Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata

Series produced by KALW

Caption: Sandip at the Grand Hotel in Nainital.
Sandip at the Grand Hotel in Nainital. 

Award winning writer, radio host, NPR contributor and novelist Sandip Roy brings his wit and insight to these personal audio diaries from his new life in his old home, India.

After ten years of hosting New America Now, Sandip Roy brings you a little bit of the story of the new India every week – a letter home from his other home.

"A lot has been written about the changing India," says Roy, "but reporting about a changing India is one thing. Living in it and dealing with a country where newspapers are still being launched instead of folding, internet rumors spark mass exoduses, and cricketers advertise skin-whitening creams called Fair and Handsome, that is another thing altogether."


459 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Je Suis Dhaka?
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
The Je Suis slogan, once a stirring call for a moment of coming together in protest and solidarity, is well-meaning but has a long lost its meaning.

  • Added: Jul 06, 2016
  • Length: 05:59
What Lies Between Us
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
Every immigrant has a coming to the America memory. Nayomi Munaweera came to America when she was 12. It was the mid eighties. And Duran Duran.....

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Jul 12, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 2
The Sacrifice of Khizr Khan
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Khizr Khan at the DNC Convention
Khizr Khan did something few have been able to do in this bitter and vulgar presidential election.

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Aug 01, 2016
  • Length: 05:59
  • Purchases: 1
Dipa Karmar, India's Pride and Shame
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Dipa Karmakar in Rio
On Sunday night, much of India was watching television with bated breath. All for one young woman at the Rio Olympics. Her name is Dipa Karmakar an...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio, KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Aug 15, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 3
Baluji Shrivastav has an Inner Vision
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Baluji Shrivastav, Credit: Sandip Roy
In India in the 1960s there were few options for a blind child. Blind people often begged in trains and railway platforms singing hymns. But Baluji...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Aug 23, 2016
  • Length: 05:59
  • Purchases: 1
Happy Birthday Mother Teresa
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
Last week Kolkata was busy celebrating a birthday with flowers, candles, cards and songs. It was Mother Teresa’s 106th birthday/ By the time the n...

  • Added: Aug 30, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
Kolkata and the Mother
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Sunita Kumar with her painting of Mother Teresa, Credit: Photo by Sandip Roy
Many would say she’s just being officially canonized, she was always a saint. But over the past week as international media descended on this city ...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Sep 06, 2016
  • Length: 05:58
  • Purchases: 2
Multi-cuisine Madness
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: A sample menu, Credit: Sandip Roy
In a world where consumer choice is deified, multi-cuisine’s stock keeps going up, no matter its quality.

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Sep 13, 2016
  • Length: 05:59
  • Purchases: 1
Suprabhatam (Auspicious Dawn)
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
Most of us around the world wake up to alarm clocks or the clock radio turning on. For decades thousands and thousands of Indians around the world...

  • Added: Sep 20, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
Gandhi the human
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: A statue of Mahatma Gandhi
On October 2 India will mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. South Africans say India gave us Mohandas Gandhi. We returned him as the Maha...

  • Added: Apr 03, 2017
  • Length: 05:59
Gandhi the human
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
On October 2 India will mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. But his status as an icon of humanitarianism may be at risk.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 27, 2016
  • Length: 05:59
  • Purchases: 1
The Mahisasur Mardini of Durga Puja
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
I don’t know how many shoes this old radio program sells. But it can never feel the same as hearing those voices, most of them long dead, bring a c...

  • Added: Oct 04, 2016
  • Length: 05:59
Food Fest! (Diwali 2016)
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
Durga Puja and Diwali bookend our festival season in Kolkata. But there’s an ancillary festival that’s almost as important. It needs as much plann...

  • Added: Oct 25, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
The price tag of Democracy
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
We enjoy many rights and privileges as citizens of a free and democratic society, and we we're asked to do is vote. Easy, right?

  • Added: Nov 08, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
Those Were The Days
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
Sandip visits another "returnee," Nguyen Qui Duc in Vietnam.

  • Added: Nov 15, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
NO Money, money, money
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
A currency note is a promise. The Indian government is holding that promise in abeyance, even breaking that trust, by promising a better future.

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Nov 28, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
What's in an Anthem?
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Indian Flag, Credit: Flicker user Yarat
When you are proud of your country, pride about its national symbols follows naturally. The Indian Court in its wisdom has flipped that equation pr...

  • Added: Dec 06, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
Reflections from Kolkata Pride
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
I hope when equal rights comes, there will still be room for that ambiguity. That we don’t always need to walk in a straight line.

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Dec 12, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Goodbye Carrie
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Caption: Carrie Fisher as Leia and Harrison Ford as Han Solo in "The Force Awakens", Credit: Lucasfilm
There was much more to Carrie Fisher than Princess Leia. But some things, good, bad or simply pop define us as people, and become placeholders for...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Jan 03, 2017
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Turkey for Dinner
From: KALW
Series: Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata
Piece image
It was admittedly a moment of sheer American holiday nostalgia. Cooking a turkey in India. I thought it could be a fun adventure. I just didn’t rea...

  • Added: Jan 09, 2017
  • Length: 06:00

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