Podcasts about vs naipaul

A version of this essay was published by firstpost.com at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/shadow-warrior-what-zelenskys-debacle-says-about-us-newfound-clarity-13867967.htmlThe tongue-lashing received by Vladimir Zelensky in the Oval Office, in full view of the media, was a point of inflection. It highlighted something that we had suspected: the end of the ‘European Century' (or two or three), wherein they had risen to be the Masters of the Universe. Trump is emphasizing that the Atlantic was a 19th century story; with the rise of the US, the Pacific was the story of the 20th century; and the 21st finds the Indian Ocean rising.Zelensky's debacle was not the only pointer: Keir Starmer of the UK, despite some polite talk about the mythical ‘special relationship', was told sharply by Vance that there is no more free speech in the UK, and that it affects American technology companies and citizens. Let us remember also how Elon Musk lambasted the UK for its Pakistani rape gangs, and the limp-wristed reaction of its authorities. Trump also told Starmer “That's enough!”JD Vance, again, spoke some home truths to the Europeans at the Munich Security Conference, telling them their problems are home-grown: excessive migration, lack of democratic values, and censorship.All this is shocking to the supercilious elites of Europe, who are now seeing their cozy world collapse in front of their eyes: no more free-loading, no more Uncle Sam to the rescue. Suddenly, NATO is meaningless, and decades of Greta Thunberg and V-dem style lecturing, virtue-mongering and pontification are coming back to bite them on the backside.They must be recalling William Blake's apocalyptic vision in The Second Coming. Their world is indeed falling apart.Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.It's hard to blame the Europeans. They have forgotten how it was only yesterday, as it were, that they were being hounded by the Barbary pirates, enslaved and turned into janissaries by the Turks. I read how the author of Don Quixote had been himself captured, enslaved for five years, and ransomed in 1580 for 300 gold coins, worth some $40,000 today.The European Century has made Europeans, and us, Fourth Worlders or those formerly colonized by them (as V S Naipaul put it), forget that Europe is just a backwater, a mere peninsula, an appendage, to Asia. It is now reverting to just “Northwest Asia”. For most of recorded history, Europe was an uncivilized land of savages; it was only the lucky accident of the Industrial Revolution that gave it the wherewithal to dominate the world.But that is in the past: the economic center of gravity of the world has indeed moved from the Atlantic to Asia.Source: The Economist.comThe illusion that America is obligated to support Europe, and also to fight Russia to the bitter end as part of the Cold War, was nurtured by Atlanticist Eastern Europeans exercised by an age-old blood feud: that between the Russian Orthodox Church on the one hand, and Catholics and other Protestant churches on the other hand.Those certainties are now falling by the wayside, as Trump pivots to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as back to isolationist Fortress America. As Zelensky did mention in his tirade, America has the good fortune to have two oceans around it, a serious moat. The US has been gaslighted for a long time by nose-in-the-air Europeans, most especially the mischief-makers at the UK's Whitehall (who are the real Deep State). But that's wearing off, and the blinkers are falling from their eyes. Sadly for Zelensky, he will be the first one affected by this new-found clarity.Zelensky also made several rookie mistakes. First, you don't go to your benefactor's lair (ie. the US Oval Office) dressed in a sweatshirt. Second, you don't talk over Trump. Third, you don't get into a shouting match in English with native speakers when English is your second language: you might miss the nuances of “you don't hold any cards”, for instance. Fourth, and most importantly, you don't trust Starmer, Macron, etc. and take up cudgels with Trump.The near-simultaneous “toolkit” tweets from a lot of EU grandees suggests they gaslighted Zelensky into his suicidal bit of bravado against Trump in the Oval Office. They used the exact same words! And Trump doesn't take slights lightly.The implications are dire. The Ukraine War is as good as over, because the Europeans alone cannot (or will not) supply Zelensky with enough weaponry to hold off Russia indefinitely. The most likely outcome is a ceasefire followed by a standstill agreement: what Ukrainian territory Russia currently holds it will continue to hold; Ukraine will be de jure partitioned. The rest is negotiable.If the Europeans had any sense, they would patch up with Russia. NATO as we know it will come to an end, and EU+Russia is a pretty powerful force, and neither will have to kowtow to China. With the US out of the picture, divided EU and Russia will both fall into the dhritarashtra alinganam of sweet-talking China. To their ultimate detriment, of course.It is good to contrast Trump's treatment of all these Europeans with his much gentler treatment of the Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba, and the Indian PM Narendra Modi, both Quad partners. He was polite and businesslike with them. Also, when a reporter asked about AUKUS, the brain-dead partnership with the UK that Biden dragged another Quad partner, Australia, into, his response was: “What's that?”There were early glimpses of a Trump foreign policy taking shape, as I mentioned in two prior columns: Chronicles of a Foreign Policy Foretold and Trump's America and Modi's India. Now things are clearer: there's a new Sheriff in town, and things are going to be different. But, William Blake notwithstanding, it's not the end of the world. We will all carry on.1000 words, 1 Mar 2025 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

His earlier episodes on this show have been huge hits, and as he completes a trilogy of books, he returns to complete a trilogy of episodes. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 408 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about writing, noticing, painting, travelling, trees, and unfulfilled train journeys. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar, Granta and his own website. 2. The Green Book: An Observer's Notebook -- Amitava Kumar. 3. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar. 6. The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary — Amitava Kumar. 7. My Beloved Life: A Novel -- Amitava Kumar. 8. A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 9. The Trees — Philip Larkin. 10. Before the Storm -- Amitava Kumar. 11. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 12. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 13. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 14. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. ‘Indian languages carry the legacy of caste' — Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt. 16. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Stage.in. 18. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 19. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 20. All About H Hatterr -- GV Desani. 21. From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada -- Sudha Bharadwaj. 22. India is Broken -- Ashoka Mody. 23. Being Mortal -- Atul Gawande. 24. Earwitness to Place -- Bernie Krause interviewed by Erin Robinsong. 25. All That Breathes -- Shaunak Sen. 26. Frog: 1 Poetry: 0 -- Amitava Kumar. 27. The Heat Will Kill You First -- Jeff Goodell. 28. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron. 30. An excerpt from Wittgenstein's diary — Parul Sehgal on Twitter. 31. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein. 32. Burdock -- Janet Malcolm. 33. Hermit in Paris — Italo Calvino. 34. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 36. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 37. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 38. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 39. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 40. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Bhavni Bhavai -- Ketan Mehta. 42. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 43. Secondhand Time -- Svetlana Alexievich. 44. Amitava Kumar's post with Danish Husain's postcard. 45. Fire Weather -- John Vaillant. 46. Ill Nature -- Joy Williams. 47. Hawk -- Joy Williams. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Gulmohar' by Simahina.

In today's episode we hear from a wonderful writer, Elizabeth Buchan. She's been at the top of her game for many years now, and has recently written two books that take the reader to post war France and Italy, with both countries dealing with the trauma of WW2. In the French case, collaboration, and with Italy, the rise of Communism. Elizabeth has been in publishing prior to her writing career, so we'll hear stories of her involvement with writers such as Dirk Bogarde and VS Naipaul. Links are below, including to her bestseller she talks about, the Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman, so what better name for the episode than that! Elizabeth Buchan Links Bonjour, Sophie Two Women in Rome Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman Books Elizabeth mentioned: Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes, by Virginia Nicholson Bad Blood: A Memoir, by Lorna Sage Aspects of History Links Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99 Ollie on X Aspects of History on Instagram Get in touch: history@aspectsofhistory.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente.  Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC 

AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico ⁠cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com⁠ y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente.  Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC 

Laurie wraps up her discussion of VS Naipaul's short story One Out of Many, from In a Free State. The discussion centers around the various forms and impacts of liberal modernity and the dislocations it causes. Hillbilly Elegy bookclub is also briefly mentioned. … More The Fragmented Self in Modern Liberalism (V.S. Naipaul, One Out of Many, 3) & Future Plans

As we get deeper into Santosh's experience, we see the 1968 Washington DC riots through his eyes, as he begins to contemplate his unfreedom in a free country and his equality in inequality. … More Unfree in Freedom/Unequal in Equality (One Out of Many, VS Naipaul 2, The Gap in God’s Country)

Laurie discusses the experience of dislocation and disembedding through a story by V.S. Naipaul, "One Out of Many." The book the story is from is In a Free State, also by Naipaul. … More Dislocation: Alone in the World (One Out of Many/In a Free State, V.S. Naipaul) Gap in God’s Country

AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico ⁠cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com⁠ y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente.  Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/irving-sun/message

WRITERS ARE UNBALANCED PEOPLE. Paul Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer known for his highly personal award-winning observations on many locales. Over 50 works of fiction and travel writing include modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. Theroux's recent book, Burma Sahib, explores Eric Blair's years as a British Raj police officer in colonial Burma that transformed him into the anticolonial writer, George Orwell. "A novelist speculates, and that's my role in life: to invent, to imagine, and to create the person" "The writer is defining himself or herself with each book" "Most of my books are about a person, usually a man somewhat like myself, that needs to solve a problem"

The Caribbean is a region with an incredible history of vibrant cultures blending into each other, which is reflected in so many elements from the food, the local traditions, the music and of course, the literature. Today's guest hails from the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, and the region has clearly left an indelible mark on her writing, infusing it with the rhythms, flavors, and complexities that define the Caribbean experience. Based on the new format of the show, Costa Prize winning author Ingrid Persaud will share four books that have left an indelible mark on her life and work. From literary classics to contemporary gems, these books have shaped her perspective, influencing the stories she tells and the voices she amplifies. In this episode, we also discuss her latest novel, "The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh." Inspired by the true story of the titular Trinidadian gangster from the 1930s to the 1950s, this novel looks at the complex web of relationships surrounding him and the four women who shaped his life. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing society, this novel offers a poignant exploration of love, loss, and redemption, inviting readers to journey through the heartaches and triumphs of its unforgettable characters. The four books that Ingrid Persaud selected were:  A House for Mr Biswas, VS Naipaul (1961) Reading Turgenev, William Trevor (1991) As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner (1930) Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison (1977) If you'd like to get in touch, you can contact me on my Instagram account @litwithcharles and you can also check out my weekly Substack newsletter: https://litwithcharles.substack.com/

Rasheed Griffith discusses the factors impeding progress in the Caribbean and shares his optimism for the region. He identifies the decline in public sector quality since the 1960s as a major obstacle. Transcript and links here. Griffith suggests that reforming the public sector could significantly advance the Caribbean by attracting international talent and improving policy implementation. He also discusses the historical impact of British technocracy in the Caribbean, proposing that adopting a more internationalized public service could be beneficial. Griffith urges a shift towards leveraging global trade for growth. The discussion also touches on the potential of dollarization, the limited utility of charter cities in the Caribbean, and the importance of understanding regional culture through food and history.  “every Caribbean country should be dollarized. No exceptions. Caribbean countries, any small country, there is very little utility of having your own currency except for having the ability of the government to mismanage it at some point in time. And that has historically been the case in the Caribbean, been the case in Latin America, been the case in Europe, Asia, it goes down the line. There is no real extra benefit you have from having your own currency, as a very small country, dependent on a global currency anyway. This manifests even stranger things. So for example, Caribbean still has very harsh capital controls, not all Caribbean, but the ones that have their own currency do, and that limits people's freedom to consume as much as what they want. It also has again, the ever present risk and reality of the government abusing the exchange Abusing money creation tool obviously hurts the exchange rate hurts inflation all those kind of things So when you really look into it, there's no proper counter argument to dollarization to me when someone says What's the counter argument to me? That's like saying what is the argument in favor of having an unsound currency? It's a non starter in that sense.” We talk about culture including reggae, VS Naipaul and Rastafarians. And on food: “when you understand why you, in Barbados, eat curry goat and roti, of course that has a very big impact on how you think about your own history. Jerk chicken, is very famous in Jamaica. I think it's very difficult to get good jerk chicken outside of Jamaica. There are some spots in London that have some good jerk chicken, but usually, if you go to a place that has jerk chicken, it's likely not actually jerk chicken. Any case, even jerk chicken, for example, if you understand how it works is very deeply into how Jamaican history operates. So it came from Mexico after the slaves, this plantation has this thing called Maroon, like free slave holdings in the mountains in Jamaica. And jerk chicken is one of the food products they actually created. It's very, goes really far back. And one of the current ingredients of jerk chicken that we usually use in sauce is soy sauce. Now soy sauce, of course, it's not from Jamaica, it's from China primarily speaking. So you see how the Chinese influence in Jamaica, for example, goes back to the food, like the core Jamaican food has this Chinese influence as well.” We discuss how to assess talent, what questions to ask in an interview and how to be better for interviews.  We play underrated/overrated on: GDP, Universal Basic Income and carbon tax. Griffith shares insights into his creative process and the importance of public intellectual engagement.  Finally we end on some advice thoughts. Advice: "I think people should try to be a lot more public in their thoughts. Writing things online for the public is a nice constrained device."

