The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

Amit Varma
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Jul 18, 2022 • 3h 18min

Ep 286: Pradeep Magazine Replays His Life

He wrote about cricket for decades -- and also turned his piercing gaze on society and himself. Pradeep Magazine joins Amit Varma in episode 286 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and how it changed him. Also check out: 1. Pradeep Magazine on Twitter, Amazon and Hindustan Times. 2. Not Just Cricket: A Reporter's Journey through Modern India -- Pradeep Magazine. 3. Not Quite Cricket: The Xplosive Story of How Bookmakers Influence the Game Today -- Pradeep Magazine. 4. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 5. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 6. Some of Satyajit Ray's masterpieces: Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha, Agantuk and Ghare Bhaire. 7. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 8. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 9. Adam Smith and John Locke. 10. The Art of Cricket -- Donald Bradman. 11. Ray Robinson and Neville Cardus. 12. Rahul Bhattacharya, Siddhartha Vaidyanathan and Anand Vasu. 13. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket -- Bill Frindall. 14. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 15. Sourav Ganguly and the Politburo -- Amit Varma. 16. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) — Amit Varma. 17. The IPL is Here and Here Are Six Reasons to Celebrate It (2019) — Amit Varma. 18. The Sporting Spirit -- George Orwell. 19. War Minus The Shooting -- Mike Marquesee. 20. Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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Jul 11, 2022 • 3h 12min

Ep 285: The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Our real heroes are often backstage. Montek Singh Ahluwalia joins Amit Varma in episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his learnings and the liberalisation of 1991. Also check out: 1. Backstage: The Story behind India’s High Growth Years -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 2. Breaking Through: A Memoir -- Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 3. The M Document -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia's legendary note from 1990. 4. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 5. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao -- Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 6. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Principles of Economics -- Alfred Marshall. 8. Alexandre Dumas on Amazon. 9. Gurbani and Heer Ranjha. 10. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 12. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 13. The Cantillon Effect: Because of Inflation, We’re Financing the Financiers -- Jessica Schultz. 14. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 15. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 16. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama. 17. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama. 18. James Buchanan on Amazon. 19. Jawaharlal Nehru's speech about our "tryst with destiny." 20. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 21. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 22. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 23. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 24. The Beautiful Tree — James Tooley. 25. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 26. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 27. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh). 28. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 29. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma 30. Minoo Masani, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Isaiah Berlin, John Hicks and Ian Little. 31. Spontaneous Order. 32. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 33. Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai on Amazon. 34. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 35. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 36.  The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mrinal Pande). 37. Beware of the Useful Idiots -- Amit Varma. 38. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 39. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 40. Managing Climate Change: A Strategy for India -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Utkarsh Patel. 41. Mahabharata. 42. Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio de Sica, Federico Fellini and Roman Polanski. 43. Amit Varma's tweet on velociraptors and turkeys. 44. The James Bond films. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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8 snips
Jul 4, 2022 • 5h 47min

