Books and Authors

"Seaweed is packed with iron, zinc, Omega 3, protein and Vitamin B12 and is especially important for countries with a large vegetarian population like India, where it can provide a lot of the nutritional intake. India also has a huge potential for seaweed farming. It has a 17000-kilometre coastline and 700 types of seaweed but you don't yet know how to cultivate it so there's a lot of research to be done" - Vincent Doumeizel, author, The Seaweed Revolution, talks to Manjula Narayan about the many applications of seaweed including in promoting food security, improving health, in the creation of environmentally friendly clothing, in building materials and in combating pollution, among other things.

"We thought that, when it came to mammals, we knew it all. But we've just discovered two new macaques and a new barking deer in Arunachal Pradesh. We now know that we have more than 440 mammals in India. And there must be more. We need many more Indians working on many more discrete taxa. If they do that then we'll have a truer picture. We work with an encyclopaedia of ignorance to guide us. Nature has so many things and we are only scraping the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we see." - Vivek Menon, author, 'Indian Mammals; A Field Guide' talks to Manjula Narayan about the wild asses of Kutch, bats as great pollinators, India having the largest squirrels in the world, and about putting together this impressive volume that includes in depth information about every known mammal in the country from the tiny shrew to the large elephant.

"If the police accuses someone, unless it's proved in court, don't believe them," says Shevlin Sebastian, co-author, The Stolen Necklace, which examines the case of VK Thajudheen, whose safe middle class existence was shattered when he was imprisoned for a petty crime he did not commit. A true story of police excess in a small town in north Kerala, it takes readers into the milieu of the Muslim community of the area, offers glimpses of life in a mofussil prison, and underlines the fragility and randomness of life.

"Every courtesan from Amrapali to Hazrat Mahal has had an impact on the sociopolitical environment," says Madhur Gupta whose 'Courting Hindustan' presents a rich portrait of the legendary performers who enriched Indian culture

"Other people do adventure sports and break their legs; I go and eat and break my tummy" - Zac O'Yeah, author, 'Digesting India' talks to Hindustan Times' Manjula Narayan about eating fresh mussels in Thalassery, exploring Ahmedabad's flea market, munching on Russian salad in Prayagraj, and more

"The cheetah is the only mammal to have become extinct after independence. Today we are an aspirational country. Why can't we restore a species that we lost? I'm asking this from a purely nationalist point of view" - Divyabhanusinh, author, The Story of India's Cheetahs talks to Manjula Narayan about the long history of the cat in India and the many expected benefits to the ecosystem of its reintroduction.Books & Authors podcast with Divyabhanusinh, author, The Story of India's Cheetahs

"This map of Shahjahanabad, what's now Old Delhi, was made in 1847. After the revolt of 1857 was suppressed by the British, large parts of the city were demolished. So much changed that this map is an invaluable look at that city as it was before the destruction of 1857" - Swapna Liddle, author, 'Shahjahanabad; Mapping a Mughal City' talks to Manjula Narayan about the exquisite administrative map of the city that's now in the British Museum and what it tells us about the old walled city, its neighbourhoods, its social life and individual citizens both aristocratic and ordinary.

"Birdwatching is a hobby whose time has come in India today. That's why we're seeing such an explosion of interest" - Aasheesh Pittie, author, The Living Air talks to @utterflea about imitative drongos, the impact of the loss of vultures, and why we love birds

"The Panchatantra is an allegory of humanness. Its animals are not zoomorphic; they are actually humans wearing the mask of animals. The Panchatantra is not at all concerned with morality. It doesn't say that something is right or wrong. None of the stories are judgemental. They don't tell you how to behave; they show you what behaviour is like. It's a mirror held up to humanness. That's one of the Panchatantra's biggest selling points" - Meena Arora Nayak, author of a new retelling of The Panchatantra of Vishnusharma talks to Manjula Narayan about this wonderful collection of stories first compiled around 300BCE, and how they are essentially about the human quest for happiness

"Women have been the maintainers of India's food culture forever. Then, they were empowered by technology and took to blogging about food, and it's grown from there. Most of the really good deep-dive food writing in India now is largely being done by women" - Charmaine O'Brien, author, Eating the Present Tasting the Future talks to Manjula Narayan about everything from India's post-Liberalisation transformation from being a resource-conservative country to a resource-consumptive one, the great influence of Masterchef Australia, the evolution of India's wines and cheeses, the role of food apps, and the great change that's happening with Indians discovering the country's varied regional cuisines.