Gabriel Custodiet speaks for a fourth time with cultural analyst and philosopher Jayant Bhandari. Topics include magical thinking, civilization, Christianity in the Third World, and a tour of the world continent by continent.   Previous episodes with Jayant Bhandari → Episode 46: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O4E6387__U → Episode 77: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OgtTHzE_sk → Episode 84: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pqOVbp0n9A   Guest Links → https://jayantbhandari.com (Use Chrome/Brave if Firefox not working) → https://twitter.com/JayantBhandari5 → https://capitalismandmorality.com/ (as soon as May 25, 2024 in Calgary, Canada) → https://www.youtube.com/@CapitalismAndMorality   Watchman Privacy → https://watchmanprivacy.com → https://twitter.com/watchmanprivacy → https://www.amazon.com/Watchman-Guide-Privacy-Financial-Lifestyle/dp/B08PX7KFS2   Privacy Courses (supports the show) → https://rpf.gumroad.com/l/privatebitcoin → https://rpf.gumroad.com/l/hackproof   Monero Donation (supports the show) →8829DiYwJ344peEM7SzUspMtgUWKAjGJRHmu4Q6R8kEWMpafiXPPNBkeRBhNPK6sw27urqqMYTWWXZrsX6BLRrj7HiooPAy   Bitcoin Donation (supports the show) →https://btcpay0.voltageapp.io/apps/3JDQDSj2rp56KDffH5sSZL19J1Lh/pos   Please subscribe to and rate this podcast wherever you can to help it thrive. Thank you! → https://www.youtube.com/@WatchmanPrivacy  →https://odysee.com/@WatchmanPrivacy   Timeline 0:00 – Introduction 1:38 – Influence of Ayn Rand 3:22 – What is magical thinking? 8:48 – Is the West really the only civilization...ever? 13:25 – What is Christianity in the Third World? 25:30 – Bhopal disaster 31:12 – Indian practice of sati 37:10 – Thoughts on VS Naipaul 39:40 – Indian hospital stories 42:20 – Stereotype that East Asians are not innovative 48:00 – China story 55:12 – What was the Arab Spring really about? 57:40 – Rapid Fire 59:30 – Thoughts on Africa 1:01:50 – Zimbabwe police story 1:02:35 – Witch doctors in Africa 1:05:00 – Update on the PIGS countries 1:07:00 – Jayant's blueprint for colonization 1:08:00 – Final thoughts #JayantBhandari #India #WatchmanPrivacy

In A House for Mr Biswas, his 1961 comic masterpiece, V.S. Naipaul pays tribute to his father and the vanishing world of his Trinidadian youth. Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz in their first of four episodes to discuss the novel, a pathbreaking work of postcolonial literature and a particularly powerful influence on Pankaj himself. They explore Naipaul's fraught relationship to modernity, and the tensions between his attachment to individual freedom and his insistence on the constraints imposed by history. This is an extract from the episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsPankaj Mishra is a writer, critic and reporter who regularly contributes to the LRB. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and two novels, most recently Run and Hide.Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today my guest is Rasheed Griffith, who is the CEO of the Caribbean Progress Studies Institute, the host of the podcast the Rasheed Griffith Show, and one of my favorite writers on Substack. He also directs the Emergent Ventures Africa-Caribbean grants program at the Mercatus Center.  We spoke about whether the former colonizers owe reparations to the Caribbean people, economic divergence in post-colonial Caribbean countries, Caribbean music, homophobia, VS Naipaul, West Indian cricket team, and much more.  Recorded April 4th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:09:37) - Do Former Colonizers Owe Reparations to the Caribbean People? (00:22:29) - The Counterfactual for Caribbean Colonies (00:35:48) - India, Caribbean and Scale (00:40:52) - Is Saint Lucia the Best at Spotting Talent? (00:49:37) - Caribbean Civil Rights Movement (00:58:01) - Innovation in Caribbean Music (01:03:59) - Homophobia (01:13:10) - Most Underrated Caribbean Island? (01:19:05) - V.S. Naipual (01:30:57) - Outro Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rasheed on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Featuring excerpts from V.S. Naipaul's book Among The Believers, this  episode sheds light on the social situation in the Islamic State of Pakistan in the 80s.  Follow me: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/indologia⁠  Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/indologiaa/⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@indologia⁠ Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va55D2lBPzjRND3rPC0A

Writing helps you find yourself, and shape yourself. Nothing illustrates this better than the life & work of our guest today. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen to continue his journaling in the form of this conversation. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar and his own website.. 2. The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary -- Amitava Kumar. 3. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal — Amitava Kumar.. 4. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh. 6. The White Lioness -- Henning Mankell. 7. The Snow in Ghana -- Ryszard Kapuściński. 8. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza. 11. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept -- Elizabeth Smart. 13. Open City -- Teju Cole. 14. Intimacies -- Katie Kitamura. 15. Bradford -- Hanif Kureishi. 16. Maximum City -- Suketu Mehta. 17. The Lonely Londoners -- Sam Selvon. 18. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Alice Munro. 20. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron. 21. Vinod Kumar Shukla on Wikipedia and Amazon. 22. Waiting for the Barbarians -- JM Coetzee. 23. Paris, Texas -- Wim Wenders. 24. Janet Malcolm, Susan Sontag and Joan Didion on Amazon. 25. Iphigenia in Forest Hills -- Janet Malcolm. 26. Butter Chicken in Ludhiana -- Pankaj Mishra. 27. Hermit in Paris -- Italo Calvino. 28. In the Waiting Room -- Elizabeth Bishop. 29. Abandon the Old in Tokyo -- Yoshihiro Tatsumi. 30 The Push Man and Other Stories -- Yoshihiro Tatsumi. 31. Why I Write -- George Orwell. 32. Tum Na Jaane Kis Jahaan Mein Kho Gaye -- Lata Mangeshkar song from Sazaa. 33. Monsoon Wedding -- Directed by Mira Nair, written by Sabrina Dhawan. 34. Ranjish Hi Sahi -- Mehdi Hassan. 35. Ranjish Hi Sahi -- Ali Sethi. 36. Saaranga Teri Yaad Mein -- Mukesh song from Saranga. 37. Mohabbat Kar Lo Jee Bhar Lo -- Song from Aar Paar. 38. Mera Dil Ye Pukare, Aaja -- Lata Mangeshkar song from Nagin. 39. Ranjit Hoskote is Dancing in Chains -- Episode 363 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars -- Kunal Purohit. 41. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche -- Haruki Murakami. 42. UP Girl Challenges CM Yogi To Arrest Her Over Oxygen Shortage -- Mojo Story. 43. Too Many Hurried Goodbyes -- Amitava Kumar. 44. Ways of Seeing -- John Berger. 45. Wheatfield with Crows -- Vincent van Gogh. 46. The Wind -- Warren Zevon. 47. El Amor de Mi Vida -- Warren Zevon. 48. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted -- Episode 200 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma. 50. Range Rover — The archives of Amit Varma's column on poker for The Economic Times. 51. Why I Loved and Left Poker -- Amit Varma. 52. That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen — Frédéric Bastiat. 53. The Bastiat Prize. 54. Kashmir and Article 370 — Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 55. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 56. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 59. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 60. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 61. Listen, The Internet Has SPACE -- Amit Varma. 62. If You Are a Creator, This Is Your Time -- Amit Varma. 63. Thinking, Fast and Slow -- Daniel Kahneman. 64. The Blank Slate -- Steven Pinker. 65. Human -- Michael Gazzaniga. 66. The Undoing Project -- Michael Lewis. 67. The podcasts of Russ Roberts, Sam Harris and Tyler Cowen. 68. Roam Research: A note-taking too for networked thought. 69. The Greatest Productivity Mantra: Kaator Re Bhaaji! -- Episode 11 of Everything is Everything. 70. Natasha Badhwar Lives the Examined Life -- Episode 301 of The Seen and the Unseen. 71. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 72. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window -- Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 73. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 74. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 75. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 76. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay). 77. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri — Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Abhinandan Sekhri). 78. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature — Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 79. Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy — Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen. 80. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 81. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 82. Brave New World -- Hosted by Vasant Dhar. 83. Among the Believers -- VS Naipaul. 84. Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle ka Naata Koi -- Soham Chatterjee sings for his dying mother. 85. Eric Weinstein Won't Toe the Line — Episode 330 of The Seen and the Unseen. 86. Aakash Singh Rathore, the Ironman Philosopher -- Episode 340 of The Seen and the Unseen. 87. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil -- Hannah Arendt. 88. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 89. Particulate Matter -- Amitava Kumar. 90. A Seventh Man -- John Berger. 91. Khushwant Singh and Ved Mehta on Amazon. 92. Disgrace -- JM Coetzee. 93. Elizabeth Costello -- JM Coetzee. 94. Penelope Fitzgerald, VS Naipaul and Ashis Nandy on Amazon. 95. A House for Mr Biswas -- VS Naipaul. 96. Sabbath's Theater -- Philip Roth. 97. Finding the Centre -- VS Naipaul. 98. Dinesh Thakur, not Dinesh Thakur. 99. Rajnigandha -- Basu Chatterjee. 100. Rules of Writing -- Amitava Kumar. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘The Storm Is Inside Me' by Simahina.

Nobel Prize-winning author, V. S. Naipaul, shares and contextualizes selections from India: A Million Mutinies Now in this event from 1991.

In an essay, published in a 1964 edition of The Times Literary Supplement, V S Naipaul wrote:"The language was ours, to use as we pleased. The literature that came with it was therefore of peculiar authority, but this literature was like an alien mythology. There was, for instance, Wordsworth's notorious poem about the daffodil. A pretty little flower, no doubt; but we had never seen it. Could the poem have any meaning for us?"He was talking about the irrelevance of English language education that was bottled in the UK and served up to the colonies. He was speaking of the sensibilities that post-colonial writers must have felt when confronted with the British literary canon as their window to a worldview.He eloquently expressed the perplexity felt by post-colonial writers when confronted with the British literary canon, which had been transplanted to their educational systems. Naipaul's words not only encapsulated the sentiment of those writers but also laid the foundation for the genre known as post-colonial literature.He, along with his contemporaries, emerged as the pioneering voice of post-colonial literature, paving the way for subsequent generations. Yet, even now, the weight of the British canon lingers as a defining aspect of their literary heritage.Today, we have the privilege of introducing you to Ivy Ngeow, a remarkable Malaysian author. She embodies the spirit of this literary fusion, skillfully weaving mystery narratives with a diverse tapestry of multicultural voices. Her latest work, "The American Boyfriend," stands as a testament to her storytelling prowess. This novel traverses the landscapes of the UK and the vibrant backdrop of Florida, offering an authentic and insightful narrative that mirrors the complexities of contemporary life.Join us as we explore the enduring influence of the British canon on post-colonial literature and delve into the remarkable literary journey of Ivy Ngeow, our first Malaysian author on The Literary City.ABOUT IVY NGEOWIvy Ngeow was born and raised in Malaysia. She holds an MA in Writing from Middlesex University, where she won the 2005 Middlesex University Literary Press Prize. Her debut, Cry of the Flying Rhino (2017), was awarded the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong. Her novels include Heart of Glass (2018), Overboard (2020) and White Crane Strikes (2022). She is the commissioning editor of the Asian Anthology New Writing series. The American Boyfriend was longlisted for the Avon x Mushers Entertainment Prize. She lives in London.Buy THE AMERICAN BOYFRIEND: https://amzn.to/3QBJiaZWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!",  where they discuss the phrase  "WATCHING THE PAINT DRY*CONTACT USReach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.comOr here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity Or here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/Background music by Geoff Harvey, Pixabay and Andy Warner, Tunetank

John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

John Plotz of Recall This Book spoke in 2020 with Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar about his marvelous new book on that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul's Journeys. Krishnan sees the “contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the unevenness with which the blessings and curses of modernity were distributed in the era of decolonization. Centrally, Naipaul realized and reckoned with the always complex and messy question of the minority within postcolonial societies. He talks with John about Naipaul's early focus on postcolonial governments, and how unusual it was in the late 1950's for colonial intellectuals to focus on “the discomfiting aspects of postcolonial life….and uneven consequences of the global transition into modernity.” Most generatively of all, Sanjay insists that the “troublesome aspect is what gives rise to what's most positive in Naipaul.” Discussed in the Episode Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country (2012) George Lamming, e.g. (In the Castle of My Skin, 1953) V. S. Naipaul, The Suffrage of Elvira (1957) Miguel Street (1959) Area of Darkness (1964) The Mimic Men (1967) A Bend in the River (1979) V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State (1971) Aya Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) Derek Walcott, “The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory” Nobel Acceptance Speech Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (1989 theoretical work on postcolonialism) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008) Marlon James (eg. The Book of Night Women, 2009) Beyonce, “Formation“ Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961) Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1966) Willa Cather “Two Friends” in Obscure Destinies  Read Here: 43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Why did the Middle East fall behind Europe despite being in a similar state in 1000 AD? How do modern authoritarians benefit from our tendency to falsify our preferences? Timur Kuran joins Amit Varma in episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his learnings from history -- and what they teach us about today. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Timur Kuran on Twitter, Wikipedia, Google Scholar and Duke University. 2. Private Truths, Public Lies -- Timur Kuran. 3. The Long Divergence -- Timur Kuran. 4. Freedoms Delayed -- Timur Kuran. 5. You Will Know Them By Their Unpopular Views -- Bryan Caplan. 6. The Hindu Equilibrium -- Deepak Lal. 7. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy -- Episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. James M Buchanan, Albert O Hirschman, Mancur Olson, Thomas Schelling and Kenneth Arrow. 10. The Logic of Collective Action -- Mancur Olson. 11. Micromotives and Macrobehavior -- Thomas Schelling. 12. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty -- Albert O Hirschman. 13. A Theory of Justice — John Rawls. 14. Anarchy, State and Utopia — Robert Nozick. 15. A Trump wave is on the way (2016) -- Glenn Reynolds. 16. It's Cascading Trump, It's Cascading Modi!  (2016) -- Amit Varma. 17. Instapundit -- Glenn Reynolds's blog. 18. Marginal Revolution. 19. Bari Weiss on Twitter, Substack and her own website. 20. VS Naipaul on Amazon. 21. Solomon Asch's experiments. 22. Irreversible Damage --  Abigail Shrier. 23. Luxury Beliefs. 24. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 25. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 26. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 27. The Beautiful Tree — James Tooley. 28. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 30. The Mystery of Capital — Hernando De Soto. 31. Belling the Cat. 32. Oppenheimer -- Christopher Nolan. 33. Censored -- Margaret E Roberts.. 34. The Art of Not Being Governed -- James C Scott. 35. Domination & the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts -- James C Scott. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘Marketplace of Ideas' by Simahina.