Ep 284: The Life and Times of Nilanjana Roy

A lifetime spent reading, writing and reflecting teaches you a lot. Nilanjana Roy joins Amit Varma in episode 284 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about books, feminism, family, memory and the state of the world.  Also check out:1. Nilanjana Roy on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Financial Times, Business Standard and her own website. 2. The Girl Who Ate Books: Adventures in Reading -- Nilanjana Roy. 3. The Wildings -- Nilanjana Roy. 4. The Hundred Names of Darkness -- Nilanjana Roy. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen that discuss reading and writing with Sara Rai, Amitava Kumar, VK Karthika, Sugata Srinivasaraju, Mrinal Pande, Sonia Faleiro, Vivek Tejuja, Samanth Subramanian, Annie Zaidi and Prem Panicker. 6.  Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 7. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 8. Why Are My Episodes so Long? -- Amit Varma. 9. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 11. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Amit Varma. 12. The Ranga-Billa Case. 13. Sarojini Naidu on Amazon. 14. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 15. The Mahatma and the Poet — The letters between Gandhi and Tagore, compiled by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 16. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Margaret Mascarenhas on Amazon. 18. The Web We Have to Save -- Hossein Derakhshan. 19. The Country Without a Post Office -- Agha Shahid Ali. 20. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 21. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 22. The Silence of Scheherazade -- Defne Suman. 23. Silver -- Walter de la Mare. 24. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 25. George Saunders and Barack Obama on Amazon. 26. A life in 5,000 books -- Nilanjana Roy. 27. Surender Mohan Pathak, Ibne Safi and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Amazon.  28. The Power Broker — Robert Caro. 29. The Death and Life of Great American Cities — Jane Jacobs. 30. JRR Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 31. Forget reading Thomas Piketty. Try a bit of Terry Pratchett -- Robert Shrimsley. 32. Fifty Shades of Grey -- EL James. 33. Ankur Warikoo, Aanchal Malhotra, Manu Pillai and Ira Mukhoty on Amazon. 34. Mahashweta Devi and Naiyer Masud on Amazon. 35. The former homes of Hurree Babu and Putu the Cat. 36. The Life and Times of Abhinandan Sekhri -- Episode 254 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. Om Namah Volume -- Amit Varma. 38. Salman's Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie's Substack newsletter. 39. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel. 40. The Hidden Life of Trees -- Peter Wohlleben. 41. An Immense World -- Ed Yong. 42. The Twitter thread by Sergej Sumlenny that Nilanjana mentioned. 43. The Inheritance of Loss -- Kiran Desai. 44. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 45. Pather Panchali --  Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. 46. Gora -- Rabindranath Tagore. 47. William Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Geoffrey Chaucer and Krishna Sobti on Amazon. 48. The Cult of Authenticity -- Vikram Chandra. 49. Meenakshi Mukherjee: The Death of a Critic -- Nilanjana Roy. 50. Field Notes from a Waterborne Land: Bengal Beyond the Bhadralok -- Parimal Bhattacharya. 51. Patriots, Poets and Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee's The Modern Review, 1907-1947 -- Edited by Anikendra Sen, Devangshu Datta and Nilanjana Rao. 52. The City Inside -- Samit Basu. 53. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 54. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 55. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Manjula Padmanathan on Amazon. 57. The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy. 58. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Lawrence Alma-Tadema. 59. If No One Ever Marries Me -- Natalie Merchant. 60. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 62. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 63. Women at Work — Episode 132 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Namita Bhandare). 64. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 65. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 66. The Kavita Krishnan Files — Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 67. Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist -- Episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen. 68. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Translated by Ranjit Hoskote. 69. Lal Ded's poem on wrestling with a tiger. 70. Anarchy is a likelier future for the west than tyranny -- Janan Ganesh. 71. The Better Angels of Our Nature -- Steven Pinker. 72. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 73. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 74. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 75. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 76. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 77. Manohar Malgonkar, Mulk Raj Anand and Kamala Das on Amazon. 78. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 79. India’s Greatest Civil Servant -- Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 80. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 81. Alice Munro on Amazon. 82. The Bear Came Over the Mountain -- Amit Varma's favourite Alice Munro story. 83. The Median Voter Theorem. 84. The Ice Cream Vendors. 85. Mohammad Zubair’s Twitter thread on the Dharam Sansad. 86. The Will to Change -- Bell Hooks. 87. Paul Holdengraber, Maria Popova, Rana Safvi and Rabih Alameddine on Twitter. 88. The hounding of author Kate Clanchy has been a witch-hunt without mercy -- Sonia Sodha. 89. Democrats have stopped listening to America’s voters -- Edward Luce. 90. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck -- Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 91. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 92. GN Devy. 93. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 94. Alipura -- Gyan Chaturvedi (translated by Salil Yusufji). 95. Tomb of Sand -- Geetanjali Shree (translated by Daisy Rockwell). 96. Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya -- Akshaya Mukul. 97. Ashapurna Devi, Agyeya, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chugtai, Qurratulain Hyder, Amrita Pritam and Girish Karnad on Amazon. 98. The Adventures of Dennis -- Viktor Dragunsky. 99. Toni Morrison on Amazon. 100. Haroun and the Sea of Stories -- Salman Rushdie. 101. The Penguin Book Of Indian Poets -- Edited by Jeet Thayil. 102. These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry -- Edited by Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo. 103. The Autobiography of a Goddess -- Andal (translated by Priya Sarrukai Chabria and Ravi Shankar). 104. Ghachar Ghochar — Vivek Shanbhag (translated by Srinath Perur). 105. Amit Varma talks about Ghachar Ghochar in episode 13 of The Book Club on Storytel. 106. River of Fire -- Qurratulain Hyder. 107. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas -- Ursula K Le Guin. 108. The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K Le Guin. 109. Mother of 1084 -- Mahashweta Devi. 110. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 111. The Collected Essays of AK Ramanujan -- Edited by Vinay Dharwadker. 112. The Collected Poems of AK Ramanujan. 113. Folktales From India -- Edited by AK Ramanujan. 114. The Interior Landscape: Classical Tamil Love Poems -- Edited and translated by AK Ramanujan. 115. The Essential Kabir -- Translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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4 snips
Jun 27, 2022 • 4h 22min

