas from Godse's writings.