Lo Que Nos Cuenta El Cuento - Man-man de V. S. Naipaul by Radiotelevisión de Veracruz

George Fernandes was an activist, politician, minister, thinker -- and was as complicated as the times he lived in. Rahul Ramagundam joins Amit Varma in episode 327 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his biography of Fernandes, the decades he lived through, and this country that kept changing, changing, changing. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rahul Ramagundam at Jamia Millia Islamia, Amazon, LinkedIn and Google Scholar. 2. The Life and Times of George Fernandes -- Rahul Ramagundam. 3. Gandhi's Khadi: A History of Contention and Conciliation -- Rahul Ramagundam. 4. Including the Socially Excluded -- Rahul Ramagundam. 5. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee). 6. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 7. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 8. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 9. A shoe store brings together two faces of 2002 Gujarat riots -- The Hindu. 10. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma. 11. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 12. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 13. The Decline of the Congress — Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 14. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 15. South India Would Like to Have a Word — Episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nilakantan RS). 16. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma's column on reading. 17. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 18. Love in the Time of Cholera --  Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 19. No One Writes to the Colonel -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 20. The Moon is Down -- John Steinbeck. 21. Is Paris Burning? -- Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. 22. Freedom at Midnight -- Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. 23. Hermann Hesse and Henry Miller on Amazon. 24. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 25. Life among the Scorpions -- Jaya Jaitly. 26. Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru. 27. The Graham Staines murder. 28. Thomas Weber's books on Gandhi. 29. Coomi Kapoor Has the Inside Track -- Episode 305 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor. 31. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 33. A Prisoner's Scrap-Book -- LK Advani. 34. Prison Diary -- Jayaprakash Narayan. 35. The Power Broker — Robert A Caro. 36. Robert A Caro on Amazon. 37. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges. 38. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 39. VS Naipaul on Amazon. 40. Idgah (Hindi) (English) -- Munshi Premchand. 41. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Raw Umber: A Memoir -- Sara Rai. 43. Samuel Huntington on Wikipedia and Amazon. 44. Francis Robinson and Barbara Metcalf on Amazon. 45. India in the Persianate Age — Richard Eaton. 46. The New India Foundation. 47. Weapons of the Weak -- James C Scott. 48. The Causes of the Indian Revolt -- Syed Ahmed Khan. 49. Hind Swaraj — MK Gandhi. 50. Hindutva — VD Savarkar. 51. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 52. Gandhi before India -- Ramachandra Guha. 53. Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World -- Ramachandra Guha. 54. Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Amazon. 55. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘The Fist' by Simahina.

This month on The 1st Draft, Robert and Dominic cover the anniversaries of the Ukraine and Iraq wars, the change in international affairs wrought by the rise of China as a full-spectrum power. They also discuss books by V. S. Naipaul and Tom Holland, and much more.

This essay was published by the indianaffairs.com at https://theindianaffairs.com/en/hindus-the-diaspora-and-the-rishi-sunak-phenomenon/Now that the euphoria over the ascent of Rishi Sunak to the position of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has died down a little, it is worthwhile to consider the implications. On the one hand, there is understandable pride that someone in the diaspora has done well: I remember how delighted all of us were when V S Naipaul got his Nobel Prize in literature. On the other hand, what is the tangible value to India of Sunak's rapid rise to the leadership of what is, let us be honest, a racist, white-supremacist, imperial nation that is staring at the edge of an economic precipice? I was personally relieved a month or so ago when Sunak lost the leadership race to Liz Truss, simply because the rot is so bad in Britain that not even superhuman efforts are going to save the country from ruin.My argument was that Sunak had dodged a bullet: whoever ended up as PM would inherit such an impossible mess, such a tar baby, that they would forever be blamed for it, even if they were innocent bystanders. So why not let someone else, like Liz Truss, fall on the sword? If it were Sunak, not only would he be blamed individually, but also, in priority order a) Hindus, b) Indians, c) brown people, d) Stanford MBAs. It was best all around, I said at the time, to let some white woman be the fall guy, as it were. And we saw exactly what happened to her in 44 days: humiliated, disgraced, kicked out of office, her political career probably ruined forever. The sad thing is that nothing has changed now. After Brexit, the UK is merely a small “tribal”, “bad-toothed”, “flavour-starved” “sub-Scandinavian archipelago” as a hilarious critic on Twitter, @gathara, calls it. His/her “breaking news” about the West is a cheeky microscope turned back on the US, the UK etc by a Kenyan using the same demeaning language Western media uses for the rest of the world. Janan Ganesh, a columnist at the FT, had a good insight: Britain is laboring under the illusion that it is the US, which can wield its currency as a weapon; failing which, it has its military with which to quell challengers. Britain has none of the above. It has also been living beyond its means. Now it is forced to sell its family silver just to survive. As an example, there was a recent accusation that British Air Force pilots were sent to train Chinese pilots; which would likely mean American military secrets were dished out as they went ‘open-kimono'.There is a fair chance that Sunak, too, will go down the same way Truss did, and indeed Boris Johnson did: resigning in disgrace. But in any case, everybody will find their expectations of him will be unfulfilled. Indians naively believe Sunak will be nice to India. On the contrary, his job is to look out for Britain's interests. And he has many constraints on him.For example, Sunak has brought back Suella Braverman, who had been sacked as Home Minister. She  irritated Indians by being an arch-imperialist saying there were too many Indians overstaying their visas in the UK. Surely, he did to ensure domestic support and avoid schisms in his own party. And yes, Braverman is of Indian origin, too. Remember that Rishi Sunak is a Briton and not an Indian, even though he is a practicing and devout Hindu. His personal faith cannot get in the way of his doing his job as PM. In fact, he may even have to be particularly harsh on India to fend off allegations of dual loyalties. I remember Indian managers in Silicon Valley doing the same thing: they were especially hard on their Indian employees just to appear ‘neutral': over-compensation. I am by no means saying that there's nothing to celebrate in Sunak's rise. I am also delighted when Indian-origin people do well in other countries, against the odds. Maybe it is an irrational bout of ethnic pride. And it is true that Indians, especially Hindus, are now becoming more visible in their countries of residence, through hard work and the efforts of ‘Tiger Mothers'. I was reminded of this the other day when searching through my usual podcasts: I came across two Indian-Americans, although based on their accents they are both immigrants. One is the Pulitzer-winning oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee speaking of his new book The Song of the Cell; the other is Nick Santhanam, a Silicon Valley investor and former McKinsey consultant, talking about his new book The Titanium Economy. Then there's the articulate Balaji Srinivasan, a visionary and crypto-evangelist who foresees the rise of distributed ‘network states'. And Saagar Enjeti, who runs an interesting podcast channel.In a sense, Indians are following in the footsteps of Jews: they, too, leveraged their smarts, especially in medicine, finance and cinema, to rise to the top of the heap in the US. Indians are, interestingly, using medicine, finance and technology in their rise to wealth. Incidentally, the only other ethnic-minority PM ever in the UK was Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew. I used to think there would be a natural alliance between Jews and Hindus, especially as both have been under relentless attack by the same Abrahamic groups. India was the only country to never to oppress Jewish residents, too. But now I am not so sure. Maybe it's because Jews are, after all, Abrahamics themselves. And maybe they find themselves in competition with Hindus.I am reminded of various Jews who are not exactly pro Hindu: Wendy Doniger, Sheldon Pollock, Amy Wax (a law professor), Amy Kazmin (former FT bureau chief in India). Kazmin, whom I befriended on Twitter, once gave me the generic equivalent of “But my best friend is a Jew” when I complained about her unsympathetic stance towards Hindus: “But I check my articles with a Hindu Kayastha”. The irony was apparently lost on her. Similarly, Hindus are singularly unfortunate to not have allies, even though we are the last pagans standing. Some Buddhists are strongly anti-Hindu, as in the case of the Rev Zenji Nio, a Japanese. And we know about the Sikh diaspora and its Khalistan obsession. Yes, divide and rule has worked all too well. Be that as it may, personally, I am irrationally happy when fellow-paisanos do well. I celebrated when Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella rose in tech; I was a big fan of the late C K Prahalad. But let us be very clear: while they will do what they can for the mother country, the diaspora are not Indians, and their success is not tied to India. To them, India is increasingly remote, a distant memory. Their reality is America, or wherever they have chosen to make their home. They have no skin in India's game. India will rise mostly based on the efforts of those who live in the country. Rishi Sunak, ironically, has a stake in India because he's married to Infosys Narayana Murthy's daughter Akshata, and she owns about 1% of the company. Sunak is independently wealthy, though, having made his fortune on Wall Street and private equity. But that's about it: we can all be proud of Rishi Sunak, whose Hindu values have enabled him to prosper in a hostile white world, and he is unapologetic about his religion. But his rise to the top of the Anglosphere is not particularly a win for India. India will have to rise based on its own efforts, not because of any favors from anybody. Permanent interests, not permanent friends.1270 words, 6 Nov 2022 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen.

The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up in Trinidad in an Indian immigrant community, and his depiction of colonized peoples has often been harshly judged by critics as unsympathetic, misguided, racist, and sexist. Yet other readers praise his work as containing uncommonly perceptive historical and psychological insight. In V. S. Naipaul's Journeys: From Periphery to Center (Columbia UP, 2020), Sanjay Krishnan offers new perspectives on the distinctiveness and power of Naipaul's writing, as well as his shortcomings, trajectory, and complicated legacy. While recognizing the flaws and prejudices that shaped and limited Naipaul's life and art, this book challenges the binaries that have dominated discussions of his writing. Krishnan reads Naipaul as self-subverting and self-critical, engaged in describing his own implication in what he saw as the malaise of the postcolonial world. Krishnan brings together close readings of major novels with considerations of Naipaul's work as a united project, as well as nuanced assessments of Naipaul's political commentary on ethnic nationalism and religious fundamentalism. Krishnan provides a Naipaul for contemporary times, illuminating how his life and work shed light on debates regarding migration, diversity, sectarianism, displacement, and other global challenges. Professor Sanjay Krishnan is teaches English at Boston University. Gargi Binju is a researcher at the University of Tübingen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