Ep 283: The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao

If leaders are to be judged by their actions, PV Narasimha Rao was our tallest leader. Vinay Sitapati joins Amit Varma in episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how Rao showed  conviction and political skill in going against the tides of the day to enable the 1991 reforms, which brought hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty Also check out: 1. Half-Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao Transformed India -- Vinay Sitapati. 2. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi -- Vinay Sitapati. 3. The BJP Before Modi -- Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 4. The Insider -- PV Narasimha Rao. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India -- Dhirendra Jha. 7. Ascetic Games and Ayodhya: A Dark Night. 8. How the BJP wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine -- Prashant Jha. 9. The BJP’s Magic Formula -- Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 10. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 11. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 12. A Life in Indian Politics -- Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 14. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 15. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. The Clash of Civilizations? (the article) -- Samuel Huntington. 17. The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order -- Samuel Huntington. 18. Cut the Clutter with Shekhar Gupta. 19. Headley And I -- S Hussain Zaidi and Rahul Bhatt. 20. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 21. Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm -- Episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 23. Amit Varma's tweet on winning the Asian Championships of Match Poker. 24. The Blue Bedspread -- Raj Kamal Jha. 25. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda's Road to 9/11 -- Lawrence Wright. 26. Modi’s Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 27. India’s Lost Decade -- Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 28. The Alchemy of Finance -- George Soros. 29. Sturgeon's Law and Survivorship Bias. 30. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Libertarian -- Amit Varma. 31. Ancient India: Culture of Contradictions -- Upinder Singh. 32. Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History -- Romila Thapar. 33. Romila Thapar, DD Kosambi and Irfan Habib. 34. A Culture of Discrimination Or A Culture Of Emancipation? -- Aravindan Neelakandan on Romila Thapar. 35. The Wire -- David Simon etc. 36. Dekalog — Krzysztof Kieślowski. 37. The Fissures of Modern Hinduism -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta delivers the DD Kosambi Memorial Lecture. 38. Upinder Singh, Nayanjot Lahiri and Iravatham Mahadevan on Amazon. 39. The Power Broker -- Robert A Caro. 40. Robert A Caro on Amazon. 41. The World Is What It Is -- Patrick French. 42. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 43. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 44. Sex tape: Andhra Governor N D Tiwari resigns. 45. Bad liver and a broken heart -- Sunil Murthy on Leela Naidu. 46. The Law of Truly Large Numbers. 47. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 48. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln -- Doris Kearns Goodwin. 49. To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story -- Jairam Ramesh. 50. Brideshead Revisited -- Evelyn Waugh. 51. Brideshead Revisited, the TV series. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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Jun 20, 2022 • 3h 2min

