Books and Beyond with Bound

If your family has ever felt like a soap opera you can't escape, this episode is for you.  For the finale of Season 9, Tara sits down with Karan Mahajan to discuss The Complex , a sweeping family saga set in Delhi across the 1980s and 90s. Through the rise and fall of the Chopra family, they unpack the emotional realities of marriage, the loneliness of immigration, family expectations, male i...

A love story, across timelines as one woman tries to reach the other through the words she left behind. In this episode, Tara sits down with Tarana Hussain Khan, writer and food historian, to talk about her novel The Courtesan, Her Lover and I , a book that moves between two women and their love stories separated by a century, bound together by letters that almost didn't survive. The conversa...

This episode contains discussions of sexual violence, human trafficking and child abuse. Please listen at your discretion. Have you ever read a headline, felt the rage to make a difference, but didn’t know where to start? But an 8-year-old girl acted on it and inspired millions to make a difference, no matter how small In this episode, Tara sits down with Sunitha Krishnan, founder of Prajwala, Asi...

If you’ve ever wished for food to transport you to new places, this episode is for you! In this episode, Tara sits down with Lavanya Lakshminarayan, international award-winning sci-fi author and game designer, to explore the world of Primus in Intergalactic Feast, a sequel to her Interstellar Megachef. They dig into her two-book series, where food is not just sustenance, but culture, conflict, mem...

Do you actually need a big personality online for your book to succeed? The answer might surprise you.  In this episode, Tara sits down with Naiyya Singh, Assistant General Manager of Marketing at HarperCollins India, to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to get a book into the right hands.  They get into what a book marketing campaign really looks like and why fiction and nonfiction...

What do you do when the person you love wants something you're not sure you can give? In this episode of Books & Beyond , Tara speaks with Rahul Singh , debut novelist and academic, about his book Unfolding , which follows two gay men navigating a long-term relationship where their expectations of love begin to diverge. The conversation moves through the emotional complexity of open relat...

Are you one of those who cancel plans because you’re tired, then spend the next two hours feeling guilty about it? Let’s talk. In the latest episode of Books & Beyond, Tara chats with Ankur Warikoo about his new book Winning People Without Losing Yourself , and what it actually looks like to keep everyone happy all the time. Ankur talks about spending years trying to be the person everyone lik...

If you've ever felt the pull of a new city and the desperate need to start over, keep listening. In this episode, Tara sits down with the award-winning author Rahul Bhattacharya to discuss his latest novel, Railsong . Writing about the freedom of a woman set in the 1970s, as a male author, is no small task. Rahul talks about Charu, a motherless daughter of a railway worker who flees to Bombay...

If you decided to go analogue this year but still find yourself doomscrolling at 2 a.m., then this episode is for you. In this latest episode, Tara sits down with Ria Chopra, writer, influencer, and Youth Advisor to Google, to unpack what it really means to grow up with the internet, how it builds identity, memory, relationships and sometimes completely messes with all of it in her debut book, “Ne...

What if the most defining moment of your career was the one you never planned? In this episode of Books & Beyond , Tara speaks with Dr. Ashok Ganguly, former Chairman of Hindustan Unilever, former Rajya Sabha member, and author of We Are Our Future . From failing in school to becoming a global business leader, Dr. Ganguly reflects on a life shaped as much by chance as by choice. He shares the...

What if we told you that Bombay food isn't as local as you think? In this episode, Tara sits down with writer and journalist Pronoti Datta, author of In the Beginning There Was Bombay Duck , to unpack the delicious and deeply layered history of Bombay’s food. Pronoti and Tara trace the city’s culinary journey, from the Koli fishing communities and early tiffin rooms to colonial clubs, Irani c...

What does it mean to feel at home? And what do you do when that feeling never quite arrives? In the latest episode of Books & Beyond, Tara Khandelwal sits down with journalist and author Rahul Pandita to discuss his novel Our Friends in Good Houses , a story about searching for home and a sense of belonging in a world where both can feel elusive. Drawing from decades of reporting in war zones,...

Wait… ghosts were people once too! In this episode of Books & Beyond, Tara Khandelwal speaks with historian and writer Eric Chopra about his book Ghosted , which explores the haunted monuments of Delhi. But this episode isn’t just about spooky stories. Eric looks at the histories behind these legends, from the Lathwale Baba believed to inhabit the arches of Feroz Shah Kotla to the mysterious s...

