Jaipur Bytes

A live session from #JaipurLitFest2020. The state of the media today warrants an unprecedented degree of skepticism and mistrust,.  Fiction often carries more veracity than so-called facts. Media consumers remain  unsure about the validity of sources and authenticity and provenance of information. In this timely session,  Editor-in-Chief of Outlook India Ruben Banerjee, Editorial Di...

A live session from #JaipurLitFest2020. Couturier, costume stylist, entrepreneur and former model Manish Malhotra’s prolific career spanning over 29 years has seen him redefine and reinvent Indian fashion. His quest to combine the best of Indian artistic traditions with a modern expression has rendered an entirely new aesthetic, establishing him as one of the most beloved designers in Bollywood in...

A live session from #JaipurLitFest2020. This session looks deep into the hearts of two of the greatest Urdu poets of the last century,  Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Firaq Gorakhpuri urf Raghupati Sahay. Saif Mahmood, Chinmayi Tripathi, Joel Mukherjee, and Nishtha Gautam in a session of poetic critique, performance, and appreciation.

A live session from #JaipurLitFest2020.  A surprise crossover novella set in a small town in Rajasthan takes us across languages and genres to an essential human story about two sisters and their quarrels. Based on Charan Singh Pathik's short story ‘Do Behnein’, Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaptation Patakha is a comedy-drama that forays into both film and text. An engrossing conversation with Vani Tri...

A live session from #JaipurLitFest2020. Shashi Tharoor is a politician, public intellectual, award-winning author of 19 books of fiction and nonfiction, avid follower of cricket and author of Shadows Across the Playing Field: 60 Years Of India-Pakistan Cricket . Gideon Haigh is an eminent sports journalist and author of Crossing the Line: How Australian Cricket Lost Its Way and From Flock to Baggy...

Hallie Rubenhold, author of "The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 at the Diggi Palace on Jan 27. Hallie Rubenhold is a bestselling author, social historian, broadcaster and historical consultant for TV and film. Her most recent book, The Five, has been won the B...

Anosh Irani, author of "Translated from the Gibberish: Seven Stories and One Half Truth" and "The Parcel", in conversation with jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 27. Anosh Irani’s novel,  The Parcel , was a finalist for the 2016 Governor General’s Literary Award. It was longlisted for the 2017 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and...

Peter Meech, author of "Billy (the Kid)", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 at Diggi Palace on Jan 27. Peter Meech is an author, screenwriter, director and producer.  His memoir, Mysteries of the Life Force: My Apprenticeship with a Chi Kung Master , has been translated into several languages. He has an MA in Communicati...

Stephen Frederic Dale, author of " Babur: Timurid Prince and Mughal Emperor" , in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 in Diggi Palace on Jan 27. Stephen is an Emeritus Professor of South Asian and Islamic History and a Distinguished University Scholar at The Ohio State University. He first visited India in 1963 as a Fulbright Lect...

Rheea Mukherjee, author of "The Body Myth", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 27. Rheea Mukherjee is the author of The Body Myth and was shortlisted for the TATA Literature Live First Book Award 2019. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed, Scroll.in, Electric Literature, Out of Print Magazine an...

As Artificial Intelligence takes over human narratives, Marcus du Sautoy questions the shape of our future. In his book The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think , he expounds on how algorithms work, the nature of creativity and how engineers are tracking our emotional responses to art. In a riveting session, du Sautoy, the Simonyi Professor for Public Understanding of Scie...

Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences 2019 for ‘their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty’ by breaking down a complex problem into ‘smaller, more manageable questions’. Abhijit Banerjee returns to the Jaipur Literature Festival to speak of his RCT research-based approach to development economics. In conversation with...

Ravish Kumar, a much- awarded and fearless journalist, is also the author of tender nano storie  and the Ramon Magsaysay awardee in 2019. In a thoughtful and probing session with writer and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, he speaks of his books and beliefs, his poems and love stories, the compulsions of prime-time news and the duties of responsible journalism.

Deepa Agarwal, author of "Journey to the Forbidden City" and "The Begum", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 26. Deepa Agarwal is an author, poet and translator who writes for both children and adults. She has over 50 published books to her credit and is the recipient of the NCERT National Award for Children’s Literatur...

Ramie Targoff, author of "Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna", in conversation with Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 26. Ramie Targoff’s scholarly area of interest is the English Renaissance with a strong secondary interest in the Italian Renaissance. An award-winning writer, she is the author of three books on Renaissance English literature t...

David Wallace-Wells, Marcus Moench and Navroz K. Dubash in conversation with Prem Jha.  Climate change is no longer impending. We are currently in the throes of a grave environmental, and existential, crisis and frighteningly aware of it. David Wallace-Wells’ latest book, expanded from his viral article in The New York Times , alerts us in unsparing detail to the extent of damage and despair...

Swapan Dasgupta’s recent book Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right draws on a variety of sources to trace the evolution of right-wing thought in India. Citing a spectrum of thinkers and writers, it identifies the significant threads that constitute an ideology that has increasingly gained traction and dominated vote banks across the nation. A spirited conversation that...

Jonathan Phillips, author of "The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 25. Jonathan Phillips is Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of numerous books including The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, Holy Warriors: A Mo...

How did the Constitution of India, the world’s longest one till date and 70 years old in 2020, come into being? In his forthcoming book, Madhav Khosla, Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia Law School, explores the means India's founders used to foster a democratic ethos. The ideas behind this edifying and meticulous document, which lays the foundations of India as a democratic republi...

Rakesh K. Kaul, author of "Dawn: The Warrior Princess of Kashmir", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 25.  Rakesh is an IIT gold medallist, migrated to the US in 1972. He was a founding contributor to the first Chair of India Studies at University of California, Berkeley, the Center for the Advanced Study of India...

Geeta Gopalakrishnan is the Founder and Managing Trustee of Ma Foundation. She has channeled years of advertising experience into fundraising for Sadhana School for Special Children and underprivileged children with cancer. All proceeds of her book My Grandmother’s Tweets go towards MA Foundation, which supports desperate mothers with children afflicted by cancer at Tata Medical Centre in Kolkata....

Harish Bhat, author of "An Extreme Love of Coffee", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2020 on Jan 25.  Harish Bhat is an author, columnist and marketer. He works with the Tata Group. His first book, the bestselling Tata Log continues to enthrall readers with stories from the modern history of Tata. His second book, The Curiou...

A session that searches how to reconcile economic growth with systemic problems of social inequality and environmental unsustainability. Even as millions of young Indians enter the workforce and entrepreneurs strike out in new parts, policymakers face the challenges and responsibilities to create a web of trust that can sustain institutions and processes. A distinguished panel from government, ind...

A woman’s work is never done. Indian women’s participation in the workforce is decreasing steadily, even as figures rise in the rest of the world. A deep discussion on women and work, with anecdotal insights and perspectives, to analyse current realities and ponder how to understand, respect and revive the role of women in the economic sphere. A panel of women from diverse backgrounds, including a...

Writer, politician and public intellectual Shashi Tharoor is the award-winning author of 19 books of fiction and non-fiction. A third-term Member of Parliament, representing Thiruvananthapuram, Dr. Tharoor has served as Minister of State in the Government of India and also as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. His unerring sense of humour lightens up the serious oeuvre of his work, whi...