Books and Authors

The fact that we are losing control over our own sense of time, how we spend our money, and the decisional autonomy that we exercise on these social media platforms is worrying. That we don't have a law in place to restrict how these platforms use our information is what is problematic." - Siddharth Sonkar, author, of 'What Privacy Means' talks to @utterflea on this week's Books & Authors podcast...

From the Natyashastra to now, there has been no theorizing of theatre in India. I don't know why people didn't try," says Satyabrata Rout, author, Scenography; An Indian Perspective, which is rich in details about stage design in both traditional and contemporary modern theatre in India. On this week's Books & Authors podcast, the author talks to @utterflea about his journey, working with BV Karan...

The heady post-independence years of the 1950s when it was believed that democratic planning could take the nation from abject poverty to prosperity, India's Five-Year plans that grew out of the attempt to marry liberal democracy to a socialist economy, the role of the Indian Statistical Institute and the dynamism of technocrats like PC Mahalanobis in the now-defunct Planning Commission, and how t...

"The idea is to mirror the flavour of snacks to tea and not to contrast it. Contrasting snacks can ruin the taste of tea, though it does work well with masala chai," says Pallavi Nigam Sahay, author A Sip in time. She talks to @utterflea about India's finest teas and pairing them with the right teatime treats on this week's Books & Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

"With Lata Mangeshkar went a huge, massive chunk of film history and film music history," says Nasreen Munni Kabir, author, 'Lata Mangeshkar... In Her Own Voice'. This book of conversations with the legend reveals her photographic memory, her magical ability to change her voice to suit specific actors, her deep understanding of the emotions in lyrics and of sound technology, and how, in the words...

"WHO has come out strongly against simple medicines like Ivermectin despite the fact that there is so much data showing that it is effective in treating COVID. This is because the vaccine lobby is very strong and they don't allow these medicines to get the publicity they deserve," says Kavery Nambisan, author of 'A Luxury Called Health', a memoir of her four-decade-long career as a surgeon in rura...

"Sometimes police action during riots is cramped because of the complicity of people who are ruling or those who want to rule - that is the politicians. They would like the situation to develop in a certain manner so it is not unusual to find politicians playing a very dirty game" - Aloke Lal, author of 'Murder in the Bylanes', a memoir of his stint as Deputy Inspector General, Kanpur, in the afte...

Our toxic relationship with our devices, the negative impact of huge and very quick scaling up of businesses, the need to change the all-pervasive culture of lauding those sorts of practices, the banality of evil with social media exemplifying the proverb, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions', and how to stop falling prey to FOMO, bad moods and negativity brought on by our smartphones...

"Every civilization has its territory of fantasy. The Mahabharata seems to have drawn the boundaries of that territory for the Indian people. At the time that it got into circulation, other texts too were being composed but they were restricted to certain groups, to Buddhists, Jains, or Brahmins. The Mahabharat, however, could get into anyone's imaginative territory. That freedom to wander around...

"People who are powerful and wealthy are always complex and layered characters," says Anirudh Kanisetti, author, Lords of the Deccan, in this week's Books & Authors conversation with Manjula Narayan, about the ambitious, adventurous, charismatic and bloodthirsty medieval dynasties of southern India from the Chalukyas to the Cholas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raj Kapoor's passion for film making made him literally chase clouds across the country to get the perfect shot, his great ear for music that ensured that songs and the background score added to the storytelling, his ability to get just what he wanted from his actors, his willingness to teach his team, and his eccentricities. Filmmaker, Rahul Rawail, who began as RK's assistant, talks to Manjula N...

