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
Caption: Modi and Zuckerberg
Is net neutrality just a right for the West and a luxury for the rest. And must poor countries be told, be grateful, half an internet is better tha...

  • Added: Jan 04, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Montoo at the oven, Credit: Sandip Roy
It’s hardly Santaland but as Christmas approaches Montoo’s bakery, in a dingy lane in central Kolkata, is one of the city's hottest addresses.

  • Added: Dec 16, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Suzette Jordan
Justice has finally come for Suzette Jordan.Though she was not there to witness it. In 2013 she became the face of rape in Kolkata, India. Her att...

  • Added: Dec 14, 2015
  • Length: 05:59
Caption: Sanjay's Super Team, Credit: Pixar
Sanjay’s Super Team -- the first Pixar film directed by a person of Indian heritage. The first Pixar film with a central character who is a person ...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Nov 30, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Sandip Roy gets virtually stranded in Bangladesh at the Dhaka Lit. Fest.

  • Added: Nov 23, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
I will not overlay my Facebook profile picture with the French tricolor.

  • Added: Nov 16, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Diwali Sweets
It’s like saying "I don’t like Christmas." But Sandip Roy has never been particularly fond of Diwali.

  • Added: Nov 11, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
In an India bristling with news about beef raids, vegetarian only housing societies and animal slaughter bans, being vegetarian has started soundin...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Nov 03, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Old Monk Rum
The Old Monk is dying!? Not that kind of monk, it’s a rum. Not just A rum. The iconic Indian rum. A rite of passage for Indians for the last 6 de...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Mohamad Akhlaq
After it was posted on WhatsApp that Aklhaq Mohmamad's family was eating beef a mob beat and stoned him to death. But what was the mob being fed?

  • Added: Oct 06, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
When Narendra Modi came by last week to the Bay Area the titans of tech pulled out all stops to give him a red carpet welcome. Amidst all this jub...

  • Added: Sep 30, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Ahmed Muhamed
Mahesh Sharma, India’s Culture minister, and a high school in Irving, Texas have more in common than they realize.

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Sep 22, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Sandip Roy never learned how to fly a kite, and he regrets it every September.

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Sep 15, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Aylan and Galib Kurdi
We are inundated by a circus of gratuitous and salacious images in our media everyday, but one recent photograph has cut through the clutter.

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Sep 08, 2015
  • Length: 05:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
When Hardik Patel got 600,000 people to show up at a rally in Ahmedabadn in his native Gujarat everyone sat up and noticed. But his reservation mo...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Sep 01, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Jimmy Carter
The secrecy around an illness can become the great taboo. What Jimmy Carter did by going public was break that taboo and face the disease squarely....

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Aug 25, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
An iconic Indian "Bollywood" film reminds Sandip Roy that a solid relationship can transcend the oceanic gap of language.

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Aug 18, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
A beloved Old Monk is dying in India. Not that kind of monk, it’s a rum. Not just A rum. The iconic Indian rum. A rite of passage for Indians for t...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Aug 04, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Shashi Tharoor
It’s not a kitten video or an on-air blooper or a wardrobe malfunction. Who would have thought a 15 minute debating society speech could go viral? ...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Jul 28, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Naveed Mahbub
What do immigrants carry with them to America? The obvious reminders of home -- Spices. Pressure cookers. Pickles. What’s far more unpredictable i...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Jul 20, 2015
  • Length: 05:58
  • Purchases: 1