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: Pride celebrations in Delhi, Credit: Sandip Roy
The Indian Supreme Court began hearings on July 10 to decide whether Section 377 (which criminalizes homosexuality) of India's constitution violate...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Jul 31, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Ravan Shakes Kailasa, Credit: Photo by Sandip Roy
The chief minister of the Indian state of Tripura reads as fact the great epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Which is like thinking that Ja...

  • Added: Jul 24, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Varkaris in Maharastra, Credit: Sandip Roy
The Varkaris, farmers turned piligrims, are said to be the world’s oldest and largest people’s movement as they walk for weeks from their homes to ...

  • Added: Jul 17, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Football fans in a Kolkata market, Credit: Sandip Roy
Sandip Roy takes in the World Cup festivities and reflects on Russia’s influence on Calcutta.

  • Added: Jul 09, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Shujaat Bukhari, Credit: photo courtesy of Facebook
Shujaat Bukhari spoke to all sides and stayed true to his journalistic calling. He was gunned down in Kashmir on June 14th.

  • Added: Jun 19, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: A photo from the exhibition "Full Moon on a Dark Night" at Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata, Credit: courtesy Soumya Sankar Bose from the show Full Moon on a Dark Night at Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata
This year Sandip Roy sees a new side of queer life in India.

  • Added: Jun 13, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Dr. Homi Bhabha at the Oxford bookstore in Kolkata, Credit: Sandip Roy
The CEO of Tech Mahindra said that the top 10 IT companies in India only take 6% of the engineering graduates. What happens to the other 94% he won...

  • Added: Jun 05, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Travails With the Alien book cover
Did E.T. really come from Calcutta, India?

  • Added: May 29, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Sandip Roy in Hawai'i
Hot lava™. This is a smoky, spicy, garlic salt. But now when I look at my Hot Lava garlic salt I feel a pang.

  • Added: May 22, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Nigel Akkara
This Mother’s Day Sandip remembers Nigel Akkara, who told him about his two mothers.

  • Added: May 15, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
Sandip Roy gets adopted by a neighborhood stray.

Bought by KCPW Salt Lake City


  • Added: May 07, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Need a quick booster shot of national pride? How about a “quote" of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange praising the Indian prime minister? Need to help fome...

  • Added: Apr 30, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was convicted of killing a protected deer, but with the rich and the powerful it’s hard to tell where the buck real...

  • Added: Apr 10, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Seder plate
Sandip enjoys a very diverse passover meal in Kolkata

  • Added: Apr 02, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Selfies abound at Kolkata Starbucks
In Kolkata Starbucks is not just coffee, it’s clearly cachet.

  • Added: Mar 27, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
The Indian Science Minister tried to capitalize on Stephen Hawking’s death, but to what end?

Bought by KZMU Moab Community Radio


  • Added: Mar 19, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
The long shadow of Sir Winston Churchill.

  • Added: Mar 13, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
For a little while, in the hills of Rishikesh, India it will be 1968 again.

Bought by KUFM - Montana Public Radio


  • Added: Mar 06, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: English Vinglish movie poster
Sandip Roy remembers the iconic Indian actress Sridevi.

  • Added: Feb 26, 2018
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
Sandip discovers the Parsee’s of India, and a forbidden fashion technique.

  • Added: Feb 19, 2018
  • Length: 06:00