You can lose yourself in cinema -- and you can find yourself in it. Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty join Amit Varma in episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the films in their lives, why we should watch old films, why we should watch new films, why Bollywood and Hollywood and other woods are all great, and why we live in a wonderful technicolor world. This episode is a celebration of cinema! (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Jai Arjun Singh on Twitter and Instagram. 2. Haal-Chaal Theek Thaak Hai -- Subrat Mohanty and Pavan Jha's podcast. 3. Jai Arjun Singh Lost It at the Movies -- Episode 230 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Jabberwock — Jai Arjun Singh's blog. 5. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron: Seriously Funny Since 1983 — Jai Arjun Singh. 6. The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee -- Jai Arjun Singh. 7. Popcorn Essayists: What Movies do to Writers -- Edited by Jai Arjun Singh. 8. The Golden Era -- Subrat Mohanty's YouTube playlist of 100 lesser-known songs from the golden era of Hindi film music (mostly 1935-65). 9. The Unseen Lata -- Subrat Mohanty's YouTube playlist of 54 lesser-heard songs from Lata Mangeshkar, from 1948 to 1976. 10. Old posts by Subrat Mohanty from the Passion For Cinema web archives. 11. Some Spotify playlists, courtesy Nishant Shah, from Haal-Chaal Theek Thaak Hai episodes: 1, 2, 3, 4. 12. Pavan Jha's YouTube channel. 13. The only 1980s Maltova Mum commercial I could locate from the 1980s. (Couldn't find Singer.) 14. Kashmir Ki Kali -- Shakti Samanta. 15. Mughal-E-Azam -- K Asif. 16. Khuda Nigehbaan Ho -- Song from Mughal-E-Azam, sung by Lata Mangeshkar, music by Naushad, lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni. 17. Cinema Paradiso -- Giuseppe Tornatore. 18. Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan -- talk show by Tabassum.  19. Old episodes of Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan with RD Burman, Deepti Naval, Anand Bakshi and Bhupinder. 20. The Indiana Jones and Superman franchises. 21. The Evil Dead -- Sam Raimi. 22. Sam Raimi, Wes Craven and John Carpenter. 23. The Fugitive and The Bodyguard. 24. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Milan Kundera. 25. The Antichrist -- Friedrich Nietzsche. 26. The 400 Blows -- Francois Truffaut. 27. Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom -- Pier Paolo Pasolini. 28. Łódź Film School and Andrzej Wajda. 29. Do the Right Thing -- Spike Lee. 30. On Exactitude in Science (Wikipedia) -- Jorge Luis Borges. 31. Titus Andronicus -- William Shakespeare. 32. A Chess Story (previously published as The Royal Game) -- Stefan Zweig. 33. The World of Yesterday -- Stefan Zweig. 34. The Friday the 13th franchise. 35. Tracy and Hepburn -- Garson Kanin. 36. Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva and Lata Mangeshkar on Spotify. 37. Vijay Anand, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 38. Guide -- Vijay Anand. 39. Kaagaz Ke Phool -- Guru Dutt. 40. Jean-Luc Godard and Federico Fellini. 41. Shankar–Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra, Mukesh, KA Abbas, Ramanand Sagar and Kidar Sharma. 42. Aag, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Awaara, Barsaat and Shree 420.43. Nargis and Nadira. 44. Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh -- Song from Shree 420, sung by Asha Bhosle and Manna Dey, music by Shankar-Jaikishan, lyrics by Shailendra. 45. Orson Welles. 46. Squid Game on Netflix. 47. The Immediate Experience -- Robert Warshow. 48. Dil Dhadakne Do, Luck by Chance and Gully Boy -- Zoya Akhtar. 49. Casablanca -- Michael Curtiz. 50. Yudh and Tridev -- Rajiv Rai. 51. Amit Varma's Twitter threads on the MAMI festival from 2018 and 2019. 52. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 53. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir. 54. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped — Roger Ebert's review of Goodbye Solo. 55. Pauline Kael on Amazon. 56. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. (And Roger Ebert's essay on it.) 57. The Dead — John Huston. 58. In the Bedroom -- Todd Field. 59. Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) and Parineeta (Pradeep Sarkar). 60. Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth. 61. Raag Darbari (Hindi) (English) — Shrilal Shukla. 62. PG Wodehouse on Amazon and Wikipedia. 63. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 64. Dharmyug and Dharamvir Bharati. 65. Andha Yug (Hindi) (English) -- Dharamvir Bharati. 66. Suraj ka Satvaan Ghoda -- Dharamvir Bharati. 67. Gunahon Ka Devta — Dharamvir Bharati. 68. Sara Rai Inhales Literature — Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 69. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 70. Anil Biswas, SD Burman, Chitragupt, Roshan, C Ramchandra and Madan Mohan. 71. Naushad and Aan. 72. Maan Mera Ehsan -- Song from Aan, sung by Mohammad Rafi, music by Naushad, lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni. 73. Sebastian D'Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Ghulam Mohammed and Mohammed Shafi. 74. Khayyam and RD Burman. 75. The Long Tail -- Chris Anderson. 76. The Sound of Music -- Robert Wise. 77. Do-Re-Mi -- Song from The Sound of Music. 78. Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi on Spotify. 79. Tosca -- Giacomo Puccini -- performed at Arena di Verona. 80. Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Lizzo and Billie Eilish on Spotify. 81. About That Time -- Lizzo. 82. Renaissance -- Beyoncé. 83. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil -- Karan Johar. 84. Aar Paar, Geeta Dutt and Eminem. 85. Pet Shop Boys, Guns N' Roses, U2, REM and Stone Temple Pilots on Spotify. 86. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. 87. How This Nobel Has Redefined Literature -- Amit Varma. 88. Mera Joota Hai Japani -- Song from Shree 420, sung by Mukesh, music by Shankar-Jaikishen, lyrics by Shailendra. 89. Sahir Ludhianvi and Majrooh Sultanpuri. 90. Do Bigha Zamin -- Bimal Roy. 91. Dharti Kahe Pukaar Ke -- Song from Do Bigha Zamin, sung by Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar, music by Salil Chowdhury, lyrics by Shailendra. 92. Varun Grover Is in the House -- Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 93. Mondegreen. 94. Tragedy -- Bee Gees. 95. Aap Jaisa Koi -- Song from Qurbani, sung by Nazia Hassan, music by Biddu Appaiah, lyrics by Masth Ali & Shashi Pritam. 96. Ek Akela Is Shaher Mein -- Song from Gharaonda, sung by Bhupinder Singh, music by Jaidev, lyrics by Gulzar. 97. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 98. Amar Akbar Anthony and Andrei Tarkovsky. 99. 2001: A Space Odyssey -- Stanley Kubrick. 100. Mirza Ghalib (and the show on him by Gulzar). 101. Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Girl, Jackson Pollock, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso and the Pre-Raphaelites. 102. The Wire, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. 103. Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino, Coen Brothers and Preston Sturges. 104. Ball of Fire -- Howard Hawks. 105. The Lady Eve -- Preston Sturges. 106. Barbara Stanwyck and Lawrence Olivier. 107. Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock. 108. How to Read and Why -- Harold Bloom. 109. Malayankunju -- Sajimon Prabhakar. 110. Muqaddar Ka Sikandar -- Prakash Mehra. 111. Agatha Christie on Amazon and Wikipedia. 112. Nayak -- Satyajit Ray. 113. Prakash Mehra and Kader Khan. 114. Laawaris -- Prakash Mehra. 115. Don and Majboor. 116. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He's alive! 117. David Cronenberg. 118. Masaan — Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover. 119. Moonlight — Barry Jenkins. 120. Chacha Bhatija, Parvarish, Amar Akbar Anthony and Dharam Veer -- Manmohan Desai. 121. Man, Woman and Child -- Erich Segal. 122. Man, Woman and Child (1983 film) -- Dick Richards. 123. Masoom -- Shekhar Kapoor. 124. Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Mrinal Sen and Robert Bresson. 125. Au Hasard Balthazar -- Robert Bresson. 126. Uski Roti -- Mani Kaul. 127. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 128. Calcutta 71 -- Mrinal Sen. 129. Ivan's Childhood, Solaris and Andrei Rublev -- Andrei Tarkovsky. 130. Stanislaw Lem on Amazon and Wikipedia. 131. Cahiers du Cinéma and Mayapuri. 132. Black Friday and Paanch -- Anurag Kashyap. 133. Navdeep Singh, Sudhir Mishra, Neeraj Ghaywan, Raj Kumar Gupta and Rajkumar Kohli. 134. Nagin and Nagina. 135. Jaani Dushman -- Rajkumar Kohli. 136. Three Colors: Blue -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 137. Three Colors: Red -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 138. Three Colors: White -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 139. The Double Life of Veronique -- Krzysztof Kieślowski. 140. The legendary Babbar Subhash. 141. Dance Dance -- Babbar Subhash. 142. Aagaya Aagaya Halwa Wala -- Song from Dance Dance. 143. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro -- Kundan Shah. 144. Leke Pehla Pehla Pyar -- Song from CID, sung by Shamshad Begum, Asha Bhosle and Mohammad Rafi., music by OP Nayyar, lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. 145. Rote Hue Aate Hain Sab -- Song from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, sung by Kishore Kumar, music by Kalyani-Anandji, lyrics by Anjaan. 146. Kai Baar Yun Bhi Dekha Hai -- Song from Rajnigandha, sung by Mukesh, music by Salil Chowdhury, lyrics by Yogesh. 147. Rim Jhim Gire Saawan -- Song from Manzil, sung by Lata Mangeshkar, music by RD Burman, lyrics by Yogesh. 148. Andrew Sarris and André Bazin. 149. Sergei Eisenstein and the Odessa Steps sequence. 150. Court — Chaitanya Tamhane. 151. Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Shanghai and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! -- Dibakar Banerjee. 152. Jean Renoir. 153. Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu. 154. Tokyo Story -- Yasujirō Ozu. 155. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 156. The 2012 Sight and Sound poll of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time. 157. Early Summer -- Yasujirō Ozu. 158. Make Way for Tomorrow -- Leo McCarey. 159. Citizen Kane -- Orson Welles. 160. Vertigo -- Alfred Hitchcock. 161. Setsuko Hara. 162. Sara Akash -- Basu Chatterjee. 163. Bhuvan Shome -- Mrinal Sen. 164. KK Mahajan. 165. One Cut of the Dead -- Shin'ichirō Ueda. 166. Unsane -- Steven Soderbergh. 167. Promising Young Woman -- Emerald Fennell. 168. Psycho -- Alfred Hitchcock. 169. Hitchcock's Films Revisited -- Robin Wood. 170. Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, Witness, Dead Poet's Society and The Truman Show -- Peter Weir. 171. Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. 172. John Ford and Girish Shahane. 173. Everything is Cinema -- Don Palathara. 174. Hi Mom! -- Brian De Palma. 175. Taxi Driver -- Martin Scorcese. 176. Joyful Mystery -- Don Palathara. 177. The Postman Always Rings Twice -- Tay Garnett. 178. Treasure of the Sierra Madre -- John Huston. 179. Noir's arc - notes on an excellent anthology -- Jai Arjun Singh. 180. Key Largo -- John Huston. 181. Gun Crazy -- Joseph H Lewis. 182. Sullivan's Travels -- Preston Sturges. 183. O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- Coen Brothers. 184. Winchester '73 and Bend of the River -- Anthony Mann. 185. Shaheed (1948) -- Ramesh Saigal, starring Dilip Kumar. 186. Andaz -- Mehboob Khan. 187. Duniya Na Mane -- V Shantaram. 188. Some Like it Hot and Ace in the Hole -- Billy Wilder. 189. Ernst Lubitsch and James Wong Howe. 190. Sweet Smell of Success -- Alexander Mackendrick. 191. Mere Apne -- Gulzar. 192. Haal Chaal Thik Thak Hai -- Song from Mere Apne, sung by Kishore Kumar and Mukesh, music by Salil Chowdhury, lyrics by Gulzar. 193. Mr Sampat -- SS Vasan. 194. Miss Malini -- Kothamangalam Subbu. 195. Mr. Sampath: The Printer Of Malgudi -- RK Narayan. 196. Achhe Din Aa Rahe Hain -- Song from Mr Sampat, sung by Shamshad Begum and ML Vasantakumari, music by Balkrishna Kalla, lyrics by Pandit Indra Chander. 197. Parakh -- Bimal Roy. 198. O Sajna Barkha Bahaar Aayee -- Song from Parakh, sung by Lata Mangeshkar, music by Salil Chowdhury, lyrics by Shailendra. 199. Oonche Log -- Phani Majumdar. 200. Major Chandrakanth -- K Balachander. 201. Jaag Dil-E-Deewana -- Song from Oonche Log, sung by Mohammad Rafi, music by Chitragupt, lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. 202. Birendranath Sircar, RC Boral and Timir Baran. 203. PC Barua, Bimal Roy and KL Saigal. 204. Devdas (1936) -- PC Barua. 205. President -- Nitin Bose. 206. Ek Bangla Bane Nyara -- Song from President, sung by KL Saigal, music by RC Boral, lyrcs by Kidar Sharma. 207. Street Singer -- Phani Majumdar. 208. Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Hi Jaye -- Song from Street Singer, sung by KL Saigal, music by RC Boral, lyrics by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. 209. Wajid Ali Shah. 210. Shatranj Ke Khilari -- Satyajit Ray. 211. Duniya, Yeh Duniya, Toofan Mail-- Song from Jawab, sung by Kanan Devi, music by Kamal Dasgupta, lyrics by Pandit Madhur. 212. Rajnigandha -- Basu Chatterjee. 213. Rajnigandha/राजनीगंधा -- Mannu Bhandari. 214. The Conversation -- Francis Ford Coppola. 215. Deer Hunter -- Michael Cimino. 216. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 217. The Godfather: Part 2 -- Francis Ford Coppola. 218. Sisters -- Brian De Palma. 219. Blow Out -- Brian De Palma. 220. Blowup -- Michelangelo Antonioni. 221. The Long Goodbye and Nashville -- Robert Altman. 222. The Missouri Breaks -- Arthur Penn. 223. The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, What's Up, Doc? and Targets -- Peter Bogdanovich. 224. This is Orson Welles -- Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich. 225. Hitchcock -- Francois Truffaut. 226. Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not  -- Howard Hawks. 227. The Big Sleep -- Raymond Chandler. 228. William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway on Amazon. 229. Johny Mera Naam and Jewel Thief -- Vijay Anand. 230. Sholay -- Ramesh Sippy. 231. Back to the Future -- Robert Zemeckis. 232. Mr India -- Shekhar Kapoor. 233. Rahul Rawail, JP Dutta, Mukul Anand and Rajiv Rai. 234. Hathyar and Ghulami -- JP Dutta. 235. Raat Bhat Jaam Se Jaam Takrayega -- Song from Tridev with galaxy of villains. 236. Naseeb -- Manmohan Desai. 237. Dan Dhanoa, Mahesh Anand, Dalip Tahil and Tej Sapru. 238. The Ramsay Brothers! 239. Don't Disturb the Dead: The Story of the Ramsay Brothers -- Shamya Dasgupta. 240. Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche -- Tulsi and Shyam Ramsay. 241. Veerana -- Ramsay Brothers. 242. Purana Mandir -- Ramsay Brothers. 243. Govinda! 244. Ilzaam -- Shibu Mitra. 245. I am a Street Dancer and Main Aaya Tere Liye from Ilzaam. 246. Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction -- Quentin Tarantino. 247. Halloween -- John Carpenter. 248. A Nightmare on Elm Street -- Wes Craven. 249. Scream -- Wes Craven. 250. Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- James Cameron. 251. Mad Max: Fury Road -- George Miller. 252. Nicholas Cage and Keanu Reeves. 253. Wild at Heart -- David Lynch. 254. Red Rock West -- John Dahl. 255. The Last Seduction -- John Dahl. 256. Edward Norton in American History X and Rounders. 257. New Delhi Times -- Ramesh Sharma. 258. Drohkaal -- Govind Niahalani. 259. Gupt and Mohra by Rajiv Rai. 260. Sonam! 261. Wild -- Nicolette Krebitz. 262. Waves -- Trey Edward Shults. 263. Climax -- Gaspar Noé. 264. Mother! -- Darren Aronofsky. 265 Eho — Dren Zherka. 266. The Magic Mountain -- Thomas Mann. 267. Invisible Cities -- Italo Calvino. 268. Cosmicomics -- Itali Calvino. 269. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller -- Italo Calvino. 270. A House For Mr Biswas -- VS Naipaul. 271. A Bend in the River -- VS Naipaul. 272. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 273. Mrs Dalloway -- Virginia Woolf. 274. To the Lighthouse -- Virginia Woolf. 275. Decline and Fall -- Evelyn Waugh. 276. Scoop -- Evelyn Waugh. 277. Brighton Rock -- Graham Greene. 278. Brighton Rock (1948 film) -- John Boulting. 279. Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis. 280. Lucky Jim -- Kingsley Amis. 281. The Siege Of Krishnapur -- JG Farrell. 282. Alfie -- Lewis Gilbert. 283. Get Carter -- Mike Hodges. 284. Blame it on Rio -- Stanley Donen. 285. Gangs of Wasseypur -- Anurag Kashyap. 286. Tamas -- Govind Nihalani. This episode is sponsored by Capital Mind. Check out their offerings here. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art by Simahina, in a homage to Jackson Pollock.

