The Coffee House Experience

Eminent film academician Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay talks about his journey from Engineering to Film studies, the interconnection between society and cinema starting from the "counter-culture era" of 1960s to the more "structured age" of 1990s, en route digressing into the dichotomy of cinema as art and business, impact of popular mainstream cinema, and much more.

Pratyay and Srinjoy elaborately discuss the on-going conflict between Russia and Ukraine with eminent political scientist Rajesh Rajagopalan (JNU). This episode is in English.

SUDEEP CHAKRAVARTY is an award - winning author of bestselling works of narrative non - fiction, including Plassey: The Battle that Changed the Course of Indian History, The Bengalis : A Portrait of Community (shortlisted for The Hindu Prize 2018, and Tata Literature Live! Award 2018). An extensively published columnist, he has over three decades of experience in media. Sudeep has worked with major global and Indian media organisations including the Asian Wall Street Journal, where he began his career and he has held leadership positions at Sunday, the India Today Group, and HT Media.

In this episode he joins Srinjoy and Soumik to uncover the intellectual journey that culminated in the form of a book on Plassey, the war that set the stage for the East India Company's rule over the entire Indian subcontinent, and en route he breaks many myths from all sides.

Prof. Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay, a renowned economist from ISI Delhi, known for his works on public education, healthcare and rural employment discusses various issues of public education in India, including the role of public investment, politics, perception of education in society and many other things with Soumik and Pratyay.

While analyzing romantic relationship, friendship and the tradition of informal discussion (Adda) in and around Kolkata, Nabamita Das, a sociologist by training, realized that only a researcher's lens might not suffice to capture the fundamental essence of these intimate human expressions. Instead, she approached these quests within her personal space. Eventually, these quests, along with her musical inclination led to creation of a new musical force, Borno Anonyo.

In this episode Pratyay, Soumik and Srinjoy pick her mind about her two journeys as a sociologist and as a musician, and how they ultimately unify into a single one.

Born in Silchar, and brought up in Kolkata, Ronny Sen's political activism was shaped by the Bengali nationalism of Assam's Barak Valley. Already a renowned photographer, Ronny has recently ventured into film-making, and with his first full-length movie "Cat Sticks" he made a ground-breaking debut. Int his episode he opens up about all of these freely with Srinjoy and Pratyay.

Pratyay, Srinjoy and Soumik chat with one of the most popular independent film makers of Bengal, Pradipta Bhattacharyya about his life, thoughts, views and experience in making cinema.

Universal Basic Income is one of the very few policy proposals, which is supported by many people across the philosophical/political/economic spectrum. However, opinions differ significantly when it comes to implementation, framework and other details. In this episode Prof. Maitreesh Ghatak, (currently at London School of Economics) discusses various aspects of UBI and other things with Srinjoy and Soumik.

• Maitreesh Ghatak's webpage: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/GHATAK/

• Maitreesh Ghatak's blog: https://maitreesh-ghatak.blogspot.com/

Diptakriti Chaudhuri, a highly successful marketing professional, maintains an amazing alternative career as a popular writer and blogger, writing regularly about movies, books, Indian societies and more. In this episode Srinjoy and Soumik pick his mind about these two shades of his life.

• Diptakriti's blog: https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/

In this free-flowing conversation Srinjoy, Pratyay and Soumik discusses their journey starting from Jadavpur University's ETCE department.