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."


460 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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
Caption: A Muslim caretaker, Credit: Sandip Roy
Sandip Roy discovers one way in which Jews and Muslims cooperate through generations.

  • Added: Sep 15, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Magen David Synagogue in Kolkata, India, Credit: Ashok Sinha
A Jewish museum just opened in Kolkata. Not a brick and mortar museum, but an online museum.

  • Added: Sep 10, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Shiva Shankar from Hyderabad gets his niece Vaishnavi from Pune to donate rice to a woman who works there
Sandip Roy investigates the latest social media challenge and finds out what all this 'Rice' is about.

Bought by KUOW


  • Added: Sep 02, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Piece image
The Twitter account "RushdieExplainsIndia" has attracted 130,000 followers in a very short time. However it isn't owned by Salman Rushdie, but by R...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Sandip Roy reflects on the meaning, and sound, of India old and new.

  • Added: Aug 18, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Issue No. 36 of "Life With Archie", Credit: archiecomics.com
The Archie comic book character is as American as it gets. But in July of 2014 (Issue No. 36 of "Life With Archie") Archie dies. His death reverber...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Jul 21, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Argentina shrine, Credit: Sandip Raoy
World Cup fever has infected the entire world... including Kolkata, India!

  • Added: Jul 08, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: RD Burman
R.D. Burman would have turned 75 last week and Bollywood threw a great birthday bash. Sandip Roy and Kronos Quartet violinist David Harrington rem...

  • Added: Jun 30, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Ambassador Car
Sandip Roy takes one last ride in India's Ambassador motor car.

  • Added: Jun 24, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Shubha Mudgal
Unexpected reverberations of Narendra Modi's victory come to Sunnyvale California.

  • Added: Jun 17, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Coolie Woman book cover
But when it comes to women going out by themselves in India, Gaiutra Bahadur comes from a family where the bar was set pretty high. Bahadur's Grand...

  • Added: Jun 09, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Piece image
Photos of the rape and murder of two Dalit girls in Badaun were shocking, but the pictures shocking as they are are not worth a 1000 words because ...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 03, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Narendra Modi
Narenda Modi is the 15th Prime Minister of India, and the first PM born after Independence.

  • Added: May 27, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Mewat, India, Credit: Sandip Roy
A small unknown town in India has a history that makes it worth stopping in to have a look.

  • Added: May 19, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Modi supporters at a rally, Credit: Reuters
Sandip Roy sends us an audio postcard from the 2014 Indian election season.

  • Added: May 15, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Bappi Lahiri at an election rally , Credit: Sandip Roy
The Times of India newspaper called this Indian election a "Dance of Democracy." But for Sandip Roy it's more of a 'Disco' Dance of Democracy.

  • Added: Apr 30, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Gulaab Gang Poster
This is a story about two films that are in the eye of a peculiar storm in India. One is called Gulaab Gang. The other is called Gulaabi Gang with...

  • Added: Mar 17, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: Lunchbox Poster
The New York Times calls The Lunchbox a Bollywood anomaly - a quiet movie of unexpressed anguish and yearning instead of movies that clutch viewer...

  • Added: Feb 24, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
Caption: trafic jan in Kolkata
This is no hip-hop slogan. This is real noise!

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 10, 2014
  • Length: 04:30
  • Purchases: 1