Ep 282: Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India

He's been an academic who's studied the country, and a businessman who's created wealth and jobs. Now he wants to help India achieve its potential. Naushad Forbes joins Amit Varma in episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings -- and the roadmap that can help India lift its citizens. Also check out: 1. The Struggle And The Promise: Restoring India's Potential -- Naushad Forbes. 2. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 5. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 6. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 7. The Great Redistribution -- Amit Varma. 8. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 9. Tony Joseph's episode of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 11. Two-and-a-Half Bengalis Have an Economics Adda -- Episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswaro Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya). 12. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 13. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 14. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 15. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 16. The Beautiful Tree -- James Tooley. 17. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 18. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman -- Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 19. Black Beauty -- Anne Sewell. 20. Enid Blyton and Gerald Durrell on Amazon. 21. Leave it to Psmith -- PG Wodehouse. 22. Survival In Auschwitz -- Primo Levi. 23. Homage to Catalonia -- George Orwell. 24. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 25. Marginal Revolution. 26. Econ Talk — Russ Roberts’s podcast. 27. Conversations With Tyler — Tyler Cowen’s podcast. 28. Deirdre McCloskey on Amazon. 29. Manmohan Singh's budget speech on July 24, 1991. 30. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 31. The oddest entry in Business Week's 2009 list of the 50 Most Powerful People in India. 32. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 33. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 34. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century -- Francis Fukuyama. 35. The Origins of Political Order -- Francis Fukuyama. 36. Political Order and Political Decay -- Francis Fukuyama. 37. James Buchanan on Amazon. 38. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Public Choice: A Primer — Eomonn Butler. 40. Wonder Woman, the God of War and Public Choice Economics -- Amit Varma and Kumar Anand. 41. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 43. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 44. Becoming Modern -- Alex Inkeles and David H Smith. 45. The Overton Window. 46. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty — Albert O Hirschman. 47. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 48. Wealth And Poverty Of Nations -- David S Landes. 49. The Uncommon Reader -- Alan Bennett. 50. On Liberty -- John Stuart Mill. 51. Patriots and Partisans -- Ramachandra Guha. 52. Democrats and Dissenters -- Ramachandra Guha. 53. 1984 -- George Orwell. 54. The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph -- Albert O Hirschman. 55. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin on Spotify. 56. Brahms: Second Piano Concerto in B Flat. 57. Beethoven: The Piano Concertos. 58. Beethoven: Symphonies 1 to 9. 59. Schubert: Impromptus. 60. The Philadelphia Story -- George Cukor. 61. Casablanca -- Michael Curtiz. Check out Amit’s online courses, The Art of Clear Writing and The Art of Podcasting. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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Jun 13, 2022 • 4h 17min

Ep 281: From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck

He grew up in Cairo, spent many years writing on the Middle East, saw the Arab Spring coming, and was bureau chief of the Economist in South Asia. Max Rodenbeck joins Amit Varma in episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his experiences in journalism, the lessons he learnt in India, and the troubling ways in which it resembles Egypt. Also check out: 1. Max Rodenbeck on Twitter, The New York Review of Books and Wikipedia. 2. Cairo: The City Victorious -- Max Rodenbeck. 3. Selected stories on India by the Economist: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 4. The Power of Arabic -- Max Rodenbeck. 5. The Father of Violent Islamism -- Max Rodenbeck. 6. How She Wants to Modify Muslims -- Max Rodenbeck. 7. Bin Laden’s Death: Why the Arab World Shrugs -- Max Rodenbeck. 8. The Long Wait -- Max Rodenbeck. 9. Max Rodenbeck interviewed on What I Did Next. 10. Top Gun -- Tony Scott. 11. The Godfather -- Francis Ford Coppola. 12. Once Upon a Time in the West -- Sergio Leone. 13. Creature Features. 14. Godzilla and Creature From the Black Lagoon. 15. Agatha Christie on Amazon. 16. Tintin on Amazon. 17. Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. 18. Enid Blyton on Amazon. 19. The Golden Age of Murder -- Martin Edwards. 20. $41,754,153! -- Brandon Sanderson. 21. Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter campaign ends with $41.7 million -- K Holt. 22. Brandon Sanderson on Amazon and YouTube. 23. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 24. Gell-Mann Amnesia. 25. A Nile Journal -- Thomas Gold Appleton. 26. Lawrence Wright on Amazon. 27. Roam Research — and Zettelkasten. 28. US-Bangladesh blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death -- BBC. 29. Inside Bangladesh’s killing fields: bloggers and outsiders targeted by fanatics -- Emma Graham-Harrison and Saad Hammadi. 30. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 31. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 32. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee -- Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mukulika Banerjee.) 33. The Pathan Unarmed — Mukulika Banerjee. 34. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 35. Nehru’s Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 36. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 37. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms -- Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 38. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 39. The Generation of Rage in Kashmir — David Devadas. 40. Radically Networked Societies -- Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 41. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture (in reverse chronological order): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 42. Fixing Indian Education -- Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 43. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 44. Njáls saga. 45. Honoré de Balzac on Amazon. 46. The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee -- Honoré de Balzac. 47. Michael Pollan on how coffee enabled the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. 48. The Lives of Others -- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. 49. Yol -- Şerif Gören and Yılmaz Güney. 50. Baden Powell on Spotify. 51. Le Bureau. 52. The Anchoring Effect. 53. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. This episode is sponsored by Paradigm Shift, a new podcast by Microsoft India, produced by ATS Studios and hosted by Harsha Bhogle..Listen to it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or any podcast app of your choice. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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Jun 6, 2022 • 4h 3min

