Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata

They say you cannot ever go home again but as long as there is a paash baalish you can come pretty close. what IS a Paash Baalish? Sandip Roy explains.

As David Attenborough turns 100, Sandip remembers his mother and all the things left to be done.

West Bengal just went to the polls with several million voters struck off the electoral rolls, banished to some kind of limbo land. The Special Intensive Revision or (SIR) process was meant to clean up the voter list. But we will be no nearer a consensus on how to determine what citizenship really means.

It's election time in India and that means noise and songs and speeches. But this year both parties are using fish to prove their local credentials.

Sandip bids farewell to an icon of Inidan cinema and song.

Bengali New Year celebrations are filled with street fairs, noise, colors and.... food. The more deep fried, the better. Sandip partakes in the festivities.

Counting seems simple enough, but when you're counting people other questions arise.

It would seen that in India, at least, there's an acceptence of non-binary people. Ah, but there's always one more box to check.

On a recent trip to San Francisco Sandip reflects on a certian "luxury."

A TikTok video by Madhu Raju, an Indian immigrant in the US on an H1-B visa sparks a lot of controversy, but Sandip wonders, are we missing the point?

Sandip ponders the need to over-explain everything.

Jeffrey Epstein and his connections to rich and powereful people seems never ending, but Sandip wonders if we had been invited onto that gilded island, how many of us would have had the willpower to refuse.

At the Jaipur Literary Festival Sandip considers books and festivals and weather they go together.

We are all a little too sensitive these days. In Kolkata one influencer got a little burnt with his post about being served a wrong dish at a popular restaurant. Sandip considers that maybe we all need to cool down a little.

Saraswati Puja may not be the most well known of India's festivals, but for Sandip it connects him to family long past.

Winter in Kolkata has a sound of it's own, and many reasons to enjoy the outdoors.But, Sandip has seen a troubling trend infringe upon what was once a time of cool reverie.

"Eat your veggies.” That's an order many of us have grown up with. But now a deli in Cornwall in the U.K. wants to have its veggies and eat it too. And let no one else have any.

Sandip reflects on the past year and while reading his mother's diary finds that the real of one's life may be in the smallest of details.

The recent Kolkata Rainbow Pride Walk meant more than just a weekend party to Sandip.

A small state with hilly terrain is turning into India's fruit wine haven. Sandip Roy samples the vintage.

Humans have bounced al over the globe in search of Rubber, but is there an infinite supply or do we need to cultivate a different source.Sandip seaks with Vidya Rajan, adjunct associate professor at the University of Delaware and the author of "Rubber - The Social and Natural History of an indispensable substance."

Thanksgiving was one of Sandip's favorite "American" holidays, now he considers what to give thanks for.

A city with lights galore is proof of how successful and important it is.Yet darkness too is an old friend. Sandip ponders the shadows.

Zohran Mamdani's candidacy to be the next mayor of New York City has had an unexpected side effect.It's been a crash course in South Asian Studies 101 for mainstream America.

Last week was Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. But Sandip Roy grew up with the Goddess Kali.

Sandip discovers that even a city we think we know inside out can surprise us, at night.

Almost every day these days someone on my social media feed shares a picture of their copy of Mother Mary Come to Me, Booker winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy's latest book.Sandip Roy condiders the difficulty in writing about one's own family.

In a city awash with Durgas that bask in the old joys of the past, it's a joy to meet a New Durga imagining a brighter future.

India is apparently the the second most sleep deprived country in the world. 60 percent of Indians routinely getting by on less than 6 hours of sleep. Is it time for National Sleep Guidlines?

Sandip considers the life and death of letters and the service that carries them.

The Kolkata yellow cab has been one of the icons of the city.Bright yellow and rotund, sometimes described as a bowler hat on wheels, based on the Morris Oxford, these were all Ambassador cars. But recently the yellow taxis of Kolkata enjoyed a last hurrah.

Amazon's Great India Festival is coming soon, but with all those deals delivered to you without a care in the world, Sandip condisers the gig-economy behind making your cheap indulgences possible.

It's Ganesh Puja in India. Lord Ganesh is a God who seems like an animator's dream come true, but a God who removes obstacles should be much in demand right now and the last thing we should be doing is treating him like a cuddly toy.

India just celebrated its 79th Independence Day with the usual fanfare on August 15th. But Sandip asks us to remember those that fought without being recognized.

Swayam, a feminist prganization in India, is hoping to make everyone think about "domestic" violence differently.

Civilazation is always in the eye of the beholder, as Sandip was reminded of after Texas Congressman Brandon Gill's recent comment about proper dining etiquette.

The news that there might be a Disneyland spread over 500 acres of Manesar in Gurugram near New Delhi has set social media afire in India.

Sandip journeys to Thrichy in south India where he understands of what's being said around him. And finds it oddly calming.

The Indian community in America is often seen as uncles and aunties who are just interested in Diwali parties and temples and acting as cheerleaders for the government back home.But in 1975 they did step up for democracy.

As another Pride month comes to a close Sandip asks the question is being visible enough?

Language is a loaded thing around the world these days. In the USA Spanish as a language has become a hot button political issue in some parts. But no one has it as bad as India.

When Sandip came to America on his student visa his biggest concern was weather or not to bring a pressure cooker. Today the concern is a bit more than that.