The Coffee House Experience

Eminent film academician Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay talks about his journey from Engineering to Film studies, the interconnection between society and cinema starting from the "counter-culture era" of 1960s to the more "structured age" of 1990s, en route digressing into the dichotomy of cinema as art and business, impact of popular mainstream cinema, and much more.

Pratyay and Srinjoy elaborately discuss the on-going conflict between Russia and Ukraine with eminent political scientist Rajesh Rajagopalan (JNU). This episode is in English.

SUDEEP CHAKRAVARTY is an award - winning author of bestselling works of narrative non - fiction, including Plassey: The Battle that Changed the Course of Indian History, The Bengalis : A Portrait of Community (shortlisted for The Hindu Prize 2018, and Tata Literature Live! Award 2018). An extensively published columnist, he has over three decades of experience in media. Sudeep has worked with majo...

Prof. Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, a renowned economist from ISI Delhi, known for his works on public education, healthcare and rural employment discusses various issues of public education in India, including the role of public investment, politics, perception of education in society and many other things with Soumik and Pratyay.

While analyzing romantic relationship, friendship and the tradition of informal discussion (Adda) in and around Kolkata, Nabamita Das, a sociologist by training, realized that only a researcher's lens might not suffice to capture the fundamental essence of these intimate human expressions. Instead, she approached these quests within her personal space. Eventually, these quests, along with her musi...

Born in Silchar, and brought up in Kolkata, Ronny Sen's political activism was shaped by the Bengali nationalism of Assam's Barak Valley. Already a renowned photographer, Ronny has recently ventured into film-making, and with his first full-length movie "Cat Sticks" he made a ground-breaking debut. Int his episode he opens up about all of these freely with Srinjoy and Pratyay.

Pratyay, Srinjoy and Soumik chat with one of the most popular independent film makers of Bengal, Pradipta Bhattacharyya about his life, thoughts, views and experience in making cinema.

Universal Basic Income is one of the very few policy proposals, which is supported by many people across the philosophical/political/economic spectrum. However, opinions differ significantly when it comes to implementation, framework and other details. In this episode Prof. Maitreesh Ghatak, (currently at London School of Economics) discusses various aspects of UBI and other things with Srinjoy an...

Diptakriti Chaudhuri, a highly successful marketing professional, maintains an amazing alternative career as a popular writer and blogger, writing regularly about movies, books, Indian societies and more. In this episode Srinjoy and Soumik pick his mind about these two shades of his life. Diptakriti's blog: https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/

In this free-flowing conversation Srinjoy, Pratyay and Soumik discusses their journey starting from Jadavpur University's ETCE department.

It is hard to deny that identity politics has been a mainstay of our polity since the inception of the Indian nation-state. However, can identity per se lend a suitable explanation to a host of social inequities which are a part and parcel of our lived reality? Or will an analysis through the prism of class struggle and the politics around citizenship yield more practicable insights? Adil Hossain,...

Avelo Roy, a serial entrepreneur and an ISKCON follower, talks with Srinjoy and Soumik about his journey in the start-up space and venture capitals which is guided by the principles of Bhagavad Gita. His efforts through Kolkata Ventures in the past 2 years have resulted in 400+ revenue generating startups responsible for around 4500 new jobs created in 10 states of East India. Links: Avelo's Bio:...

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, the eminent journalist explains various aspects of evolution of Indian media landscape starting from after the independence, went through breakthrough periods such as economic liberalization of 1991 and more recently transformed rapidly with the rise of social media and "fake news". Few relevant links: Paranjoy's homepage: https://paranjoy.in/ WIkipedia page on PGT: https:/...

Prof. Janam Mukherjee, who grew up in the US, came to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1999 in his thirties and in search for his root. This journey of him turned out to be his career as well when he pursued his research into finding the history of 1940's Bengal and finding astonishing facts about 1943's Bengal famine. His work on this is documented in his book titled "Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the...

Pratyay and Srinjoy discusses with Debashish Sen Sharma about his journey as a filmmaker and a film academician, recent trends in Bangla cinema etc. Few relevant links: IMDB profile of Debasish Sen Sharma https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7338117/ Chaepani http://www.chaepani.com/ Article titled "Out of the Waiting Room of History: Ritwik Ghatak’s Cinema of Partition" https://lareviewofbooks.org/article...

Dr. Kunal Sarkar talks with Pratyay and Srinjoy about Covid-19's most striking experiences as a health professional, the background of lab-made theory, pertinent policies and politics around it. A few relevant links: Dr. Sarkar’s upcoming book: The Sickness of Health https://www.patrabharati.com/shop/the-sickness-of-health/ The COVID lab-leak hypothesis (Nature article) https://www.nature.com/arti...

Srinjoy and Pratyay talks with Aritra Sen, an engineer turned film producer/director about his amazing journey. Few relevant links: Aritra's IMDB profile: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9263470/ Roadshow films: http://roadshowfilms.in/

Pratyay and Srinjoy discussed Operation Barga of 1978, pertinent policies, background and aftermath. A few relevant resources follow: Srinjoy’s article “An eclectic demystification of Operation Barga” http://plpr-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2015_PLPR_SARC_Ganguly.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0kr7yXhRDRneQKiMCzAQFE7QmUDqk0eNl4NKaTHdUUYZKe2MXLjiL6ZUg Article by Bipab Dasgupta “Sharecropping in West...

Pratyay and Srinjoy discusses with Prof. Subhamoy Maitra on his venture into political analysis from academia, assembly election 2021, political awareness of Bengalis etc. Links: Subhmoy Maitra's homepage: https://isi.irins.org/profile/61161 Neal Koblitz’s homepage: https://sites.math.washington.edu/~koblitz/ Article on food movement of 1959: http://www.mcrg.ac.in/PP56.pdf Article on Leftist organ...

Pratyay and Srinjoy discusses Bengal Assembly Election 2021 with stats, anecdotes and perceptions. A few relevant links: Statistical afternotes ( https://thewire.in/politics/statistical-afternotes-tmc-may-have-won-bengal-but-bjp-did-not-do-badly) Some interesting stats ( https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-assembly-election-2021-trinamool-congress-wins-third-straight-term-in-west-bengal/article3449...

In this episode Pratyay talked with Pratish Datta, a mathematician, specialized in the area of Cryptography. The discussion mostly focused onto his amazing journey as a visual impaired mathematician. They also talked about the tools and technology Pratish uses to perform research and his vision in life. Some relevant links: NTT Research Silicon Valley, CIS Lab ( https://ntt-research.com/cis/) Prat...

In this episode Pratyay talked to Anujit Chakraborty ( https://anujit.ucdavis.edu/about-me), Assistant Prof. of Economics at University of California, Davis. The discussion focuses on several topics, broadly categorized into five parts: Part-1: From Engineering to Economics - 00:24 Part-2: Behavioral Economics - 15:14 Part-3: Economic Decline of West Bengal - 30:30 Part-4: Economic Impact of Covid...