Ep 280: Manjima Bhattacharjya: The Making of a Feminist

The world is changing for women -- but is it getting better? Manjima Bhattacharjya joins Amit Varma in episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey as a feminist and why she believes in the long arc. She also talks about her book Intimate City, and the changing face of sex work in India. Also check out: 1. Manjima Bhattacharjya on Twitter, YouTube and Google Scholar. 2. Intimate City -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 3. Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 4. Jhumpa Lahiri on Amazon. 5. Empire of the Sun -- Steven Spielberg. 6. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 7. Farouk Abdul-Aziz and Kuwait Cine Club. 8. Nancy Drew on Wikipedia and Amazon. 9. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Some episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare and Shrayana Bhattacharjya,  11. Kali For Women. 12. Jagori. 13. Mrityudand -- Prakash Jha. 14. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 15. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 16. Bargaining with Patriarchy -- Deniz Kandiyoti. 17. On the Road to Change -- A conversation between Kavita Krishnan and Amit Varma. 18. If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai — Srinath Perur. 19. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 20. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 21. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? -- Devika Kher. 22. Here’s What’s Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act -- Suman Joshi. 23. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 24. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 25. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 26. An Economist Looks at #MeToo -- Episode 92 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 27. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner. 28. The Problem that Has No Name -- Betty Friedan. 29. Kamla Bhasin and Abha Bhaiya. 30. Live Sex Acts -- Wendy Chapkis. 31. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Daily Rituals — Mason Currey. 34. Daily Rituals: Women at Work — Mason Currey. 35. Thin Places -- Ann Armbrecht. 36. Cheryl Strayed on Amazon. 37. Mahanagar — Satyajit Ray. 38. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 39. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 40. Abhimaan -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 41. Natasha Badhwar on Amazon. 42. Parenthood -- Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar). 43. Yuzvendra Chahal's bullying. 44. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 45. Temporarily Yours – Intimacy, Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex -- Elizabeth Bernstein. 46. The Girlfriend Experience. 47. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 48. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 49. Literotica stories archive. 50. The news article about a journalist and some artists forced to strip to their underwear. 51. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator economy with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 52. 11th Lane: Kamathipura -- Sudharak Olwe. 53. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 54. Notting Hill and Pretty Woman. 55. An Educated Woman In Prostitution -- Manada Devi. 56. Factory Girls -- Leslie T Chang. 57. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 58. Elles -- Malgoska Szumowska. 59. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Philip Kaufman. 60. Roger Ebert's review of Unbearable Lightness. 61. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel. 62. The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas -- Rajesh Rajamani. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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35 snips
May 30, 2022 • 4h 17min

