The Sandip Roy Show

The Gambian cough syrup tragedy in which 66 children died has once again raised alarm about India's drug regulation policy. But was Gambia just one rotten apple? Or this apple cart itself full of loopholes? In this episode Dinesh Thakur, who became famous as a whistleblower against Ranbaxy, joins Sandip Roy to talk about his book The Truth Pill (co-written by Prashant Reddy) which looks at the state of drug regulation in India, and whether we actually get what we ordered when we buy medicines in India.

With Diwali around the corner, columnist and host of the Awful and Awesome podcast Rajyasree Sen joins Sandip Roy to talk about her latest book, The Sweet Kitchen, which includes tales and recipes of India's favourite desserts — from Daulat ki Chaat in Old Delhi to Black Rice Kheer from Manipur, to Sawdust pudding from Goa and sweet hot debates like who does the Rasgulla really belong to.

Listen till the end as Rajyasree takes part in a rapid fire, and Sandip brings you an audio postcard about the economic and environmental impact of Durga Puja.

Even though Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most well known figures in Indian history, for many, especially the young, he has become a bit of a two dimensional figure. Someone who helped us get independence from the British, but also someone whose face is on the currency notes, and who has a lot of streets named after him.

Though it is only when we read his letters to friends, family and opponents, or their accounts of encounters with him, we get a much more three dimensional picture of the Mahatma. Recently, his grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the former governor of West Bengal, has compiled and edited, A Frank Friendship, that brings out these details. The book is about the Mahatma's long history with Bengal, a state that brought him great joy, but also tested his life's philosophy. On the occasion of the 153rd anniversary of the Mahatma's birth, he joins host Sandip Roy to talk about the book, and how the state shaped the father of the nation.

Is the female CEO the only model for female empowerment? To what extent are women still split down the middle when it comes to home and work? And what does success, independence, and agency mean to women today? These are some of the questions that Shaili Chopra, the founder of SheThePeople.TV, tackles in her book, Sisterhood Economy. In this episode, she joins Sandip to talk about the book, what she found out while researching for it, and why there needs to be a generation of unlikeable women.

At a time when the government and the marketplace have assumed enormous power over our lives and choices, Rohini Nilekani argues that now is the time for civil societies to be boosted, and that India’s wealth creators need to do more about it. In this episode, she joins host Sandip Roy to discuss her latest book, ‘Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar’, in which she talks about the need for a balance between these three sectors.

Nilkani has been associated with several civil society movements, and has been a founding member of organisations such as Pratham Books, and EkStep Foundation.

In his latest book, To Raise A Fallen People, Rahul Sagar points out that the debates around what role India should play on the world stage started way back in the 19th century. This was the time when public figures were questioning the kind of power India should be, what lessons it needs to learn from Europe, and the kind of economy it should have going forward.

In this episode, Sagar, Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at NYU Abu Dhabi, joins host Sandip Roy to talk about these debates, and what they reveal about our past and present.

In 1952, the cheetah was officially declared extinct in India. Now, the animal, albeit a different subspecies, might be set for a comeback - not in the wild, but to Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh. Wildlife conservationists in India, though, are in no rush to welcome the cheetah home. In this episode, eminent conservationists Ravi Chellam and Prerna Bindra join host Sandip Roy to discuss the scientific, logical and ethical concerns around this move, and most importantly, whether the Asiatic lion will be paying the price for it.

Journalist Seema Chishti's mother, Sumitra, wrote a cookbook so that she could pass down recipes from their rather unique kitchen - a kitchen which was shared by Sumitra, who was a Kshatriya Hindu from Mysore in Karnataka, and her husband Anees, a Syed Muslim from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh. Now, in her new book, Sumitra and Anees, Chishti includes recipes from her mother's cookbook and tells the story of her parents and their marriage. In this episode, she joins Sandip Roy to talk about the book, why she chose to write it, and the increasing demonization of interfaith relationships.

Journalist Vauhini Vara's debut novel, The Immortal King Rao, has been making waves because it marries a vision of technocapitalism with caste. The book imagines a Dalit man who escapes the coconut plantations of his childhood to live the American dream and creates a company that rules the world via an algorithm. In this episode, she joins host Sandip Roy to talk about the book, caste discrimination, and what she has learned about America's tech sector while reporting on it.

Even though the Pride Month is now embraced across India, its coverage mostly focuses on gay men and sometimes transgender women activists. But lesbians seem to be largely missing from this coverage and conversation.

So in this special episode, host Sandip Roy talks to a lesbian couple, Rituparna Borah and Amrita Tripathi, living in Delhi to understand whether lesbian lives have changed since Pride became more celebrated and 'cool' in India.