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
Sweet Diwali
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: An array of Diwali sweets., Credit: Sandip Roy
Diwali is not just the Indian festival of lights. It's also a festival of sweets!

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 18, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Plastic Puja
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: The Goddess Durga tackles the evil of plastic pollution in Kolkata, Credit: Anirban
The drums of Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Kolkata calendar finally stopped beating last week. But some are asking about such a big celeb...

Bought by KLCC


  • Added: Oct 11, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Intangible Durga
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Durga Puja as installation art, Credit: Sandip Roy
Durga Puja is Kolkata's biggest festival. But this year its art is more in focus because it's just got the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage tag.

  • Added: Sep 29, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
Cheetahs on a Plane
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: African cheetahs are coming to India where cheetahs have been extinct since 1952., Credit: By Ronny Sen/National Geographic
Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952.  Now they are being brought back from Africa.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 27, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
The East-West Tango
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: A coin of the realm, Credit: Sandip Roy
Watching The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II has been a surreal lesson in post colonial history.

  • Added: Sep 21, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
It's Complicated
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at the Trooping of Colour in 2017, Credit: Niladri Chatterjee
Kolkata was once the capital of British India. And it has a sentimental connection with royalty like the late Queen Elizabeth II. But the history o...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 13, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Uncoupled
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: The landing page for the Netflix series Uncoupled.
Netflix’s new series Uncovered might be referred to as the gay “Sex in the City,” but Sandip Roy finds a reason why everyone can relate to it.

  • Added: Sep 06, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
The Monkeys of Ramayan
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: War of the monkey kings Bali (Abhishek Sharma) and Sugreev (Dinesh Rao), Credit: Kyle Adler
The  Bay Area Indian American theatre group Naatak became famous as "techies doing theatre."

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Aug 30, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Rushdie's fatwa
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Salman Rushdie with Sandip Roy at KALW in 2005, Credit: Eric Wayne
After the recent attack on Salman Rushdie, Sandip Roy reflects on how the fatwa put freedom of expression on the cultural map for so many of us.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Aug 22, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Symbols of Freedom
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Enamelled Figures from British India, Credit: Sandip Roy
India celebrates 75 years of Independence from Britain in a new exhibit called March to Freedom.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Aug 16, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
More Than Just Adivasi
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: President Droupadi Murmu
India refers to its original tribal inhabitants as “Adivasi’s.” Now one, Droupadi Murmu, has ascended to the office of President.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 26, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
The Monsoon Lady
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Sulochana Gadgil, Credit: Sandip Roy
Dr Sulochana Gadgil started studying the Indian monsoon when she was at Harvard in the 1960s. She's been tracking it back in India since 1971. And ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 19, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
The Chettiars
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: A grand hall in Chettinad, Credit: Sandip Roy
The great mansions in the  villages of Chettinad in South India still carry the imprints of the worlds their owners once traversed using Birmingham...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 12, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Soundtrack of Normalcy
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
As the world continues to limp back to a pre-COVID lifestyle, Sandip ponders the markers of “normalcy” in his life in Kolkata.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 05, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Not even a Sandesh
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
Sandip considers the underwhelming response to Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in India.

  • Added: Jun 28, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
India Pride 2022
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: A scene from the film Muhafiz by Pradipta Ray, Credit: Photo courtesy Bombay Berlin Film Productions
Pride in India has come out of the closet and the film world has followed suit.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 21, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
America is a gun
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
While Americans and their politicians argue over gun control, the world view of America is not getting any better.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 14, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Tram Along With Me
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Bikers and a Tram in Kolkata on World Environmental Day, Credit: Sandip Roy
On world Environmental Day, Sandip rediscovers an old transit system that has potential for all of us.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 06, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
The Necessary Truth
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, Credit: University of Michigan
While everyone wants to move on from COVID-19, but professor of epidemiology at Michigan University Bhramar Mukherjee says that the future depends ...

  • Added: May 31, 2022
  • Length: 06:00
Parisian Fairytale
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Sandip in the Paris Metro
This Spring, the Paris Book Fair was finally back in person! But even amidst this Parisian fairytale, reality reared its ugly head.

  • Added: May 24, 2022
  • Length: 06:00

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