Ep 279: Abhijit Bhaduri Breaks the Algorithm

If you make space for serendipity in your life, good things happen. Abhijit Bhaduri joins Amit Varma in episode 279 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey from the corporate life to the creator economy -- and the lessons he learnt along the way. Also check out: 1. Abhijit Bhaduri on Amazon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his own website. 2. Dreamers and Unicorns -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 3. The Digital Tsunami -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 4, Selected talks on YouTube by Abhijit Bhaduri: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain and Deepak Shenoy. 6. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 7. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. The Curse of Knowledge. 9. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Invisible Gorilla. 11. When Daddy Was a Little Boy -- Alexander Raskin and Lev Tokamakov. (Original cover.) 12. Tuntunir Galpa/The tale of The Tailer-Bird -- Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. 13. The Complete Adventures of Feluda -- Satyajit Ray. 14. Mukh Chai Mukh -- Milan Mukhopadhyay. 15. Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Banaphul, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Shivani and Munshi Premchand. 16. Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi and Kishori Amonkar on Spotify. 17. Haré Rama Haré Krishna -- Dev Anand. 18. The Charm of Raga Des - Abhijit Bhaduri. 19. SD Burman and Nikhil Banerjee on Spotify. 20. Is Old Music Killing New Music? -- Ted Gioia. 21. The Universe of Chuck Gopal -- Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Brave New World -- Episode 203 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vasant Dhar). 23. Wanting -- Luke Burgis. 24. Khushwant Singh and Mulkraj Anand on Amazon. 25. RK Laxman, Mario Miranda and Ajit Ninan. 26. In Search of Excellence -- Tom Peters. 27. Mirch Masala -- Ketan Mehta. 28. Ek Ruka Hua Faisla -- Basu Chatterjee. 29. 12 Angry Men -- Sidney Lumet. 30. Housefull Economics. 31. Manu Pillai and Ramachandra Guha on Amazon. 32. Episodes of the Seen and the Unseen w Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4. 33. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 34. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin. 35. Are you a career3.0 person stuck in a career1.0 Job? -- Abhijit Bhaduri. 36. Miss Excel on Instagram and TikTok. 37. How an Excel Tiktoker Manifested Her Way to Making Six Figures a Day — Nilay Patel. 38. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones -- Pradip Krishen. 39. How Social Media Threatens Society — Episode 8 of Brave New World (Jonathan Haidt speaking to host Vasant Dhar). 40. Elite Imitation in Public Policy -- Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (on isomorphic mimicry, with Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 41. Skeuomorphic Design. 42. The New World Upon Us -- Amit Varma on Alpha Zero. 43. Google's AlphaZero Destroys Stockfish In 100-Game Match -- Mike Klein. 44. Dicing An Onion -- Gordon Ramsey. 45. Satyajit Ray on Amazon. 46. Feluda @ 50 -- Edited by Boria Mazumdar. 47. Days & Nights In The Forest -- Sunil Gangopadhyay. 48. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 49. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 50. Understanding India Through Its Languages -- Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). This episode is sponsored by Knest Manufacturers, India’s largest and the world’s fastest-growing formwork company, which has made real estate development in India more efficient, sustainable and scalable. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.
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7 snips
May 23, 2022 • 3h 44min