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah talks to John Wilson about the people, events, and cultural works that have inspired his creativity. Born in Zanzibar, the author and academic came to England as a political refugee at the age of 18, and now holds the post of Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent. Since his first book Memory of Departure in 1987, he has written ten novels including Paradise, which was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1994. When he won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, the citation praised his "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”. Abdulrazak Gurnah discusses his childhood overlooking the main port in Zanzibar, and how his experience of multiple nationalities, cultures and languages inspired some of the themes of identity, belonging and departure that recur in his novels. He remembers the political turmoil and violence in the wake of the 1964 revolution in Zanzibar that saw the overthrown of the Sultan and imprisonment of the government. After travelling to the UK with his brother in 1968, he enrolled as a student in Canterbury, the town in which he still lives and works. Among his most important literary influences is The Mystic Masseur, a comic novel by the Trinidadian author VS Naipaul. Abdulrazak Gurnah also discusses the effect that winning the Nobel Prize has had on his life and work. Producer: Edwina Pitman

A version of this essay was published by firstpost at https://www.firstpost.com/india/75-years-have-midnights-children-come-of-age-11093221.htmlIt is a bit of a coincidence that, just around the 75th anniversary of India gaining political independence from the British, Salman Rushdie should be in the news again, because he was stabbed in Chautauqua, a literary watering-hole in upstate New York. His book Midnight’s Children was, as is well known, a sensation when it first came out some forty years ago, in 1981.The central conceit in the book is that 100,000 children born all over India on or around midnight on August 15th, 1947, are endowed with magical powers. Their lives are an allegory for India’s progress. It is a picaresque romp centered around the protagonist, Saleem Sinai, who can telepathically connect with and organize them. When I first read the book, I was impressed by the verbal pyrotechnics, and more so the clever interweaving of contemporary events into the magical realism of the ‘children’s’ lives. The great human tragedies and triumphs of Bharat, that is India, are a rich mother-lode to mine for fiction, and another example is the re-telling of the Mahabharata by Shashi Tharoor in The Great Indian Novel. But over time, the book’s impact faded for me. Even though I didn’t pay attention to it on first reading it, now I see it as significant that Saleem Sinai’s principal rivals among the children are ‘Shiva’ and ‘Parvati-the-witch’. Interesting choice of names, wouldn’t you say? A bit like Deepa Mehta’s choice of Radha and Sita for Fire, which I criticized as dog-whistle Hindu-hatred at the time in The problem with Fire.Thank you for reading Shadow Warrior. This post is public so feel free to share it.Nevertheless, Rushdie’s and the book’s charm obviously did not fade for the Anglosphere, because it fit into their world-view of India, as an exotic, barbaric country where bizarre things happen. They awarded it a Booker Prize, and later a Booker of Bookers, basically dubbing it the best book to have been written in English in decades. Rushdie rode his new-found stardom to riches and influence, and became a sort of seer on all things related not only to India, but also literature in general. And he physically moved to the Anglosphere, all the better to suit his new status as an oracle. In this he trod a well-trodden path which, for example, Amartya Sen and V S Naipaul also followed. More on that by and by.If I am not mistaken, Rushdie’s output after Midnight’s Children is hit-and-miss. His only other work that gained fame (notoriety?) was The Satanic Verses, but that was for other reasons, not literary merit. Since I haven’t read that book, I have no particular opinion on it, and the politics is anyway complicated because of Shia-Sunni issues and internal Muslim issues of blasphemy. But I am now beginning to wonder if Rushdie is also a one-horse wonder, like Arundhati Roy. I have not read her The God of Small Things, but her trajectory has been similar to Rushdie’s: one hit, instant elevation to global stardom and a bully pulpit from which to spout all sorts of radical ideas. A pliant Anglo media piled on and lionized both, regardless of actual merit. Furthermore, I am struck by the parallels with Amartya Sen, who also parlayed fame from early works into global demi-god status, marriage into the Rothschild empire, and a Nobel Prize (although technically it is only the Swedish bank’s prize for economics). His theories about the ‘Kerala model’ of development turn out to be pure bunkum, but then who’s counting? Which reminds me, I suspect the always au courant Scandinavians will now award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Rushdie as a knee-jerk reaction to the stabbing, as they awarded the Peace Prize to Barack Obama basically because, he was, well…. black. Well, bully for Rushdie!That, of course, is pure speculation. But the comparison with Naipaul is interesting. Both made Britain their home, and both commented on India in less-than-flattering terms. Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness was fierce, disappointed, and condemnatory. But the difference is that Naipaul, over time, became convinced that India was on the rise. Rushdie, so far as I can tell, does not see any future for India, nor anything worth celebrating.Maybe that’s why I like Naipaul, because he agrees with my prejudices; but objectively speaking his writing has greater insight. Here’s an excerpt from Naipaul’s India Today article on the occasion of the 50th Independence Day. I think that within every kind of disorder now in India there is a larger positive movement. But the future will be fairly chaotic. Politics will have to be at the level of the people now. People like Nehru were colonial-style politicians. They were to a large extent created and protected by the colonial order. They did not begin with the people. Politicians now have to begin with the people. They cannot be too far above the level of the people. They are very much part of the people. The Nehrus of the world have to give way now to the men of the people...It is important, in this apparent mess, for two things not to be interfered with. One is economic growth. I would like to see that encouraged in every way. It is the most important news coming out of India, more important than the politics. I would like to see education extended and extended. If this were to happen, and I feel it might, gradually, the actual level of politics will reflect both the economic life and higher level of education.Rushdie doesn’t have that sympathy, nor the realization that there is something behind the chaos. Fair enough, he is entitled to his opinion. But the point at which I personally became annoyed with Rushdie was when he proclaimed (like Macaulay before him) that there is nothing worthwhile in modern Indian-language literature. I knew this to be false because there is proof of existence: I had read O V Vijayan, Thakazhi, S K Pottekkat, Basheer, Anand, and M Mukundan in Malayalam; Ashapurna Devi and Tarasankar Banerjee in translation from Bengali; S L Bhyrappa in Kannada and a host of other world-class writers. For Rushdie to blithely denigrate them all showed both arrogance and ignorance, typical of India’s ‘liberals’. In fact, it is India’s English-language output that is inferior and derivative. With the exception of a few tour-de-force works such as Vikram Seth’s Golden Gate and Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, there’s nothing unique or noteworthy that will stand the test of time. Even Rushdie’s magical realism, I found out, pales before Vijayan’s 1960’s The Legends of Khasak with its shape-shifting odiyans and the disembodied flying oracular head of the ancient magician Kandath Nair; not to mention Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ 1970s English publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude.Thanks for reading Shadow Warrior! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It also turns out that Naipaul was right: 25 years later India is finally on an upward trajectory (that graphic from the FT is interesting, although it misrepresents India’s external boundaries). The colonialists are dead and buried, and ordinary men are now taking India forward. With economic growth, everything comes your way; and yes, the education system still sucks, as it’s infested with English and anti-national woke leftism (alas, also derivative and unoriginal). A Rushdie, steeped in the groupthink of Lutyens and Khan Market, has simply failed to see this, which  may mean he lacks the empathy, understanding, and feelings the greatest writers possess. The children and grandchildren of ‘midnight’s children’, however, see this.And what of the real midnight’s children? Hat tip to @NAN_DINI:  they are honoring the flag. They believe. Now personally, I am a little ambivalent about the ‘fly the flag in every house’ request by Prime Minister Modi. Of course, in my neighborhood in leftist paradise Thiruvananthapuram, hardly anybody took up his clarion call. Besides, I feel a little queasy about the American kitsch of flag-waving jingoism. In addition, flying the national flag from temples bothers me. I believe in the separation of ‘church’ and state; and I honestly think the interference of politicians in temples is an abomination. But I guess this Magnificent Generation that suffered through fifty years of kakistocratic dynasty mis-governance (see my earlier piece The Nehruvian Penalty: 50 wasted years) deserves to be applauded because they still believe. I do, too, but maybe I am an old cynic. I am not as old as them, but I remember suffering through those awful years of PL-480 and war and shortages of everything. I left, but then I returned because I, too, do believe. Giving credit where it’s due, I applaud Rushdie for coming up with the vanity of ‘midnight’s children’ and giving it a lot of airplay. But I’m afraid they, and their children and grand-children, have left Rushdie behind. They have moved on. He hasn’t, like the rest of the Anglo-Mughlai elite. Rushdie, midnight’s child himself, stayed stuck in the past while the others moved ahead. And that can become an avalanche, an irresistible force, if all goes well.1470 words, 18 Aug 2022 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com

