Books and Authors

"The idea of a suitable religion for democracy strengthened Ambedkar's view of Buddhism. His conversion was not just intellectual but also emotional and spiritual" - Ashok Gopal, author, 'A Part Apart; The Life and Thought of BR Ambedkar', talks to Manjula Narayan about his mammoth work. Tune in to now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to Manjula Narayan discuss with Anirudha Bhattacharjee, author, 'Basu Chatterji and Middle of the Road Cinema' about how this book tells us many inside stories about the ace director’s films. The anecdotes are not restricted to trivia and behind-the-scene occurrences, as films like Saara Aakash, Piya Ka Ghar, Rajnigandha, Chhoti Si Baat, Chitchor, Manzil, Khatta Meetha, Swami, Priyatama, Ba...

Listen to Manjula Narayan discuss with Avijit Ghosh, author, 'When Ardh Satya Met Himmatwala' about the 1980s in Hindi cinema, it was the decade of the dark and powerful police drama Ardh Satya. It was the decade of the kitschy excess of the action comedy Himmatwala. It was a decade of opposites. It was a time of furious change beyond the silver screen, video cassettes brought cinema to drawing ro...

Listen to Manjula Narayan discuss with the Aashima Dogra, co-author of Lab Hopping, how from Bhopal to Bhubaneswar, from Bangalore to Jammu, she and her co author Nandita Jayaraj engage in thought-provoking conversations with renowned scientists like Gagandeep Kang, Rohini Godbole, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Prajval Shastri, as well as researchers at earlier stages of their scientific careers. Learn...

“We can write on Ancient Indian History but that doesn't mean you are finished knowing all there was to know.“ The history of India through 75 objects is a curation of objects from the prehistoric ages through twenty-first century India, author Sudeshna Guha provides a panoramic view of the rich histories of the subcontinent to the host Manjula Narayan. The incisive essays in this collection detai...

"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 Me...

"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 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;...

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 happenin...

"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 G...

"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 M...

"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,...

"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 braggin...

"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 Nive...

"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...

"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...

"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 & Author...

"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 p...

"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...

"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 sa...

"What's unique about this book is that it has stories originally written in English and ones translated from the Portuguese, Konkani and Marathi, but all of them are Goan." - Manohar Shetty, editor, 'The Greatest Goan Stories Ever told' talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast about the new anthology, which features the writing of a range of accomplished writers across generations i...

"Unless you are a good mimic, you cannot be a good playback singer and Kishore Kumar used to mimic voices left, right and centre. He was a very good actor himself and was also very observant. He observed heroes and internalized their characteristics. That's why he could sing differently for each of them. His songs will remain" - Anirudha Bhattacharjee, the co-author with Parthiv Dhar of 'Kishore K...

"The stories in the book are propelled by the character of retired DGP Anoop Jaiswal. They tell you how difficult it is to work within a system and what police jobs really are like. They straddle a grey area and you begin to wonder who the criminals are and who are the good people. Really, when you go a little deeper, a criminal no longer appears to be a criminal; he becomes a human being at some...

"In the last decade there has been a greater stress on marketing. This is partly because of climate change, globalisation, and because other countries too produce coffee so there is competition. There is more focus now on how to sustain coffee growing as an industry," says Kavery Nambisan, author Cherry Red Cherry Black; The Story of Coffee in India, which traces the growth of the crop from the da...

"About the 'fortress approach' to conservation, many conservationists might feel that the end justifies the means because wildlife is so threatened and anyway most of the land is for people. But many species actually thrive outside protected areas and might also move outside and coexist with people. We have to share our space with nature and if you want wildlife to be saved, you need the support o...