Ep 278: Climate Change and Our Power Sector

To fight climate change, we need to reform the power sector. Right now, it's dysfunctional. Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah join Amit Varma in episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen to share their roadmap for change.  Also check out: 1. Akshay Jaitly on Twitter, Linkedin, Nicheless and Substack. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. The lowest hanging fruit on the coconut tree: India's climate transition through the price system in the power sector -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 3. Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah's aggregated pieces on energy and climate. 4. The Time To Privatise India’s Electricity Sector Is Now -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 5. Root cause analysis for the electricity crisis -- Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 6. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 7. The Art and Science of Economic Policy -- Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah). 8. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 9. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 10. Naren Shenoy's fancy dress competition. 11. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life -- Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Chronicles of Narnia -- CS Lewis. 14. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Roald Dahl. 15. Alistair MacLean and John Steinbeck on Amazon. 16. Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 17. Of Mice and Men -- John Steinbeck. 18. André Gide and Albert Camus on Amazon. 19. Another Country -- James Baldwin. 20. Warren Mendonsa Plays the Universal Pentatonic -- Episode 273 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Jonathan Haidt on Amazon. 22. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 23. Hind Swaraj -- Mohandas Gandhi. 24. Politics and the Sociopath -- Amit Varma. 25. Google Scholar. 26. Roam Research and Zettelkasten. 27. Discom Privatisation Challenged (Dec 2020) -- Akshay Jaitly. 28. Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance -- Edited by Devesh Kapur and Madhav Khosla. 29. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 30. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 31. History of UN Climate Talks. 32. The Evolution of the UNFCCC -- Jonathan Kuyper, Heike Schroeder and Björn-Ola Linnér. 33. The COP List. 34. The Road From Rio (1993) -- Prodipto Ghosh and Akshay Jaitly. 35. William Nordhaus versus the United Nations on Climate Change Economics -- Robert P Murphy. 36. Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world’s highest temperatures -- Ben Farmer. 37. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma. 38. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 39. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister -- Amit Varma. 40. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All -- Michael Shellenberger. 41. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 42. Kim Stanley Robinson on Amazon. 43. Death at Intervals -- José Saramago. 44. The Shape of Water -- Andrea Camilleri. 45. The Terracotta Dog -- Andrea Camilleri. 46. 12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live and love -- Jeanette Winterson. 47. The Singularity Is Near -- Ray Kurzweil. 48. Report to Greco -- Nikos Kazantzakis. 49. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics -- Carlo Rovelli. 50. Michael Dibdin on Amazon. This episode is sponsored by Knest Manufacturers, India's largest and the world's fastest-growing formwork company, which has made real estate development in India more efficient, sustainable and scalable. This episode is co-sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!
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May 16, 2022 • 5h 18min