Pankaj Mishra's Run and Hide tells a story of modern Indian times, as the hidden pasts of wealthy, Gatsby-style tech entrepreneurs must be reckoned with. And to help put this modern India in context, Dr Pragya Dhital will consider the resonances of the tumultuous period of "The Emergency", the response of the Indian government to a period of "internal disturbance" in the 1970s. She discusses the homemade or samizdat style leaflets which journalists like Ram Dutt Tripathi used to great effect. The cuisine of India is a national symbol around the world, but Dr Sharanya Murali explores how this most traditional artform, cookery, can become iconoclastic when utilised in performance art by the likes of Pushpamala N and Raj Goody. And Dr Vikram Visana will consider populism in India, telling us how differing parties are vying to answer questions of national identity which seem increasingly ill-suited to the challenges facing this modern democracy - and one of the key figures he discusses is KM Munshi. Asked for their key cultural figures of India the panel made some eclectic choices. Seek out the short stories of Ismat Chughtai who endured an obscenity trial for her works, and VS Naipaul was viewed as a great chronicler of a crisis in the Hindu struggle with the modern world. Bilkis Dadi was the most recognisable face of the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the music of Mehdi Hassan was remembered as a culturally unifying force between India and Pakistan. Read more at: https://www.shethepeople.tv/news/shaheen-baghs-bilkis-dadi-on-bbcs-100-women-of-2020-list/ Presented by Rana Mitter Produced by Kevin Core If you want more programmes exploring South Asian culture and history you can find Rana looking at the film Pather Panchali made by Satyajit Ray and the writing of Sunjeev Sahota https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060zmjs Maha Rafi Atal, Anindita Ghosh, Jahnavi Phalkey and Yasmin Khan share their research in an episode called Everything You Never Knew About Indian history https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069yb6k O What a Lovely Savas explores India's First World War experiences https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047zvbj Tariq Ali on the 50th anniversary of 1968 uprisings https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05x9zq2 Rana explores Pakistan politics and water supplies https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s9cg Amitav Gosh on weaving the ancient legend about the goddess of snakes, Manasa Devi into a journey between America, the Sundarbans and Venice https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066px Arundhati Roy https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08slx9t

Life is beautiful, but we are too busy to notice. Writing is one way to capture the world, and to make our journey memorable. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey as an author, journalist, artist, Instagrammer -- and to explain the joys of slow-jamming the news. Also check out:1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar and his own website. 2. The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal -- Amitava Kumar. 3. Husband Of A Fanatic -- Amitava Kumar. 4. A Matter of Rats -- Amitava Kumar. 5. Writing Badly is Easy -- Amitava Kumar. 6. Pyre -- Amitava Kumar. 7. Beautiful World, Where Are You -- Sally Rooney. 8. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Susan Sontag and Joan Didion on Amazon. 10. Dom Moraes, Khushwant Singh and Suketu Mehta on Amazon. 11. Despatches 15: A World of Stopped Watches -- Amit Varma. 12. A Picture of Hell, and No Kerosene -- Amit Varma. 13. Why I Write -- George Orwell. 14. John Berger and William Maxwell on Amazon. 15. Austerlitz -- WG Sebald. 16. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 17. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 18. Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing, Translation, and Crossing Between Cultures — Episode 17 of Conversations With Tyler. 19. The Notebook Trilogy — Agota Kristof. 20. Ved Mehta and VS Naipaul on Amazon. 21. India: A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 22. JM Coetzee, Janet Malcolm, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Pankaj Mishra and Amit Chaudhuri on Amazon. 23. Chandrahas Choudhury at The Middle Stage and Instagram.. 24. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 25. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 26. Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. 27. Letters from a Father to his Daughter -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 28. The Mahatma and the Poet — The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 29. Zadie Smith and Teju Cole on Amazon. 30. Symphony No.3, Op.36 -- Henryk Gorecki. 31. Nehru's Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 32. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 33. Tess of the d'Urbervilles -- Thomas Hardy. 34. Martin Amis on Amazon. 35. The Remains of the Day -- Kazuo Ishiguro. 36. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 37. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 38. Ted Hughes and Colm Toibin on Amazon. 39. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (Jonathan Haidt speaking to host Vasant Dhar). 41. Memories and Things -- Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 42. Rahul Roy (documentary filmmaker) on IMDb. 43. Most of Amit Varma's writing on Demonetisation, collected in one Twitter thread. 44. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 45. The Odd Woman and the City — Vivian Gornick. 46. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 47. Amit Varma's tweet thread about AI writing fiction. 48. I Vitelloni and Amarcord by Federico Fellini. 49. Eho -- Dren Zherka. 50. Charulata and Aranyer Din Ratri by Satyajit Ray. 51. Ashis Nandy on Amazon. 52. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. Prem Panicker in The Windowpane Sessions. 54. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal and Nishant Jain. 55. Hermit in Paris -- Italo Calvino. 56. Sophie Calle on Wikipedia. 57. Sophie Calle and the Art of Leaving a Trace -- Lili Owen Rowlands. 58. Sankarshan Thakur on Amazon and Twitter. 59. Penelope Fitzgerald on Amazon. 60. So Long, See You Tomorrow -- William Maxwell. 61. Citizen: An American Lyric -- Claudia Rankine. 62. Waiting for the Barbarians -- JM Coetzee. 63. Disgrace -- JM Coetzee. 64. Voices From Chernobyl -- Svetlana Alexievich. 65. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 66. English, August: An Indian Story -- Upamanyu Chatterjee. 67. Raag Darbari -- Shrilal Shukla. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

On 17th August, some of the interesting events that took place were: 1908 - First Animated Cartoon Film was released in Paris.  1932 -  Booker prize winner VS Naipaul was born. https://chimesradio.com    http://onelink.to/8uzr4g   https://www.facebook.com/chimesradio/   https://www.instagram.com/vrchimesradio/   Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/chimesradio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nobel laureate Naipaul began his career working in radio for the BBC, and it is also where writer Colin Grant met him towards the end of his life half a century later. How had the giant of Trinidadian literature changed during that time since being told to "write like a West Indian" and quickly becoming the precocious editor of Caribbean Voices? This polemical exploration celebrates his contributions, as well as examining his many contradictions. Seventy-five years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on radio to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and George Lamming - many for the first time. Delving into the BBC's Written Archives, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. This series is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflections on the people behind a landmark institution. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

During his time as a producer on the BBC's landmark radio programme, Henry Swanzy was credited with showcasing some of the 20th century's biggest Caribbean literary voices. His collaborator Gladys Lindo, however, has been forgotten. Academic and writer Jen McDerra finds her hidden in the archives. Seventy-five years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on air to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul - many for the first time. For this series, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. Image: The above photo of Gladys R. Lindo is the first to be featured in the public domain. It was given to Jen McDerra by Gladys' grandaughter in Kingston, Jamaica in June 2021 and is reproduced here with the permission of her family Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

The poet, folklorist and performer ‘Miss Lou' made waves on air on both sides of the Atlantic. Coming to study at Rada in London shortly after WWII, her dialect verse was picked up and celebrated on the BBC through radio programmes like Caribbean Voices. For writer Kei Miller, who lovingly recalls the magic her words worked on his mother, she is rightly seen as a hero back home in Jamaica. 75 years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on radio to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul - many for the first time. Delving into the BBC's Written Archives, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. The result is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflection on the people behind a landmark institution. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Arriving in Britain as part of the Windrush Generation, Andrew Salkey made vital contributions to the BBC's Caribbean Voices programme as a presenter, writer and reader of others work. But author of Rainbow Milk, Paul Mendez, knew little about him before coming across a striking image of man at the centre of the mid-20th century's black literary scene. Here he draws on that picture, following Salkey's journey from reading the work of other authors on air, to penning his own forgotten queer classic, Escape to an Autumn. 75 years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the BBC's Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on radio to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul - many for the first time. Delving into the BBC's Written Archives, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. The result is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflection on the people behind a landmark institution. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson is rightly celebrated for being the BBC's first black producer and founding an innovative radio programme. But why has her own poetry been neglected? Author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, and herself no stranger to the airwaves, Sara Collins goes in search of Marson's voice. 75 years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the BBC's Overseas Service. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul - many for the first time. Delving into the BBC's Written Archives, five writers explore five important literary figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s. The result is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflection on the people behind the landmark institution. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

The Iranian Revolution, locally known as the Islamic Revolution was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the replacement of his government with an Islamic republic under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini. Naipaul captures the immediate change in Iranian landscape right after the revolution in his book Among the Believers. I read out a few pages from the book for you in this podcast.

V S Naipaul's book, Among the Believers, describes a six-month journey across the Asian continent after the Iranian Revolution. V.S. Naipaul explores the culture and the explosive situation in countries where Islamic fundamentalism was growing. In this podcast, I read out the lessons from Malaysia.

An Area of Darkness is a book written by V. S. Naipaul in 1964. It is a travelogue detailing Naipaul's trip through India in the early sixties. In this podcast, I read out a few pages in which he is travelling through Kashmir and witnessing the social and political situation.

India is a complex country. The last few decades have been full of tumult. How does one make sense of it all? Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley joins Amit Varma in episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the many frames he uses to look at our politics, economics, culture and Dilip Kumar. Also check out: 1. Anticipating the Unintended -- Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter. 2. Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, featuring Raghu Jaitley. 3. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, featuring Sanjay Lal. 4. It Happened One Night. 5. Persuasion -- Yascha Mounk's newsletter. 6. The Coddling of the American Mind -- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. 7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 8. Public Opinion -- Walter Lippman. 9. The World Outside and the Pictures in our Heads -- Walter Lippman. 10. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World -- Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 11. Puliyabaazi -- Saurabh Chandra and Pranay Kotasthane's podcast. 12. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? -- Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma). 13. Remembering Frédéric Bastiat (2007) -- Amit Varma. 14. The Candemakers' Petition -- Frédéric Bastiat. 15. Frédéric Bastiat's writings at Bastiat.org and Amazon. 16. Also on Amazon, the books of Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. 17. Imagined Communities -- Benedict Anderson. 18. The First Assault on Our Constitution -- Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 19. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 20. The Emotional Dog and its Rational Tail -- Jonathan Haidt. 21. Political Ideology in India -- Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 22. The Three Languages of Politics -- Arnold Kling. 23. Naya Daur, the anti-Nehruvian film from 1957. 24. Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar In The Life Of India -- Meghnad Desai. 25. The Twitter threads on Mahmood Farooqui by Kavita Krishnan and Audrey Truschke. 26. Misogyny and our Legal System -- Episode 58 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Chandavarkar and Hamsini Hariharan). 27. The Harshacharita of Banabhatta. 28. Murty Classical Library of India. 29. The End of History and the Last Man -- Francis Fukuyama. 30. The Light that Failed -- Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes. 31. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 32. What Really Happened? — Lawrence H White on the 2008 Financial Crisis. 33. Range Rover -- Archives of Amit Varma's poker column for the Times of India. 34. The BJP’s Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 35. How the BJP Wins -- Prashant Jha. 36. The Concept of the Political -- Carl Schmitt. 37. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on Demonetisation, collected in one Twitter thread. 38. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 39. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 40. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 41. Fun Home -- Alison Bechdel. 42. Restaurant Regulations in India -- Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 43. Kalyug -- Shyam Benegal's 1981 film. 44. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 45. Ramachandra Guha on The Seen and the Unseen: 1, 2, 3, 4. 46. The Ideas of Our Constitution -- Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 47. India’s Founding Moment — Madhav Khosla. 48. Jadunath Sarkar, Jagdish Bhagwati and Amartya Sen on Amazon. 49. The Idea of India -- Sunil Khilnani. 50. The Indian Trilogy -- VS Naipaul. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compunds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit has promised to resume The India Uncut Newsletter. So do subscribe, it's free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

“My subject was not my inward self, but…the worlds within me.” Sanjay Krishnan, Boston University English professor and Conrad scholar, has written a marvelous new book about that grumpiest of Nobel laureates, V. S Naipaul’s Journeys. Krishnan sees the “Contrarian and unsentimental” Trinidad-born but globe-trotting novelist and essayist as early and brilliant at noticing the … Continue reading "43 Sanjay Krishnan on V. S. Naipaul: To make the Deformation the Formation (JP)"

Seven decades after Independence, India is still wracked by poverty and strife. Who is responsible? Kapil Komireddi joins Amit Varma in episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen to excoriate every political player of Independent India. No prisoners taken. Also check out: 1. Malevolent Republic -- Kapil Komireddi. 2. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 3. Understanding Gandhi. Part One: Mohandas -- Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 4. Understanding Gandhi. Part Two: Mahatma -- Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 5. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 6. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 7. India's Founding Moment -- Madhav Khosla. 8. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 9. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan). 10. The 2019 Elections -- Episode 122 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sadanand Dhume). 11. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 12. The Emergency -- Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gyan Prakash). 13. Taking Stock of Our Republic -- Episode 157 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 14. A Game Theory Problem: Who Will Bell The Congress Cat? -- Amit Varma. 15. An Area of Darkness -- VS Naipaul. 16. India: A Wounded Civilization -- VS Naipaul. 17. The Discovery of India -- Jawaharlal Nehru.

LISTEN to the FULL episode 3 w/ award-winning writer and political activist, Farrukh Dhondy BELOW! Farrukh Dhondy has lived a fascinating life that continues to be productive and endlessly interesting.In this interview excerpt he reflects upon himself and a handful of other Indian and Indian-origin persons -- VS Naipaul, Shekhar Kapur, AR Rahman -- who have worked at the highest levels of British and Indian arts: film, literature, television.They have been able to win both Oscars and Bollywood awards for films like "Bandit Queen", "Elizabeth", "Mungal Pandey: The Rising". Plus they have award winning work in literature and television in both cultures.This is highly unusual, as it is perhaps unparallelled anywhere that two cultures with such distinct and strong artistic traditions, icons, and languages, have these individuals that can move freely at will between them.Farrukh Dhondy, in fact, was a lynchpin in this development, and shares his insight.

