Jaipur Bytes

Filmmaker and author Nandita Das in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta, recorded live at the ZEE Jaipur LIterature Festival 2020 in Diggi Palace on January 23. 

Nandita has acted in more than 40 feature films in ten different languages. Her directorial debut in 2008 was Firaaq, which won many accolades and appreciation in India and abroad. Manto, Nandita’s second directorial film premiered in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival and travelled to many other festivals around the world. Her new book is called "Manto and I" and it is now available on Amazon and all bookstores.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love as well as the short story collection Pilgrims, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and winner of the 1999 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. A Pushcart Prize-winner and National Magazine Award-nominated journalist, she works as writer-at-large for GQ. Her journalism has been published in Harper's Bazaar, Spin and The New York Times Magazine, and her stories have appeared in Esquire, Story and the Paris Review. Here she talks about her life in writing with her long-time friend and editor, Alexandra Pringle.

William Dalrymple, festival co-director of #JaipurLitFest2020 and author of "The Anarchy", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, William talks to Lakshya about the year that has been, and why this year's programme is the festival's finest. 

Sanjoy K. Roy, Producer of Jaipur Literature Festival and Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive chat, Sanjoy talks to Lakshya about what you can expect from the festival in its 13th edition and the many ways you can experience it when it returns to the Diggi Palace in Jaipur from January 23 to 27, 2020. Learn more about this year's programme and the speakers at https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/

In the 100th episode (and 2019 season finale) of Jaipur Bytes, host Lakshya Datta speaks with Jaipur Literature Festival co-director Namita Gokhale about her upcoming novel 'Jaipur Journals'.

Partly a love letter to the greatest literary show on earth, partly a satire about the glittery set that throngs this literary venue year on year, and partly an ode to the millions of aspiring writers who wander the earth with unsubmitted manuscripts in their bags, 'Jaipur Journals' is a light-footed romp that showcases in full form Gokhale's unsparing eye for the pretensions and the pathos of that loneliest tribe of them all: the writers. 'Jaipur Journals' is available for pre-order on Amazon.

A sense of belonging is an essential component to the notion of identity. In conversation with Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Roanna Gonsalves and Shameem Black read from their work and discuss the multiplicities of identity in their writings. This episode is a live session from JLF Adelaide 2019.

Dr. James Onley, Director of Historical Research and Partnerships at the Qatar National Library, in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive, James and Lakshya talk about the 4000+ years long history between India and the Gulf, how the dynamics between the two regions changed after 1947, and the work he and his team at QNL having been doing to archive this rich history.

Dr. Onley holds a D.Phil. in History from Oxford and specializes in the Gulf Arab states and their historical connections with India.  He is the author of The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj, the founding editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies, and the curator of the exhibition Qatar, India and the Gulf currently on in the QNL plaza. James will be speaking at JLF Doha, which is happening at  Qatar National Library this week from Dec 12 to Dec 14.

In conversation with James Crabtree, writers Peter Verghese, Shashi Tharoor & Tony Birch examine social realities nd the conflicts of today. This episode is a live session from JLF Adelaide 2019.

Author Intan Paramaditha in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive chat, Intan talks to Lakshya about her academic career, Indonesian films, why she chooses to write in her native language, and how she wrote a choose your own adventure novel. 

Intan is an Indonesian fiction writer and currently a lecturer in Media and Film Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney. Her first book was the short story collection titled "Apple and Knife". Her novel The Wandering won a PEN Translates Award and will be published in 2020 in English. Intan was a speaker at JLF Adelaide 2019 which happened earlier this month.

Frank Dikötter, author of "How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century", in conversation with Jaipur Bytes host Lakshya Datta. In this podcast-exclusive chat, Frank talks to Lakshya about his career, The People’s Republic of China, The people of Hong Kong, and dictators. 

Frank has been Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong since 2006. He is the author of the People's Trilogy, a series of books that document the impact of communism on the lives of ordinary people in China on the basis of new archival material. The first volume, entitled Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, won the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The second instalment, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-1957, was short-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2014. The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976 concludes the trilogy.

In "How to Be a Dictator", Frank examines the cults and propaganda surrounding twentieth-century dictators, from Hitler and Stalin to Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung - and how their dictatorships, in turn, have influenced leaders in the twenty-first century, including Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Frank spoke at JLF Adelaide this past week, and will be speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival next year, which will be happening in Jaipur from January 23 to 27, 2020.