The Wire Talks

She shares when she was suffering from bipolar disorders she was not in control of herself, experiencing some sharp highs and lows in her emotions. During the conversation, she takes us through her very first incident, followed by how she struggled and coped with it.

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During the interaction, Wendy Doniger shares that her mother gave her a book, A passage to India by E. M. Forster when she was 10-11 years old, which led to her developing interest in India and its tradition.

Recalling her days in India and why she decided to drape saree, she said, "When I first came to India, I wore my European clothes, I wore dresses and short skirts, and when men started staring at my legs because they weren't used to seeing women's legs at that time, so I started wearing saree and they are more comfortable."

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Our guest on The Wire Talks is Ashok Vajpeyi, a Hindi-language poet, essayist,, who published over 20 books of poetries. A Sahitya Akademi Award winner; he was the former chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi India's National Academy of Arts, Ministry of Culture, Govt of India, 2008–2011.

In this episode of The Wire Talks in conversation with our host Sidharth Bhatia, he spoke the Hindi language, and the challenges and victories of this language. He says, “Hindi is one of the most hospitable languages.” When asked if there is a readership when popular South Indian languages are translated into Hindi, he claims the readership in Hindi is limited. The Hindi literary world’s reaction to Geetanjali Shree’s victory, he mentions it was welcoming, but the negative reviews did exist. In addition to it, he shared about the challenges faced by beyond the borders created novel in the country, as government creates unavoidable hurdles.

He speaks about being in favour of the Education Minister who recently gave a statement that there is no national language in India, which is a pluralist country. He feels the government should give equal opportunity to the regional languages as it gives to English. He added, “Language is more ancient than state,” says Ashok Vajpeyi.
Listen to his opinions in this fresh episode of The Wire Talks here.

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Sri Lanka is in a bad state, as the country is suffering from severe inflation, scarcity of fuel, with things turning worse as the country also defaults with its international debts. Thus, causing turmoil in the social and political arena as well. It has resulted in countrymen protesting against the government and the Prime Minister of the country, stepping down from designation.

In this episode of The Wire Talks, our guest Sasanka Perera who teaches sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi, helps us understand the crisis in Sri Lanka. When asked, our guest if he was shocked by the current state of Sri Lanka, he responded, after observing the situation for the last two years, it was likely to happen and added that the state of the country was not unknown.

Our guest was the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences from 2011 to 2018 and the University’s Vice President from 2016 to 2019. His publications in English include Fear of the Visual? Photography, Anthropology and the Anxieties of Seeing (2020); Warzone Tourism in Sri Lanka: Tales from Darker Places in Paradise (2016); and Violence and The Burden of Memory: Remembrance and Erasure in Sinhala Consciousness (2015).

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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.

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This week’s guest on The Wire Talks is Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Navdeep Suri. In conversation with our host Sidharth Bhatia, he speaks about his passion for translation, especially of the novels penned by his grandfather Nanak Singh. During the podcast, Navdeep shares his grandfather being the eyewitness of the dark chapter of Indian history, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Further, he shares how his mother motivated him to translate his grandfather’s novel so that the stories penned by him, don’t remain restricted to the boundary of a state.

Navdeep Suri reads the verses from his grandfather's book where he described about the Jallianwala bagh massacre, "5:30 sharp the clock had struck thousand gathered in the bagh my friends..."

His English translations of his grandfather’s classic Punjabi novels have been published by Penguin as ‘The Watchmaker’ and by HarperCollins as ‘A Life Incomplete’ and ‘Khooni Vaisakhi’. His translation of the first of two novels on the partition of India in 1947 has been recently published as ‘Hymns in Blood.’

Tune into the listen to this episode.
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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.

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Taj Mahal or TejoMahalaya? Recently there was a stormy debate about whether the Taj Mahal is a Hindu Temple, Rajput Palace or mausoleum. In The Wire Talks, our host Sidharth Bhatia interacts with Rana Safvi to get more insights on it. Rana Safvi is a writer, blogger and translator. She has published eight books so far on the culture, history, and monuments of India. She has penned books- Tales from the Quran and Hadith, the Delhi Trilogy : Where Stones Speak, The Forgotten Cities of Delhi and Shahjahanabad the Living City of Old Delhi and A Saint, A Folk Tale and Other Stories: Lesser Known Monuments of India.

She has translated both the editions of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's seminal work on Delhi -Asar us Sanadid, Dastan e Ghadar and four accounts of 19th and 20th century Delhi from Urdu to English. She is also a regular contributor to various national newspapers and magazines.

Follow Rana Safvi on Twitter and Instagram @iamrana and ranasafvi.

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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. 

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Why did India drop from 142nd rank to 150th rank on the World Press Freedom Index produced Reporters Without Borders? Today in The Wire Talks episode our host Sidharth Bhatia talks to the journalist and a media freedom activist, Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific Desk at Paris-based global press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders and understands the same. Our guest shares about the freedom and limitations of the journalism world; and also states India is a deadly country for journalists.

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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.

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In this episode of The Wire Talks our host Sidharth Bhatia talks about the rise in communal violence in the story. He speaks about violence against minorities, especially Muslims, residing in the states ruled by the political party in power currently.

Joining him in this conversation is Ashutosh Varshney, a Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Brown University. He also directs the Center for Contemporary South Asia.

He has penned books such as Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy (2013), Collective Violence in Indonesia (2009), Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (Yale 2002), India in the Era of Economic Reforms (1999), and Democracy, Development and the Countryside: Urban-Rural Struggles in India (Cambridge 1995).

Follow Ashutosh Varshney on Twitter @ProfVarshney

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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.

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The episode unveils the secret of the Sassoon dynasty's rise and fall. They were one of the greatest commercial dynasties of the 19th century. The guest talks about Sassoon spreading their wings in the trade and political arena and more. Our guest Joseph Sassoon also speaks about his book, The Global Merchants: The Enterprise and Extravagance of the Sassoon Dynasty.

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Communalism riots in Gujarat 2002 witnessed massacre, arson and protests, these riots are considered as one of the most gruesome riots in the history of India. Our guest on The Wire Talks, activist and documentary filmmaker, Manishi Jani gives insight about these spine-chilling riots in Gujarat that went to the new depths of horror and threat with our host Sidharth Bhatia. In this episode, Manishi Jani spoke about Godhra train burning, destruction of shops, houses, restaurants owned by Muslims in Ahmedabad, more and the aftermath of these riots.

He adds Godhra train burning was termed as an accident by Railway commission, while conspiracy by Nanavati commission. He continues 150 litres of petrol was used in putting this train on fire, that resulted in the death of 59 pilgrims returning from Ayodhya. Manishi Jani states, “Being a muslim in Gujarat is being nobody”.

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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.

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