LISTEN to the FULL episode 3 w/ award-winning writer and veteran activist Farrukh Dhondy BELOW!Farrukh Dhondy, the multiple award-winning writer and veteran radical political activist, was extremely close to Nobel Prize winner, Sir Vidia (V.S.) Naipaul, for many years.This is quite curious given their quite opposed, very public political views. Dhondy was a radical socialist and anti-racist campaigner while V.S. Naipaul cast a sharp, critical eye on Third World liberation movements, British socialism, American liberalism, the politics of racial redemption, etc.How did they ever become friends, let alone so close? I got a chance to ask Farrukh Dhondy on my podcast “Independent Thought & Freedom” and was regaled with a hilarious story about the “Jamaican Nat King Cole” that ended up bonding him and Sir Vidia.

LISTEN to the FULL episode 3 w/ writer and political activist Farrukh Dhondy BELOW! Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul strenuously denied allegations by his official biographer, Patrick French, that he had beat and buggered his mistress Margaret Gooding, which was one of the more sensational aspects of his official biography, The World Is What It Is.VS Naipaul allegedly had signed papers giving Patrick French total freedom in writing up the official biography. Accordingly, Naipaul could not say anything about this while he was alive.Naipaul's close friend, Farrukh Dhondy, revealed this in conversation Dr. Kirk Meighoo on his podcast, Independent Thought And Freedom, which was officially launched this month on iTunes. 

Karen Krizanovich explains the appeal of three of the biggest recent hit TV releases still provoking discussion: Bird Box and Sex Education on Netflix, and Bros: After the Screaming Stops on BBC iPlayer.The contemporary video artist Bill Viola has been paired with the Renaissance master Michelangelo in the Royal Academy's new exhibition, Bill Viola/Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth. It sets out to show the preoccupation of both artists with the nature of human experience and existence. Critic Waldemar Januszczak gives his response to the exhibition and its thesis.The Art Fund, the charity that raises money to acquire art for the nation, has revealed that it is to disband its volunteer network by the end of the year. Its director Stephen Deuchar explains the decision.The death has been announced of the great literary editor and writer Diana Athill. She worked with many celebrated authors including Jean Rhys, Molly Keane and VS Naipaul. In recent decades she became known as a brilliant and unsentimental writer of memoir. The writer Damian Barr was a close friend, and reflects on Athill's life and work.Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Edwina PitmanMain image: Bros

Park MacDougald joins Phil and Jake to discuss Virginia Woolf’s “The Modern Essay” and VS Naipaul’s “Jacques Soustelle and the Decline of the West.” Works referenced: Virginia Woolf, “The Modern Essay” “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown” https://www.thoughtco.com/the-modern-essay-by-virginia-woolf-1690207 http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/MrBennettAndMrsBrown.pdf Max Beerbohm, “A Relic,” “Laughter” http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1956/1956-h/1956-h.htm#link2H40001 Daniel Clowes http://www.fantagraphics.com/artists/daniel-clowes/#/category/967 Eliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing https://www.ndbooks.com/book/an-elemental-thing/ Anatole Broyard, Kafka Was the Rage https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/20086/kafka-was-the-rage-by-anatole-broyard/9780679781264/ Hegel, The Phenomenology Of Spirit, Terry Pinkard translation https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel-the-phenomenology-of-spirit/6FEDB42FDEF2E5FF97FEAE0EEEDABE8E woketoddler Claas Relotius’ In Eigener Sache https://magazin.spiegel.de/SP/2017/13/150231550/index.html (For those interested in Relotius’ lies about Fergus Falls, this is from Michele Anderson and Jake Krohn, residents of the town he fictionalized https://medium.com/@micheleanderson/der-spiegel-journalist-messed-with-the-wrong-small-town-d92f3e0e01a7) Flannery O’Connor, “The Nature and Aim of Fiction” https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374508043 Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West http://people.duke.edu/~aparks/Spengler.html Naipaul, The Writer and the World (essays mentioned: “Jacques Soustelle and the Decline of the West,” “A Second Visit,” “Michael X and the Black Power Killings in Trinidad,” “Heavy Manners in Grenada,” “Our Universal Civilization”) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/119643/the-writer-and-the-world-by-v-s-naipaul-edited-with-an-introduction-by-pankaj-mishra/9780375707308/ Mario Vargas Llosa, “El Odio y El Amor” https://elpais.com/diario/1991/12/30/opinion/694047611_850215.html Naipaul, A Bend in the River https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/v-s-naipaul/a-bend-in-the-river/9780330522991 Naipaul, Guerrillas https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/v-s-naipaul/guerrillas/9780330522915 Edward Said, “Intellectuals in the Post-Colonial World.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/40547786 Derek Walcott, Nobel Lecture: “The Antilles: Fragments Of Epic Memory” https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1992/walcott/lecture/ Pablo Mukherjee, “Doomed to Smallness: Violence, VS Naipaul, and the Global South” https://www.jstor.org/stable/20479287 Anatole Broyard, “What the Cystoscope Said” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/20085/intoxicated-by-my-illness-by-anatole-broyard/9780449908341/ Lewis Thomas, “The Lives of a Cell” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/535043/lives-of-a-cell-by-lewis-thomas/9780140047431/ Wesley Yang, “The Face of Seung-Hui Cho” https://nplusonemag.com/issue-6/essays/face-seung-hui-cho/ Audio clips: Excerpt from Kirsten Wever's Librivox recording of Max Beerbohm's "A Relic" https://librivox.org/and-even-now-by-max-beerbohm/ Snowpiercer https://youtu.be/3AIQdfW2Pds Edward Said - A Critique of Naipaul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrcv3DbiIqQ

Farrukh Dhondy, VS Naipaul, and CLR James Shape the World after the End of Colonialism The pioneering British-Parsi writer and political activist, Farrukh Dhondy, speaks about his political and writing career, the impact of the Trinidadian Marxist activist and writer CLR James, Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul, and working at the highest levels of the very different British and Indian arts and film industry. In this context, the extent and limits of globalisation, nationalism, and capitalism are also discussed. A great discussion with some genuinely new information about Naipaul's view of his controversial biography, and CLR James's role in helping Dhondy find his calling as a writer of international importance. 

The work of V.S. Naipaul, who died in August 2018 at age 85, explored the depths of the postcolonial experience, beginning with his youth in his native Trinidad. In 1979, the novelist visited NYU to deliver the New York Institute for the Humanities' James Lectures. In the first of two archival episodes, Naipaul lectures on his experience as a young reader and in the “incomplete space” of the Caribbean and reads from his Booker Prize-winning 1971 novel In a Free State.  Special thanks to DJ Cashmere for his work on this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The work of V. S. Naipaul, who died in August 2018 at age 85, provided an excoriating examination of what it means to be a colonial and postcolonial subject. In 1979, the novelist paid a visit to NYU in order to deliver the James Lectures at the New York Institute for the Humanities. In the second of two archival episodes, Naipaul reads an excerpt from his 1971 novel In a Free State and a passage from his then-just-released A Bend in the River, soon to become one of his most celebrated—and controversial—works. Special thanks to DJ Cashmere for his work on this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Hafta Jairaj Singh, founding editor of DailyO, joins the regular Hafta gang of Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Manisha Pande to discuss the PM's Independence Day speech; what he mentioned, what he missed and what he should have spoken about. V S Naipaul passed away last week and the Internet was flooded with tributes to the writer. Abhinandan asks the panel if he was really a great writer? Abhinandan disagrees. Then the panel moves on to discuss attack on JNU student Umar Khalid outside Constitution Club of India, Narendra Modi's speech claiming a man made tea using gas from gutter sludge and devastating floods in Kerala. Listen up! There's more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week: VS Naipaul leaves a difficult legacy, a disgraced former librarian is profiting off taxpayers, a library shut down 3D printers over guns, printed book sales outpace all other physical media, the FCC (maybe) goes after Alex Jones, a publisher is refusing to bow to President Trump’s demands, and elections in Mali are marred by internet blockages. All this, plus the New York Times Bestsellers, the Amazon Charts, and the latest news from aois21, Literally This Week. aois21 audio would like your help! We are currently conducting surveys of listeners to several of our podcast series. Visit www.surveys.aois21.com or the homepage of each podcast to find the link. It will only take a couple minutes of your time and we will thank you with 21% off any purchase from the aois21 market and enter you for a chance to win a $25 Visa gift card. This episode is brought to you by Audible. Get access to over 180,000 audiobooks with your first month free. Visit www.audibletrial.com/aois21 and your first book is on us! Additional support is provided by Bookbyte. Buy and sell used textbooks today at Bookbyte (https://bit.ly/2OOexMV). This podcast is also brought to you by the stage play of Interlude to Sentimental Me!, the original poetry by aois21 Creative Michael B. Judkins. Tickets start at just $15 with discounts for youth and seniors. Both performances will be at Rosemont Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, PA. Get your tickets from EventBrite today at www.aois21.com/creatives/judkins/ Literally This Week is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, TuneIn, Spotify, Podomatic, and www.audio.aois21.com. You can support this podcast either by buying an ad through Advertisecast, or on the aois21 page on Patreon. For news during the week, follow @aois21 on Twitter. If there’s a story we missed, tweet to us with the #literallythisweek and we’ll check it out.

Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with novels about animals, sex and research (and a few other things)

NL Hafta has gone behind the paywall, but we love our listeners. So, here's a little sneak peek into the complete episode. In this episode of Hafta Jairaj Singh, founding editor of DailyO, joins the regular gang comprising Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Manisha Pande to discuss PM's Independence Day speech, attack on Umar Khalid, Kerala floods, V S Naipaul and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pictured: Aretha Franklin Matthew Bannister on Sir VS Naipaul, the Nobel prize winning author of acclaimed books including "A House For Mr Biswas" and "A Bend in The River". He was a controversial figure who fell out with some of his fellow writers and was accused of cruelty in his relationships. Nan Joyce, who campaigned for the rights of Ireland's travelling people. Winston Ntshona,, the South African actor who won a Tony award for his Broadway performance in Athol Fugard's play "Sizwe Banze Is Dead" but was arrested by the apartheid government on his return home. And the "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin. Producer: Paul Waters Archive clips from: African and Caribbean Writing: A House for Mr Biswas, Radio 4 03/05/1981; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 05/07/1980; Profile, Radio 4 11/05/1984; Omnibus, Radio 1 21/04/1988; Paul Gambaccini: Aretha Franklin Interview, Radio 1 01/01/2000; Night Waves, Radio 3 19/03/2007.

This week it's Eric Lonergan, the financier, economist and philosopher of money. Listeners will remember last year's Bitcoin boom and bust but what next for cryptocurrencies? One day your coins may be able to decide how they are spent. Would that make the world a better place?  Plus: Sameer Rahim on VS Naipaul and Alex Dean on the WTO. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

US writer Meg Wolitzer on her novel The Female Persuasion, Arts News, Vale VS Naipaul, journalists turned novelists Megan Goldin and Ben Doherty on throwing away facts for fiction, Australian Booktubers Piera Forde and Jeann Wong on talking to readers via YouTube.

V.S. Naipaul, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in literature, died on August 11th, 2018, just days before his 86th birthday. The author of such acclaimed novels as A House for Mr. Biswas, the Booker Prize winner In a Free State, and A Bend in the River, and non-fiction works as The Middle Passage and An Area of Darkness, Naipaul also had a well-deserved reputation as a dyspeptic and difficult personality, all of which came to light in the highly regarded memoir, Sir Vidia's Shadow, written in 1998 by his former protégé, the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux, whose three decade friendship with Naipaul had just come to an end. On October 28th, 1998, Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff had a chance to speak with Paul Theroux about his memoir, about V.S. Naipaul, and about the creation of Sir Vidia's Shadow.  Three years after the interview, V.S. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Quoting to the Washington Post, ‘Theroux, who later reconciled with Naipaul, had visited with him recently.“We had some very ups and downs over the years, said Theroux, but there was great satisfaction in reconnecting,” he said. “It took him a long time to make his mark, but when he did, it happened in a big way.”' From the NY Times Obituary on V.S. Naipaul: “The writer Paul Theroux, who was one of Mr. Naipaul's closest friends, had a falling out with Mr. Naipaul not long after the marriage to Ms. Alvi. In his book “Sir Vidia's Shadow” (1998), Mr. Theroux documented the arc of their complicated literary friendship, which began in Uganda in 1966 and ended abruptly in 1997 after Mr. Theroux saw books he had written and inscribed to his mentor listed for sale in an auction catalog. He depicts Mr. Naipaul as a great inspiration as a writer, but also petty, cruel and needy. The two men later reconciled.” From the Washington Post Obituary on V.S. Naipaul “He will go down as one of the greatest writers of our time,” Theroux told The Associated Press during a telephone interview, citing his mastery of writing about families and colonialism. “He also never wrote falsely. He was a scourge of anyone who used a cliché or an un-thought out sentence. He was very scrupulous about his writing, very severe, too.” As his literary stature grew, so did his reputation as a difficult, irascible personality. Naipaul was a private man and did not have many friends, but his personal life entered the public domain when Theroux, whose relationship with Naipaul had soured, published a stinging memoir about Naipaul in 1998. “Sir Vidia's Shadow” described Naipaul as a racist, sexist miser who threw terrifying tantrums and beat up women. Naipaul ignored Theroux's book, but he did authorize a candid biography that confirmed some of Theroux's claims. >> The story of their reconciliation in 2011.         The post Sir Vidia's Shadow, 1998: Paul Theroux discusses V.S. Naipaul (1932-2018) appeared first on KPFA.