"If the ground is shifting beneath your feet at the mass level in this country, you have to figure out why it is shifting," says Nalin Mehta, author of The New BJP, a massive book that presents fresh data and insights on a range of subjects including the new caste coalitions that have changed the party and the making of a new woman-voter base. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

"Vajpayee was a ruthless politician but he couldn't do with Modi what he did with others like Madhok and Govindacharya," says @sagarikaghose, author of 'Atal Bihari Vajpayee'. She talks to @utterflea about the first BJP Prime Minister's humour, likeability, unconventionality and great belief in Parliament on this week's Books& Authors podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

"I'm sure there are a lot of people who are not very fond of me. I'm like that proverbial Trishanku figure," says film critic and Bollywood insider Anupama Chopra in a conversation on her new book 'A Place in My Heart' with host Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ethnic discrimination and genocide that preceded the birth of Bangladesh exactly 50 years ago, international apathy to the carnage, factionalism among the Bengali freedom fighters, the role of the Indian armed forces in training the MuktiBahini and underwater demolition squads... Manash Ghosh, the first journalist to report on the unfolding crisis in erstwhile East Pakistan, and author of 'Ban...

Why some states need to shut down family planning departments, the possible story behind the improved sex ratio, the truth about the higher minority fertility rate, why states that show the highest rates of COVID are not the ones that are worst afflicted, the criminalisation of young love under Sec 376, the consequences of treating an FIR as the basis for crime statistics and an understanding of w...

The lotus in the Kashmiri Pandit imagination, the falcon in the north Indian Muslim one, the growth of East Pakistan Displaced Persons Colony... @AdrijaRoychow, author, 'Delhi, In Thy Name' talks to @utterflea about the stories contained within the names of Delhi neighbourhoods like Pamposh Enclave, Shaheen Bagh, CR Park and Saket and what they reveal about the post-independence history of the cit...

Vaccine hesitancy, cannibalism and immunity to prion disease, viruses and depression, the streaked tulip crisis and the potyvirus, industrial foods and poor gut health... @pranaylal, author of Invisible Empire; The Natural History of Viruses talks to @utterflea about all that on the Books & Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ordering a Rolls Royce through a catalogue, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore endorsing products, companies advertising that their rivals use human waste to make soaps, the cachet of swadeshi goods in the pre-Independence era, and the business losses of Partition, @crypticcaprice, author, Branded in History talks to @utterflea on the Books and Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

In August 1972, the Ugandan government under Idi Amin decreed that all Ugandan Asians must leave the country in 90 days and that they must take only what they could carry. Thousands of Indians, many of whom were born and brought up in Africa were suddenly rendered stateless. Kololo Hill is the story of one such family. Author @NeemaMShah talks to @utterflea about her debut novel that looks at immi...

'The Other Man' is possibly India's first happy gay novel. Set in Mumbai, this is the story of good looking, rich and successful Ved Mehta who's about to be engaged to the perfectly suitable Disha Kapoor. And then he falls in love with Carlos. Closeted and conflicted Ved wants to make his parents happy by doing what they want. Author @FarhadJD talks to @utterflea about his funny and touching novel...

Speciesists on planets with three moons, pain merchants, murderous dolls in Calcutta, djinns in a future Dhaka, vengeful droids in Karachi, and othering and betrayal in Mumbai Prime - there's all of this in the Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, Vol 2. Editor Tarun K Saint talks to host Manjula Narayan about this collection of sci-fi and speculative fiction that transports readers to st...

Indian feminists and the nation's family planning programme forced vasectomies during the Emergency and the idea of small families as a way to eliminate poverty @ProfMytheli author of 'Reproductive Politics and the Making of Modern India' talks to @utterflea on this week's Books & Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gandhi's introduction of non-violence as an Indian value by fabricating a tradition around it, his radical interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, his exhortation to the Jews facing Hitler... Jyotirmaya Sharma, author, Elusive Non-Violence; The Making and Unmaking of Gandhi's Religion of Ahimsa talks to @utterflea about all that on this week's Books & Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices...

The idea that ancient Indians were non-violent is completely wrong." - Upinder Singh, author of Ancient India; Culture of Contradictions talks to @utterflea on godess worship and misogyny, Buddhism, the Manu Smriti and more on the Books & Authors podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices