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
Piece image
Once there was a great hue and cry about racial profiling by law enforcement in America and it resulted in a landmark called Driving while Black. T...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 17, 2015
  • Length: 06:04
  • Purchases: 2
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"Did you see a tiger?" The first question asked of anyone who comes back from Jim Corbett National Park was asked of Sandip Roy recently. Here is ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 09, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
Sandip Roy tries to call his mother, but it proves to be more challenging than one would expect.

  • Added: Feb 02, 2015
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Kids singing at the Jaipur Lit. Fest.
Once if you wanted to be an Indian city of any standing, you were measured by flyovers, speciality hospitals or multiplexes. These days you are mea...

  • Added: Jan 27, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
Sandip Roy is at the Jaipur Literary festival in Kolkata, India's old capital, speaking with Rana Dasgupta about Delhi, India's new capital...

  • Added: Jan 20, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Debika and Ronu
The end of year issues all over magazine stands in India all carry photo spreads of the icons we lost. Famous people from the world of politics and...

  • Added: Jan 13, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Caption: Chitresh Das
The restless boy is finally still. Khatak master Pandit Chitresh Das passed away on Jan. 4, 2015 in Northern California.

  • Added: Jan 06, 2015
  • Length: 06:00
Piece image
The Andaman Islands were devastated in the 2004 tsunami, and many of the ancient tongues are dying out, but not because of the tsunami.

Bought by KUOW and PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 16, 2014
  • Length: 05:00
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Ridley Scott's Film Exodus seems to be plagued by something not so Biblical.

  • Added: Dec 09, 2014
  • Length: 05:00
Caption: After My Garden Grows poster
Sandip Roy on the short film "After My Garden Grows" with filmmaker Megan Mylan and Monica Burman who is featured in the film.

  • Added: Dec 02, 2014
  • Length: 05:00
Piece image
Nov. 19th is World Toilet Day, and in developing countries it's serious business.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Nov 18, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Rahul Richard Verma
Rahul Richard Verma would be the first Indian American to be Ambassador to India. Sandip Roy channels the thoughts of ohh about a billion Indians.

  • Added: Nov 11, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Sandip Roy looks at the story behind "Upaj."

  • Added: Nov 04, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Sandip Roy tries to hear through the noise and get to the heart of Diwali.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Oct 21, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzay, Credit: First Post
A joint Nobel Peace Prize for Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi – a Pakistani and an Indian. Now if that doesn’t embarrass the two belligerent...

  • Added: Oct 14, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: The widows of Vrindavan
Some 60 widows in white saris from the town of Vrindavan made thier way to Kolkata for the festival of the Goddess Durga. Something many of them ha...

  • Added: Oct 07, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Mission specialists cheer at ISRO
India's Mangalyaan orbiter has reached Mars, but the mission means as much for the women of India as it does for science.

  • Added: Sep 30, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Thousands of miles from Edinburgh in the heart of Kolkata there remains a piece of land that is indisputably Scottish. Sandip Roy takes us there.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 04:29
  • Purchases: 1