In this episode, we pay respect to the late, great literary icon V.S. Naipaul, mention actress Ruby Rose's sudden departure from Twitter and the recently-released HBO TV series "Random Acts of Flyness", and discuss Season 1 of the superhero series "Cloak and Dagger", the dark comedy/thriller "Thoroughbreds", the controversial "Best Picture Film" Academy Award category and the ridiculously absurd closer to the summer blockbuster season: "The Meg". TIMESTAMPS 02:43 - R.I.P. V.S. Naipaul 07:52 - Ruby Rose leaves Twitter 13:15 - Random Acts of Flyness (Season 1 THUS FAR) 17:44 - Cloak and Dagger (Season 1) 43:06 - Thoroughbreds 1:01:51 - Best Popular Film Academy Award 1:22:38 - The Meg BACKING TRACKS: Day Break (feat. Fushou.) - leaf beach BUY THE ALBUM HERE: https://levfbevch.bandcamp.com/album/arrival The Outcast - The Drumlord BUY THE ALBUM HERE: https://bluntshelter.bandcamp.com/album/sons-of-the-city

I helgen dog den nobelprisbelönade brittiska författaren V.S. Naipaul, 85 år gammal. Hör samtal i P1 Kultur om ett författarskap som rymde frågor kring identitet, kolonialism och tillhörighet. Stefan Helgesson, professor i engelska vid Stockholms universitet, gästar programmet. Dessutom i P1 Kultur: för fyra veckor sedan spelades VM-finalen i fotboll i Moskva efter en månads fotbollsfest i Ryssland. Mitt under matchen, inför ögonen på bland andra den ryske presidenten Vladimir Putin, sprang fyra personer i polisuniformer in på planen. Det visade sig vara den ryska performancegruppen Pussy Riot som genomförde planstormningen för att väcka uppmärksamhet kring politiska fångar i ryska fängelser och brott mot mänskliga rättigheter i dagens Ryssland. Pussy Riot blev internationellt kända 2012 när tre av gruppens medlemmar greps efter en regimkritisk protestaktion i en katedral i Moskva. I två längre reportage av P1 Kulturs Fredrik Wadström ska vi följa särskilt en av de i Pussy Riot som för sex år sedan dömdes till fängelse, Masja, eller Maria Aljochina som hon heter. Maria Aljochina var 24 år när hon fick sin fängelsedom och frigavs för drygt fyra år sedan. Hon är fortfarande en politisk aktivist som står på scenen i olika teaterprojekt och driver en organisation för fångars rättigheter. Förra året kom också hennes internationellt uppmärksammade debutbok "Riot Days" som till stor del handlar om hennes tid i fängelse. Programledare: Måns Hirschfeldt Producent: Maria Götselius

On this episode, we focus on the last three sections of Naipaul's novel, "Ivy," "Rooks," and "A Ceremony of Farewell." Within these three sections, we explore the controversy surrounding Naipaul's status as a postcolonial writer, and how such elements are woven into the latter half of "The Enigma of Arrival." As the title says, we also dive into one of our favorite topics - decadence - but also how that can morph into an understanding of flux and transition, and how all of that is brilliantly played with by Naipaul. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode and let us know what you think. write to us at: email - thecasualacademic@gmail.com twitter - @casualacademic instagram - @thecasualacademic or follow us on facebook! Best, Alex & Jake

In Part 1 of the two part extravaganza on V.S. Naipaul's "The Enigma of Arrival," Jacob and Alex compare Naipaul and W.G. Sebald in their style, substance and techniques. They then give their first impressions of parts one and two of the novel and discuss how 'The Journey' is especially poignant. Finally, Alex and Jacob talk about the complications of travel and what people are looking for when they are visiting a new place. We hope you enjoy the episode and let us know what you think. write to us at: email - thecasualacademic@gmail.com twitter - @casualacademic instagram - @thecasualacademic or follow us on facebook!

In light of current events, on this Aside we talk about if we are capable of separating art from the artist, and which mediums allow for an easier (or more difficult) disassociation of a work of art from its creator. We also look head to our new featured author, V.S. Naipaul, and his acclaimed work "The Enigma of Arrival." Join in on the discussion! Do you still stand by Wood Allan's films? Should we boycott Hemingway from our bookshelves? Let us know at - email - thecasualacademic@gmail.com facebook & instagram - @thecasualacademic twitter - @casualacademic Happy Listening, The Casual Academic

9/11 prompts questions about Islam, religion and violence, and the future of religion. Trend setters include the Dalai Lama and Allain de Botton, and Nobel Prize winning VS Naipaul is controversial on multiculturalism. Award winning programs on Buddhism in China and Coffee Sex and Other Addictions are reprised.

9/11 prompts questions about Islam, religion and violence, and the future of religion. Trend setters include the Dalai Lama and Allain de Botton, and Nobel Prize winning VS Naipaul is controversial on multiculturalism. Award winning programs on Buddhism in China and Coffee Sex and Other Addictions are reprised.

Join Matthew Sweet in the Caribbean -- well, not literally but certainly intellectually. He'll be discussing the region's history with the cultural commentator, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, whose new book, Island People, is already being compared to V S Naipaul. Does it make sense to think of the Caribbean as a cohesive region rather than a collection of very individual islands? To help settle this question Matthew and Joshua are joined by Colin Grant, author of I & I - the Natural Mystics and the Jamaican poet and novelist Kei Miller who'll be reading from his acclaimed new novel, Augustown, and his Forward Prize Winning poetry collection, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. To round things off the actor and writer, Lavern Archer and the director, Anton Phillips will be in the studio to let you in on one of the stage's best kept secrets -- the wildly popular vernacular theatre from Jamaica that's been packing out the likes of the Manchester Opera House since the late Eighties. Kei Miller's novel is called Augustown. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's non fiction exploration is called Island People The Caribbean and The World. Colin Grant's book about Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer is called , I &I - The Natural MysticsProducer: Zahid Warley

Karl Ove Knausgaard joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss V. S. Naipaul's “Jack's Garden,” from a 1986 issue of the magazine.

Denis Sampson - author of A Migrant Heart, (see: www.lindaleith.com), an exploration of place and displacement and making sense of the homeplace with literary references including Edna O'Brien, Seamus Heaney, John McGahern, Brian Moore and VS Naipaul

Katarina Taikons barnboksklassiker Katitzi ges ut på nytt. Och det i en tid när romernas situation i hela Europa, återigen, borde ligga högt på den politiska agendan. Vi har läst första boken i Katitzi-serien tillsammans med författaren Pooneh Rohi och dramatikern Erik Uddenberg. Och missa inte vår intervju med Katarina Taikons storasyster, Rosa Taikon. Här berättar hon om verkligheten bakom böckerna, och böckernas betydelse för att förändra verkligheten. Vem läser mest i Sverige? Våra professionella läsare, kritiker, recensenter, lektörer eller lustläsare - hur många sidor handlar det om egentligen? Och hur påverkas livet av att Boken ständigt är högsta prioritet? Vi utser Sveriges Mesta Läsare, och det är någon från den bladvändande gästtrion Magnus Utvik, recensent  i SVT:s morgonsoffa, DNs Lotta Olsson och bokhorabloggaren och läsambassadören Johanna Lindbäck. V S Naipaul är där. Hanif Kureishi är där. Håkan Nesser är där. Och - Sveriges Radios kulturkorrespondent Roger Wilson är där. Var? Jo, på världens största litteraturfestival i Jaipur i Indien. Hör Roger Wilson om vilka samtal som pågår i en annan del av världen.

Katarina Taikons barnboksklassiker Katitzi ges ut på nytt. Och det i en tid när romernas situation i hela Europa, återigen, borde ligga högt på den politiska agendan. Vi har läst första boken i Katitzi-serien tillsammans med författaren Pooneh Rohi och dramatikern Erik Uddenberg. Och missa inte vår intervju med Katarina Taikons storasyster, Rosa Taikon. Här berättar hon om verkligheten bakom böckerna, och böckernas betydelse för att förändra verkligheten. Vem läser mest i Sverige? Våra professionella läsare, kritiker, recensenter, lektörer eller lustläsare - hur många sidor handlar det om egentligen? Och hur påverkas livet av att Boken ständigt är högsta prioritet? Vi utser Sveriges Mesta Läsare, och det är någon från den bladvändande gästtrion Magnus Utvik, recensent  i SVT:s morgonsoffa, DNs Lotta Olsson och bokhorabloggaren och läsambassadören Johanna Lindbäck. V S Naipaul är där. Hanif Kureishi är där. Håkan Nesser är där. Och - Sveriges Radios kulturkorrespondent Roger Wilson är där. Var? Jo, på världens största litteraturfestival i Jaipur i Indien. Hör Roger Wilson om vilka samtal som pågår i en annan del av världen.

Nobel laureate and giant of Western letters, Trinidad-born V. S. Naipaul has excelled in both fiction and non-fiction. His latest book The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief is a travelogue in which Naipaul sets out to discover how far the old Africa's belief in magic has been subverted by the outside world. "I had expected that over the great size of Africa the practices of magic would significantly vary. But they didn’t. The diviners everywhere wanted to ‘throw the bones’ to read the future and the idea of ‘energy’ remained a constant, to be tapped into by the ritual sacrifice of body parts...To witness this, to be given some idea of its power, was to be taken far back to the beginning of things. To reach that beginning was the purpose of my book." In this event from May 2011, V.S. Naipaul talked to Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dame Angela Lansbury on returning to London theatre, Swedish actress Sofia Helin and Danish actor Kim Bodnia from TV show The Bridge; sculptor Richard Deacon on his career and actor Reece Shearsmith discusses his latest post-Gentleman project. Kirsty Lang talks to author Hanif Kureishi about a novel that isn't about VS Naipaul and to actress Isabella Rossellini about dramatising the sex lives of insects

V. S. Naipaul has published more than twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including A House for Mr. Biswas, In a Free State (winner of the 1971 Booker Prize), and A Bend in the River.

Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature, V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad and educated in England. After four years at University College, Oxford, he began to write, and since then has followed no other profession. V. S. Naipaul has published more than twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including A House for Mr. Biswas, In a Free State (winner of the 1971 Booker Prize), A Bend in the River, An Area of Darkness, Among the Believers, and Magic Seeds. His newest book, The Masque of Africa, is due out in October. Sir Vidia Naipaul lives in England with his wife, Nadira Naipaul.

V. S. Naipaul has published more than twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including A House for Mr. Biswas, In a Free State (winner of the 1971 Booker Prize), and A Bend in the River.

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer and book editor Diana Athill. For nearly 50 years Diana Athill was involved in every aspect of publishing, from editing and even completely rewriting books to drawing adverts, designing covers and nursing authors for the publishing house Andre Deutsch. They published some of the greatest names of the 20th century, including Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac, VS Naipaul and Jean Rhys.Her career has been remarkable, but it was one that she fell into after her original plans for marriage and children fell through. Now aged 86, she is still writing and her novel Make Believe is being republished this autumn - and she still visits the Norfolk estate owned by her family where she spent so much time as a girl riding horses.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: O Glucklich Paar by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Luxury: Her own bed

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer and book editor Diana Athill. For nearly 50 years Diana Athill was involved in every aspect of publishing, from editing and even completely rewriting books to drawing adverts, designing covers and nursing authors for the publishing house Andre Deutsch. They published some of the greatest names of the 20th century, including Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac, VS Naipaul and Jean Rhys. Her career has been remarkable, but it was one that she fell into after her original plans for marriage and children fell through. Now aged 86, she is still writing and her novel Make Believe is being republished this autumn - and she still visits the Norfolk estate owned by her family where she spent so much time as a girl riding horses. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: O Glucklich Paar by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Luxury: Her own bed

Nobel Prize winner V. S Naipaul discussess his book 'A House for Mr Biswas' with an audience of World Service listeners. Presented by Harriett Gilbert. (Photo: VS Naipaul, Credit: Press Association)

Roy Plomley's castaway is writer V S Naipaul.Favourite track: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Teach yourself mathematics Luxury: The Enlightened Buddha

Roy Plomley's castaway is writer V S Naipaul. Favourite track: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Teach yourself mathematics Luxury: The Enlightened Buddha