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."


471 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Piece image
Ridley Scott's Film Exodus seems to be plagued by something not so Biblical.

  • Added: Dec 09, 2014
  • Length: 05:00
Caption: After My Garden Grows poster
Sandip Roy on the short film "After My Garden Grows" with filmmaker Megan Mylan and Monica Burman who is featured in the film.

  • Added: Dec 02, 2014
  • Length: 05:00
Piece image
Nov. 19th is World Toilet Day, and in developing countries it's serious business.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Nov 18, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Rahul Richard Verma
Rahul Richard Verma would be the first Indian American to be Ambassador to India. Sandip Roy channels the thoughts of ohh about a billion Indians.

  • Added: Nov 11, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Sandip Roy looks at the story behind "Upaj."

  • Added: Nov 04, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Sandip Roy tries to hear through the noise and get to the heart of Diwali.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Oct 21, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzay, Credit: First Post
A joint Nobel Peace Prize for Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi – a Pakistani and an Indian. Now if that doesn’t embarrass the two belligerent...

  • Added: Oct 14, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: The widows of Vrindavan
Some 60 widows in white saris from the town of Vrindavan made thier way to Kolkata for the festival of the Goddess Durga. Something many of them ha...

  • Added: Oct 07, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Mission specialists cheer at ISRO
India's Mangalyaan orbiter has reached Mars, but the mission means as much for the women of India as it does for science.

  • Added: Sep 30, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Thousands of miles from Edinburgh in the heart of Kolkata there remains a piece of land that is indisputably Scottish. Sandip Roy takes us there.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 04:29
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: A Muslim caretaker, Credit: Sandip Roy
Sandip Roy discovers one way in which Jews and Muslims cooperate through generations.

  • Added: Sep 15, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Magen David Synagogue in Kolkata, India, Credit: Ashok Sinha
A Jewish museum just opened in Kolkata. Not a brick and mortar museum, but an online museum.

  • Added: Sep 10, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Shiva Shankar from Hyderabad gets his niece Vaishnavi from Pune to donate rice to a woman who works there
Sandip Roy investigates the latest social media challenge and finds out what all this 'Rice' is about.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Sep 02, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
The Twitter account "RushdieExplainsIndia" has attracted 130,000 followers in a very short time. However it isn't owned by Salman Rushdie, but by R...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Sandip Roy reflects on the meaning, and sound, of India old and new.

  • Added: Aug 18, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Issue No. 36 of "Life With Archie", Credit: archiecomics.com
The Archie comic book character is as American as it gets. But in July of 2014 (Issue No. 36 of "Life With Archie") Archie dies. His death reverber...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Jul 21, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Argentina shrine, Credit: Sandip Raoy
World Cup fever has infected the entire world... including Kolkata, India!

  • Added: Jul 08, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: RD Burman
R.D. Burman would have turned 75 last week and Bollywood threw a great birthday bash. Sandip Roy and Kronos Quartet violinist David Harrington rem...

  • Added: Jun 30, 2014
  • Length: 04:30