The Wire Talks

This week on The Wire Talks, Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Harsh Mander, author, columnist, teacher and social activist. Harsh is an activist for harmony and love. In 2002, Harsh Mander left his job as an IAS officer after the riots in Gujarat. He has since worked on Right to Information at the policy level, and also worked with victims of marginalized and disadvantaged communities. In 2017, he took a Karwan e Mohabbat, a caravan of love, on a journey of atonement and solidarity, and found minorities everywhere in the country living in fear.
On this episode, Sidharth and Harsh talk about Harsh leaving his IAS job, what made him leave the IAS, why he felt that our country was losing everything that was precious to us, why our constitution is in need of protection, why our system seems to always let down victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Delhi anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and the Bombay riots of 1992-93, what it was like being a human rights defender for the Gujarat riots victims, the similarities between all these historical unrests and the current scenario, how our leaders and authorities can do right by these victims of mass violence, how things in this regard have gotten even worse today in Delhi, why minorities are living in fear today, communal violence and lynchings, the problem with calling inter-religion unions as 'love jihad', and lots lots more. Tune in for an eye opening conversation.

Follow Harsh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/harsh_mander

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

125 years ago, Bombay was hit by a deadly disease called 'the plague'. Nobody had seen anything like it, a large number of people were losing their lives everyday due to this disease, and the hospitals were full of patients in trying to combat it. The plague spread to other cities and localities as well. By the time it ended, more than a million people had lost their lives. The colonial administration, which ran Bombay at the time, took matters in their own hands and went about the task of containing the disease with clinical ruthlessness - crowded homes were demolished, people were displaced and entire areas were cleaned up. In the end, however, a newly laid out city emerged.

On this episode, host Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Dr. Prashant Kidambi, author of the book 'The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920' and Associate Professor of Colonial Urban History at the University of Leicester, to talk about how he traced the genesis and aftermath of the plague, a time when new roads, suburbs and a new way of living was born, and to explain the parallels between the Bombay plague of 1896 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Tune in for an amazing and informative conversation.

Check out Dr. Prashant's aforementioned book: https://www.amazon.in/dp/1138564710/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_MUHZFbTWD6BGV

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Sidharth Bhatia is joined by the extremely talented filmmaker and screenwriter Zoya Akhtar. Zoya has been a part of some of the most successful and well received Hindi movies in recent years. With every film of hers, Zoya's reputation as a good and bankable director has only grown.
On this episode, Sidharth and Zoya talk about how she got interested in movies, growing up in a film industry family with screenwriter parents and how that played into how she looked at films from a young age, how her films often feel like a blend between Indian as well as western influences, the 'gaze' that keeps changing when making a film or any other project, how working on Gully Boy was different than working on Dil Dhadakne Do, how she got to work on Gully Boy and how she got in touch with rapper Naezy for it, the importance of layered characters, certain backlash that Zoya got for Dil Dhadakne Do, the various upcoming projects Zoya is working on, and lots lots more. Tune in for an amazing conversation.

Follow Zoya on Instagram: https://instagram.com/zoieakhtar

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Smog issues in parts of India, especially in the north, have reached hazardous levels. This is the case not just in Delhi and it's neighbourhoods, but in most of North India. Residents are breathing not just foul smelling air, but also air which is extremely dangerous to their health and wellbeing.

This week on The Wire Talks, Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Siddharth Singh. Siddharth Singh is the Lead India Analyst and Coordinator at the International Energy Agency (IEA), and is the author of the book 'The Great Smog of India'. That's exactly what he joins Sidharth Bhatia to talk about on this episode. They discuss why it seems like nothing major and effective has been done on the matter of the smog in all these years, eventhough we know by now that this is an annual issue, and more importantly, what can infact be done to battle this major health hazard. They also talk about some health issues caused by the smog, including Vitamin D deficiencies, respiratory problems, and more. Tune in for a truly informative episode.

Follow Siddharth Singh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/siddharth3

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Ramayana is an integral part of the Indian ethos. Every child in India knows the basic story of the Ramayana. There are hundreds of versions of the story in the country and in other parts of southeast Asia. Apart from the cultural traditions that reflect the diversity of this vast land, the Ramayana has now also become a political weapon of sorts.

With Diwali right around the corner, on this episode, Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Arshia Sattar, an inspiring Indian translator, facilitator, author and director. Her book - 'Valmiki's Ramayana', is an abridged translation of the epic - an epic which is said to be written 2500 years ago. A PhD in South Asian languages and Indian civilizations from the University of Chicago, Arshia has also studied under the famous scholar, Wendy Doniger, and the scholar poet A. K. Ramanujan.

On the episode, Sidharth talks to Arshia about how different people see the Ramayana, and what she feels about how it should be looked at - as a piece of literature, or an epic, or as mythology, or as tradition or history, or something else altogether? They also discuss how Arshia got interested in working in this field and what got her interested in Ramayana in particular, how every language and every subculture has its own Ramayana, how it's become the fulcrum of the 'nationalist' culture, how it has increasingly become about 'Ram Rajya' - or the idea of the ideal kingdom, how the epic actually celebrates diversity, the idea of chastity in relation to the Ramayana, how different cultures and different people put their own twists on the Ramayana, like author Anand Neelakanthan's book 'Asura', why Hanuman played a huge part in why she got interested in this and how she went about translating the text which is one of the thickest things in the game. All this and more, on this episode of Cyrus Says.

Check out Arshia's book: https://www.amazon.in/dp/1538113686/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_fabt1_xBtQFbSG1J7N7

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the very 1st episode of The Wire Talks with Sidharth Bhatia, Founding Editor of The Wire, where he talks to thought leaders and opinion formers about various happenings in the news and beyond.

On this first episode, Sidharth is joined by a most esteemed guest - Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament and Author, to mark the 36th anniversary of the death of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, India's first woman Prime Minister, and discuss some key points from her political career, as well as talk about her indomitable legacy.

For 18 years before her death, Indira Gandhi was the dominant political force in the country. She is mostly admired and remembered fondly, but also has her critics who say that she was an imperious non-democrat who destroyed institutions. But ofcourse, it's not as simple as that. Tune in to listen to Sidharth Bhatia and Jairam Ramesh discuss Indira Gandhi in great detail, tell some fascinating stories about her life and break down various aspects of her career on this episode.

Check out Jairam Ramesh's books: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B071W6792F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Am.NFbYVF8RFV , https://www.amazon.in/dp/9386797267/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Rn.NFbAVG84AZ and https://www.amazon.in/dp/0670092320/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_tp.NFbZAEP35B

Follow Jairam Ramesh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jairam_Ramesh

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wire Talks is a weekly podcast, in which each week host Sidharth Bhatia, Founder Editor of The Wire, will chat with guests on politics, society and culture. The guests may or may not be in the headlines, but they will definitely have a lot of interesting things to say. With a running time of 30 minutes and maybe more, these chats will not be like much of the mainstream media today, or like the instant gratification provided by social media.

Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Instagram and Twitter @bombaywallah : https://twitter.com/bombaywallah

You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.