Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata

Series produced by KALW

Caption: Sandip at the Grand Hotel in Nainital.
Sandip at the Grand Hotel in Nainital. 

Award winning writer, radio host, NPR contributor and novelist Sandip Roy brings his wit and insight to these personal audio diaries from his new life in his old home, India.

After ten years of hosting New America Now, Sandip Roy brings you a little bit of the story of the new India every week – a letter home from his other home.

"A lot has been written about the changing India," says Roy, "but reporting about a changing India is one thing. Living in it and dealing with a country where newspapers are still being launched instead of folding, internet rumors spark mass exoduses, and cricketers advertise skin-whitening creams called Fair and Handsome, that is another thing altogether."


460 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: First Edition Crypto currency Collectibles from Bappi Lahiri , Credit: Image from Bappi Lahiri's Instagram
It’s been a sad 2022 for music in India. Even while India was mourning the loss of its greatest singer, Lata Mangeshkar, the empress of song, it lo...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 22, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
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For Indians Lata Mangeskhar was like Edith Piaf to French or Barbara Streisand to Americans.

  • Added: Feb 15, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: A Saraswati festival in Kolkata bids farewell to her human incarnation Lata Mangeshkar, Credit: Bishan Samaddar
Lata Mangeshkar was the story of independent India. Most Indians had never known an India without her.

  • Added: Feb 08, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: A performance of BonBibbi, Credit: Sandip Roy
It’s Lunar New Year and it’s the year of the tiger! Sandip considers this magnificent creature through the sense of his Indian heritage.

  • Added: Jan 31, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
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Sandip reflects on how literature festivals have mutated during the COVID pandemic.

  • Added: Jan 24, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Sandip Roy and Bishop Tutu in 2008 in San Francisco
If there ever was a life to celebrate rather than a death to mourn it was Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s.

  • Added: Jan 18, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
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When the Sex and City reboot “Just Like That” chose to go multi-culti Indian, they decided to make it a Diwali episode and have Sarah Jessica Parke...

  • Added: Jan 11, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Bollywood composer Bappi Lahiri on the campaign trail with Narendra Modi in the 2014 Indian general election.
While at first film and cinema seemed the ideal way to promote peace between all of the different Indian religious factions, now the relationship s...

  • Added: Dec 27, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
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Sandip is feeling the Christmas spirit in Kolkata.

  • Added: Dec 17, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: A map of the Banda Islands from the book “the Nutmeg’s Curse.”, Credit: Photo by Sandip Roy, courtesy of the author
Writer Amitov Ghosh’s new book explores how the past informs our future, but can we learn from it?

  • Added: Dec 17, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
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Having unique passwords for every account is extremely frustrating but now, along comes the OTP and KYC.

  • Added: Dec 06, 2021
  • Length: 06:04
Caption: Cherry Blossoms in bloom at the venue, Credit: Sandip Roy
A recent trip to the Shillong Literary Festival gives Sandip pause to consider just what was missing for over a year.

  • Added: Nov 30, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
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In a post-pandemic-still-in-a-pandemic world Sandip remembers a homey thanksgiving, even if it was in a land foreign to the concept.

Bought by RadioStPete Florida


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
The New York Times “Spelling Bee” word game really took off during the pandemic lockdown. But Sandip finds the Bee to be a bit exiguous.

  • Added: Nov 16, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: A still from the official ABBA Voyage website, Credit: http://abbavoyage.com
In a bitterly polarized world bristling with fake news, cancel culture and troll armies, Abba reminds us that being likable is not somehow a mark o...

  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Bugarik, a serpent with a human head part of "Ghosts, Monsters and Demons of India.", Credit: Courtesy of the artist, Samita.
First comes Halloween, and a few days later is Diwali (the Festival of Lights) and in between is Bhoot Chaturdashi! When the doors between this wor...

  • Added: Nov 02, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Ruskin Bond's book "When the Night Falls"
He met a pretty girl in Dehra Dun the hill station he lived in. And asked her to tea. And to set the romantic mood he suggested they turn off the l...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 26, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: A guard keeps visitors out of a Pandal during Durga Puja in Kolkata, India., Credit: Sandip Roy
It's Durga Puja time in India and if last year the theme was the disease and the virus this year it’s more about ways to emerge from the pandemic.

  • Added: Oct 19, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Screen shot of Lil Ns X's Instagram account
All over the world we denigrate the importance of the “pursuit of happiness.” It can be seen as selfish and we lead circumscribed lives in order t...

  • Added: Oct 12, 2021
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Anjali Gopalan, the emu-whisperer at All Creatures Great and Small, Credit: Instagram @allcreaturesgreatandsmallindia.
On World Animal Day I think about Anjali Gopalan and her marvelous sanctuary All Creatures Great and Small.

  • Added: Oct 05, 2021
  • Length: 06:00