Books and Authors

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In this podcast, National Books Editor Manjula Narayan tells you about books, authors and their journeys. This is a Hindustan Times production, brought to you by HT Smartcast

  1. A fight against forgetting

    6D AGO

    A fight against forgetting

    "Comics and literature allow us to enter worlds through our imagination; it is a medium of not-saying. We read because we want to get into the interior worlds of say, a family living in a room in Algiers. Cinema does not give that because the director decides, though TV sometimes does give that. But through comics and literature we get into the extraordinariness of the interior world." - Sarnath Banerjee, author, Absolute Jafar, on writing a Gen X visual history, the changing nature of fatherhood, searching for jinns in Delhi, wandering the streets of Karachi, and sketching in the parks of Berlin   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 hr
  2. A people willing to sacrifice their lives to save nature

    FEB 13

    A people willing to sacrifice their lives to save nature

    "The Salman Khan story reached the headlines and people thought, well, if the Bishnois can go for him so effectively, it's not safe to poach there. It has actually reduced poaching. So many Bishnoi die protecting nature; they will go unarmed against poachers. The Bishnois all share the horror of what Salman Khan did but the Lawrence Bishnoi method is completely the opposite of what the community believes should happen; they don't kill, shoot or cause threat in that way."- Martin Goodman, author, My Head for a Tree; The Extraordinary Story of the Bishnoi, the World's First Eco-Warriors talks to Manjula Narayan about the community whose belief system has nature conservation at its core Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    55 min
  3. Jewellery: Of ornamentation and adornment

    FEB 5

    Jewellery: Of ornamentation and adornment

    "I don't think you will find anyone in India who doesn't wear a piece of jewellery [of some sort]. The Amrapali Collection is a pan Indian one. The jewels in this book are worn by pastoralists, the agricultural communities, the villagers of our country. I look at jewellery as works of art. Our villagers are no longer what they were. So it was important for me to document this art form before it vanishes and the memories of it vanishes. I think every piece of jewellery has a soul and right from birth to death, it is very much a part of our living heritage."  - Usha R Balakrishnan, author, Silver & Gold; Visions of Arcadia, talks to me about the general Indian love for noble metals like gold and silver, our long traditions of finely crafted jewellery, how techniques like granulation and filigree came with the Greeks and minakari with the Portuguese, the belief that gemstones ward off malevolent planetary influences  and "nazar", and how class, caste, ethnicity and marital status and more are conveyed through jewellery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    53 min
  4. Tatti tales: The things you can learn from animal poop

    JAN 30

    Tatti tales: The things you can learn from animal poop

    "Poop acts like social media for many herbivores. Besides, the droppings of whales tackle climate change, while elephant waste helps regrow forests. Wild animal poop is helping science and conservation and is also used in zootherapy" - Shweta Taneja, author, The Big Book of Wild Poop, talks to Manjula Narayan about everything from the finicky housekeeping habits of ants and how some DNA researchers who collect tiger poop say it smells like Basmati rice (!) to the cuboid droppings of wombats, the mosquito repelling properties of cow dung, and how manatee farts keep them afloat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 hr
  5. From poffertjes to perad and pepper water

    JAN 22

    From poffertjes to perad and pepper water

    "I used to be very possessive of my recipes. I didn't want to give them away until a senior chef told me, "Listen, even if you give the recipe, everybody's hand is different; it will not be the same." Then, as time went on, I said, actually, some of these recipes should be preserved and if my children are not going to carry it on then at least other people in the community should know about them. Some of the things that I ate as a child have been totally forgotten. That's when I decided to start writing this book" - Crescentia Scolt Fernandes, author, Tale of Two Kitchens, Talks to Manjula Narayan about the similarities between the Cochin Anglo Indian food of her family and the Goan food of her husband's, the Dutch, Portuguese and, of course, Malayali influences on the food she ate as a child, memories of Vypin island in the mid-20th century, the lost Creole that her parents spoke, and how she and her husband ran the highly successful Bernardo's, the only authentic Goan restaurant in the National Capital Region.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 2m
  6. Reading, writing, rocking

    JAN 15

    Reading, writing, rocking

    "The thing about being a writer is that we write from a sensitive, empathetic place but we are also ruthless in that when we are grieving, we take notes of our grief. Ruskin Bond told me that the best way to write about people is just to live long enough that they all die before you. It succeeded with him; hopefully, it will succeed with me!"- Twinkle Khanna, author, Mrs. Funny bones Returns, talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast about everything from her father's eclectic reading habits and her own love of sci-fi to her dissertation on Alice Munro, how she sometimes wishes she were right wing, and why she doesn't care too much about what people think of her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    48 min
  7. On journeying through life

    JAN 9

    On journeying through life

    "To be alive is, in many ways, to travel; it's to journey through time. We tend to think of travelling as something that involves space or place or geography; moving from one place to another. But the other aspect of travel is just journeying through time; every human being alive journeys through it. I write about journeying through language, grief, parenting...These are universal milestones. I look at them like I look at travel. Trying to be a good traveller can be applied to these other kinds of inner landscapes too. I've travelled so much and I've lived repeatedly in different cities So developing different lenses and multiple perspectives through which to view things just happens unconsciously. As you go to more and more places, you develop more implicit norms. It's an agglomerative, expansive process where you are becoming more and more capacious and more and more able to see things from an insider-outsider perspective; but it's not just one insider and one outsider but multiple insiders and multiple outsiders" - Pallavi Aiyar, author, Travels in the Other Place talks to Manjula Narayan on the Books & Authors podcast about everything from the Japanese idea of mono no aware and attempting to be a Tiger Mom to the parallels between pregnancy and cancer, the power of hair, and the brevity and beauty of life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 3m
  8. Space operas, dystopias, and the perfect worlds of the far future

    JAN 6

    Space operas, dystopias, and the perfect worlds of the far future

    "Science and speculative fiction has always been about responding to the preoccupations of the time. I was attracted to the genre by the imaginative possibilities it offers by allowing the creation of a different world that then lets you shine a light back onto our world. While putting this anthology together we were looking for anything that could broadly fall under the category of spec fic. If could be sci-fi, magical realism, even horror. Indian readers and writers are in a dystopic frame of mind right now. There are specific forms of caste and patriarchy that show up in Indian speculative fiction that makes it different from what's written in the West. Anthologies create a culture where there is space for both readers and writers to explore the genre. It's also a great way of platforming new writers"- Gautam Bhatia, editor, Between Worlds; The IF Anthology of New Indian SFF Vol 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    50 min
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In this podcast, National Books Editor Manjula Narayan tells you about books, authors and their journeys. This is a Hindustan Times production, brought to you by HT Smartcast

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