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."


456 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: The breakdown of Indian-Canadian relations is front page news in India., Credit: Sandip Roy
Khalistan - a word that used to be on the front pages of Indian newspapers in the 1980s has resurfaced in headlines thanks to the diplomatic row be...

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  • Added: Sep 25, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak tours Kolkata's Durga Puja with the widows of Vrindavan. , Credit: Sandip Roy
India’s famous “toilet man,” Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, died last month at the age of 80. But he was far more than just an inventor and business man. Sa...

  • Added: Sep 19, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: The historic Qutb Minar ‘au natural’ and done up for the G-20 summit in Delhi. , Credit: Image by Sandip Roy and sourced from Instagram.
 Joe Biden and other world leaders landed in Delhi to a grand multicolored G-20 welcome. But the beautification of the city left some of its reside...

  • Added: Sep 11, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Tripta Tyagi, the teacher in the eye of the storm in India., Credit: Photo courtesy of News9 TV, India.
This week they celebrated “Teacher’s Day” in India, but this year a teacher is in the news for all the wrong reasons.

  • Added: Sep 05, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: The Indian newspaper The Telegraph covers the death of a teenaged student allegedly because of "ragging" by older students. , Credit: Sandip Roy
The death of a Kolkata teen allegedly because of ragging, or hazing, has re focused attention on bullying in schools and colleges.

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  • Added: Aug 22, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Sandip's mother Reba Roy who saw India become independent reads Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel Independence set in those years., Credit: Sandip Roy
India celebrated its 77th Independence Day this week. Sandip talks to novelist Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni about the turbulent and traumatic years o...

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  • Added: Aug 15, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: The poster from the film “Rocky aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” and a glimpse of a gift shop in Kolkata., Credit: Sandip Roy
Barbie has made the color pink a"thing," but in India a Bollywood film is even more pink and it celebrates a shade of pink called Rani Pink.

  • Added: Aug 08, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
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One of the most memorable lines from Oppenheimer the film comes from the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita. Sandip explains our abiding cultural ...

  • Added: Jul 31, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
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The release of Barbie the movie seems the perfect excuse to look for the origins of patriarchy with science writer Angela D Saini.

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  • Added: Jul 25, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: The Nigiri Mountain train, Credit: Sandip Roy
Sandip takes a ride back in time on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, one of the oldest mountain railways in India and part of the UNESCO World Heritag...

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  • Added: Jul 12, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: The International Year of Millets shared the White House state dinner menu.
The White House state dinner for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi included for the first time millets as the main grain. And that caused quite a...

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  • Added: Jul 03, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: A classic Tupperware Party ad
One of America’s iconic plastic storage devices is still coveted in India. Sandip Roy warmly remembers Tupperware!

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  • Added: Jun 23, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: The South Asian contingent at the San Francisco Pride Parade in 2016 and also the last time I was there during Pride. , Credit: Sandip Roy
At a time when June is celebrated as Pride month both in Kolkata and San Francisco, Sandip reflects on a what it took to reconcile both parts of on...

  • Added: Jun 21, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni with Sandip at the Kolkata Literary Meet in 2023., Credit: Sandip Roy
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a beloved author now but when she started writing about her South Asian community in America in the 90s not everyone ...

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  • Added: Jun 13, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Approaching train at sunset in India. , Credit: Sandip Roy
In the wake of the terrible train accident in eastern India Sandip remembers a gentler kind of train travel in India.

  • Added: Jun 06, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: The cover of Tina Turner’s album “Simply the Best”, Credit: Parlophone Records
Sandip Roy remembers Tina Turner as the only rockstar whose poster he put up in his bedroom as a boy in Kolkata.

  • Added: May 31, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Worshipping the river has become a new choreographed sound and light ritual for tourists. , Credit: Sandip Roy
River towns in India are often temple towns and come with their own rituals.

  • Added: May 22, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: An old Harry Belafonte album cover in Kolkata., Credit: Photo by Bishan Samaddar
Harry Belafonte's death provoked an outpouring of mourning in India though many learned about his civil rights activism only through his obituaries.

Bought by KUFM - Montana Public Radio


  • Added: May 16, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Sandip Roy has made a Coronation Chicken salad but has no plans to make a Coronation Quiche, Credit: Sandip Roy
The coronation of King Charles came with its own special dish - a coronation quiche. But Sandip Roy says that does not have quite the glamour of hi...

  • Added: May 09, 2023
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: A poster supporting California proposition SB403, outlawing caste-based discrimination. , Credit: Sandip Roy
April was Dalit History Month in India. But even though caste-ism is officially outlawed in India, some of the old biases remain.

  • Added: May 02, 2023
  • Length: 06:00