What does it take to build a Michelin-starred restaurant when you arrive in New York heartbroken and broke? In the latest episode of Books & Beyond, Tara sits down with Suvir Saran , the chef behind Devi ; the first Indian restaurant in North America to receive a Michelin star, to talk about his memoir Tell My Mother I Like Boys . But this episode isn’t just about food. From growing up in Delh...

What if the most powerful character in the Mahabharata was a boatwoman? In this episode of Books & Beyond , Tara sits down with debut author Rupeen Popat to explore his novel Satyavati , a bold retelling of the Mahabharata’s origin story through the eyes of a woman history forgot. Satyavati begins as a ferrying boatwoman, but her courage and resilience transform her into the queen who steered...

Be honest. When was the last time you logged off because you wanted to, not because your battery died? In this brand new episode of Books & Beyond, Tara sits down with Anurag Minus Verma , influencer, writer, and podcaster, to trace how the Indian internet went from cyber cafes and Orkut scraps to algorithms that know us better than we do. From going down random rabbit holes and getting emotio...

Is Mumbai still a city for everyone, or just for those who can afford it? In this episode of Books & Beyond, Tara sits down with veteran journalist and author Sidharth Bhatia to discuss his latest book, Mumbai: A Million Islands . The book is not about the history of Marine Lines or the Gateway of India, but the thing that actually builds this city... PEOPLE! Tara and Sidharth explore the bubo...

What if the most important love story in your life isn’t romantic at all? In our brand new episode, journalist and author Deepanjana Pal talks about her novel, Lightning in a Shot Glass . It’s a witty, radical look at two Mumbai flatmates navigating love, life, and ambition on their own terms. Tara and Deepanjana dive into why female friendships are often the real love stories of our lives and how...

What happens to “us” when we’re no longer the smartest beings on the planet? In our brand new episode, technologist and global innovation leader Akshay Chopra discusses his debut novel After Us , exploring a world transformed by SUI, a self-aware, benevolent superintelligence that questions the very definition of life and humanity. Tara and Akshay dive deep into the fascinating (and often terrifyi...

What does it take to actually curate a literary festival? We’re back! Season 9 of Books & Beyond kicks off with Tara and Aishwarya spilling the tea on their latest project: curating the Literature Section for the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2026!   This episode is a deep dive into the madness of curation. Why is Aishwarya obsessed with color-coded Excel sheets? Why is Tara picking out "apple...

Would you keep writing if your agent told you "not yet" for ten straight years? In this episode of Books & Beyond, Tara sits down with NYT bestselling author Alka Joshi to discuss her latest novel, Six Days in Bombay. Alka reveals the incredible decade-long journey behind her debut, The Henna Artist , from a relentless agent who kept saying the book wasn’t ready, through years of tir...

You don't need a playbook to become a leader, your instincts are your guide. In the latest episode of Books & Beyond, Roopa Kudva, author of Leadership Beyond the Playbook , joins Tara to challenge the formulaic approach to leadership. Instead of giving you a 10-step plan, Roopa hands the steering wheel to you. They dive into why true leadership can’t be squeezed into neat frameworks and...

Ever wondered what it takes to go from crunching numbers to creating worlds that millions of readers dive into? In the latest episode of Books & Beyond, Amish Tripathi shares the ups, downs, and behind-the-scenes of his journey from the 9-to-5 grind to bestselling author. From juggling a full-time job while writing Immortals of Meluha , to being one of the few authors in India who can write fu...

Ever wished you had an extra hour each day? (Spoiler: you don’t need one!) In this episode of Books and Beyond, Tara chats with Apekshit Khare, HR professional and author of The Time Energy Toolkit , about why the problem isn’t our 24 hours, it’s how we use our energy. Apekshit breaks down the very real time struggles we face in India, from social expectations to nonstop notifications, and shares...

How does mythology change when we look at them through women’s lives? In this episode, Tara chats with P. Lalita Kumari, also known as Volga, one of the most influential feminist voices in Indian literature, and Purnima Rao, the translator of On the Banks of the Pampa , Volga’s retelling of Shabari’s story from the Ramayana . Volga shares how the idea for Shabari’s story first took shape, reflecti...