Ep 277: The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju

He grew up breathing Kannada literature -- and he also embraced the globalised world. Sugata Srinivasaraju joins Amit Varma in episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss this confluence of the old and the new, the near and the far, his society and the world.  Also check out: 1. Sugata Srinivasaraju in Outlook, ToI/Mumbai Mirror, New Indian Express, The Wire, Mint, Twitter and his own website. 2. Furrows in a Field -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 3. Pickles from Home: The Worlds of a Bilingual -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 4. Keeping Faith with the Mother Tongue -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 5. Sugata Srinivasaraju on his father, Chi Srinivasaraju: 1, 2, 3. 6. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled -- Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujata Anandan). 7. Dodda Alada Mara (Big Banyan Tree). 8. GP Rajarathnam, AR Krishnashastry, P Lankesh and KS Nissar Ahmed on Wikipedia. 9. The Tell Me Why series of encyclopedias -- Arkady Leokum. 10. Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire on Amazon. 11. Rayaru Bandaru Mavana Manege -- The KS Narasimhaswamy poem Sugata translated. 12. Phoenix and Four Other Mime Plays -- Chi Srinivasaraju (translated by Sugata Srinivasaraju, who tweeted about it here.). 13. Ahobala Shankara, V Seetharamaiah, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, KV Narayana, Noam Chomsky, DR Nagaraj, Jorge Luis Borges and Tejaswini Niranjana. 14. Lawrence Weschler on how Akumal Ramachander discovered Harold Shapinsky. 15. AK Ramanujan and Gopalakrishna Adiga. 16. The Penguin Book of Socialist Verse -- Edited by Alan Bold. 17. Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur District, Eastern UP, 1921-22 -- Shahid Amin. 18. Kraurya -- Girish Kasaravalli. 19. Deconstructing Derrida -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 20. Yaava Mohana Murali -- Gopalakrishna Adiga's poem turned into a song. 21. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 23. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 24. Modern South India: A History from the 17th Century to our Times -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 25. Ki Ram Nagaraja at Book Brahma. 26. A Map of Misreading -- Harold Bloom. 27. The Singer of Tales -- Albert Lord and David Elmer. 28. ಪಂಪ ಭಾರತ ದೀಪಿಕೆ: Pampa Bharatha Deepike -- DL Narasimhachar. 29. The Open Eyes: A Journey Through Karnakata -- Dom Moraes. 30. Dom Moraes on DR Bendre's love for numbers. 31. DR Bendre, Kuvempu, Shamba Joshi, MM Kalburgi, Shivaram Karanth, VK Gokak and Chandrashekhar Patil. 32. Da Baa Kulkarni, Sriranga, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Bhisham Sahni, Kartar Singh Duggal and HY Sharada Prasad. 33. His Will Was His God -- Sugata Srinivasaraju on HY Sharada Prasad. 34. Jeremy Seabrook on Amazon. 35. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope -- Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual — Ramachandra Guha. 37. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Sara Rai Inhales Literature -- Episode 255 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 40. Negotiating Two Worlds, Bilingualism As A Cultural Idea -- Sugata Srinivasaraju delivers the HY Sharada Prasad Memorial Lecture. 41. Karunaalu Baa Belake -- A Kannada version of 'Lead, Kindly Light'. 42. Liberal impulses of our regional languages -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 43. Why Resisting Hindi is No Longer Enough -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 44, The Indianness of Indian Food -- Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 45. Steven Van Zandt: Springsteen, the death of rock and Van Morrison on Covid — Richard Purden. 46. Roam Research and Zettelkasten. 47. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 48. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 49. Nehru’s Debates -- Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 50. Speaking of Siva -- Ak Ramanujan's translations of the Vacanas. 51. Not Waving but Drowning -- Stevie Smith. 52. Pictures on a Page -- Harold Evans. 53. Notes From Another India -- Jeremy Seabrook. 54. Good Times, Bad Times -- Harold Evans. 55. John Pilger on Amazon. 56. Sugata Srinivasaraju's pieces in Outlook in 2005 on the Infosys land scam: 1, 2. 57. ‘Bellary Is Mine’ -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 58. Deca Log: 1995-2005. A history in ten-and-a-half chapters, through the eyes of Outlook -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 59. The Sanjay Story: From Anand Bhavan To Amethi -- Vinod Mehta. 60. Lucknow Boy: A Memoir -- Vinod Mehta. 61. Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker -- Ved Mehta. 62. Off the Record: Untold Stories from a Reporter's Diary -- Ajith Pillai. 63. A Town Offers Its Shoulder -- Sugata Srinivasaraju. 64. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction -- Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. 65. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66. The Story of an Income Tax Search — Dhanya Rajendran on Instagram. 67. George Plimpton, 76; 'Paper Lion' author, longtime literary editor, amateur athlete -- David Mehegan. 68. Does The Paris Review Get a Second Act? -- Charles McGrath on literary magazines as "showcases of idealism." 69. My Father's Suitcase -- Orhan Pamuk's Nobel Prize lecture. 70. Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India -- Dhirendra K Jha. 71. Harmony in the Boudoir -- Mark Strand. 72. Of Human Bondage -- W Somerset Maugham. 73. Man’s Worldly Goods -- Leo Huberman. 74. Autobiography -- Bertrand Russell. 75. Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens and George Orwell on Amazon. 76. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 77. Reflections on Gandhi -- George Orwell. 78. The Tyranny of Merit -- Michael Sandel. 79. Home in the World: A Memoir -- Amartya Sen. 80. Living to Tell the Tale -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 81. Ayodhya - The Dark Night and Ascetic Games by Dhirendra Jha. 82. Team of Rivals -- Doris Kearns Goodwin. 83. My Last Sigh -- Luis Bunuel. 84. Interview with History -- Oriana Fallaci. 85. Ryszard Kapuscinski on Amazon. 86. Journalism as Literature -- Salman Rushdie on Ryszard Kapuscinski. 87. Mallikarjun Mansur, Bhimsen Joshi and Kumar Gandharva on Spotify. 88. Vachanas sung by Mallikarjun Mansur and Basavaraja Rajguru. 89. Outlander, Knightfall and Money Heist on Netflix. 90. Sugata Srinivasaraju's Twitter thread on the songs of DR Bendre. This episode is sponsored by The Desi Crime Podcast. You’ll find them on all podcast apps. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

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