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The Wire Talks
The Wire Talks episodes
- Afghans Say the World Has Forgotten Us feat. Taran Khan
Afghanistan, which till the other day had thousands of American troops, has fallen to the Taliban. The swift manner in which the Taliban occupied Kabul, with the Afghan army offering no resistance, has shocked the world. The Taliban said it has changed and will not revert to its old ways, but not everyone is convinced. Ordinary citizens are scared and trying to get out of the country and the biggest impact is likely to be on the women of Afghanistan, who will have restrictions imposed on them, including the compulsory wearing of the burqa and hiding the face.
On this episode, host Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Taran Khan, an Indian journalist and author who recently wrote the book 'Shadow City - A Woman Walks Kabul'. Taran went to Kabul several times between 2006 and 2013, staying there for several weeks or months at a time.
Taran shares her experiences and perceptions about staying and living in Kabul and Afghanistan. Tune in for an eye opening conversation.
Follow Taran on Instagram and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/_tarankhan and https://twitter.com/tarankhan
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
48 min - The Restaurant Sector is in a Crisis feat. AD Singh
Among the sectors hit badly due to the prolonged lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the hospitality business. This includes, not just the big hotels, but also independent it stand alone restaurants and bars and even very small joints which have been operating for years. Many of them couldn't pay their employees and rents. There was some respite during the relaxation last year, but after the second wave, it is back to another round of the lockdown. Even now, in cities like Mumbai, restaurants can remain open only till 4pm (this has just changed to 10pm recently).
On this episode, host Sidharth Bhatia is joined by AD Singh, Entrepreneur and Founder & Managing Director of the Olive Group of Restaurants, to tell us more about how badly the hospitality business has suffered through the pandemic.
Follow AD Singh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ADsinghOlive and https://instagram.com/adsingholive
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
32 min - Women Scriptwriters Have Been Ignored in Bollywood feat. Anubha YadavThe writer is a critical part of making a film. Yet, in India, the credit goes to only the director. Audiences, and even critics, ignore the screenplay writer completely, and really, who remembers the names of the writers of even well known and admired films? Women screenwriters are even more ignored and even academic books and encyclopaedias do not acknowledge them. Why is that so?On this episode, Sidharth is joined by Anubha Yadav, Professor of Broadcast Studies in Delhi University, and also a fiction writer, set out to find more and track down many women who have written for films throughout the history of Hindi cinema, but still remain unrecognised. Her new book 'Scripting Bollywood: Candid Conversations with Women Who Write Hindi Cinema' begins in the 1930's with Devika Rani and Jaddanbai, and ends with contemporary writers like Juhi Chaturvedi. Sidharth and Anubha talk about her book and what she discovered when she researched and spoke to the women.Follow Anubha on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anubhayadavaFollow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallahbombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallahYou 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.
37 min - Hindutva Cannot Reconcile With Kabir feat. Purushottam Agrawal
School children are taught that Kabir was weaver-poet from the 15th or 16th Century, and that he wrote 'dohas'. That he spoke of unity and harmony and offered simple wisdom about love. And when he died, Hindus and Muslims both claimed him - one wanted to cremate him and the other bury him. Apart from that, very little details were given to the average student. But, Kabir was, of course, much much more than that. He was a prominent poet of the 'Bhakti Movement', one which angered the Brahmin orthodoxy, and in fact, his dohas go much beyond what is widely known.
On this episode, Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Purushottam Agrawal, who has been interested in (one might even say obsessed with) Kabir since his student days in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Kabir was a subject of his PhD dissertation and he has already written one book in Hindi on Kabir's poetry. Purushottam's new book 'Kabir, Kabir: The life and work of the early modern poet-philosopher' takes his research much further and squarely places him as the voice of modernity, and as somebody who wrote in everyday language instead of in Sanskrit or Persian, which the elite used. As such, he was the voice of the people.
On this episode, Purushottam talks to Sidharth about why Kabir is not only significant, but also relevant to our times. Tune in for an amazing and fascinating conversation.
Follow Purushottam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/puru_ag
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
45 min - The Parsi Community Has Contributed a lot to India feat. Coomi Kapoor
Coomi Kapoor is a well known journalist who has been writing on the the inner workings of the corridors of power for many many years. Her last book 'The Emergency: A Personal History' chronicles the lives of her own family and her father's during the internal emergency from 1975 to 1977. Hey new book is about Parsis, or more specifically, the icons of the community ranging from Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, the tycoon of the 19th Century, to Nusli Wadia, to Freddie Mercury, who's real name, as we all know, was Farrokh Bulsara.
On this episode, Sidharth talks to Coomi about how she wrote and researched for her new book, how she got into writing, and tons more.
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
44 min - In UAPA Process is the Punishment feat. Shadan Farasat
The death of Father Stan Swamy, an 80 year old who was in prison for 9 months, facing charges of terrorism, has once again focused sharp attention on the issue of human rights. A crusader for the rights of tribals, Father Swamy has been started under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which allows the police to hold the accused for almost unlimited period and bail is virtually impossible to get. 15 others including Prof. Anand Teltumbde and trade unionist and activist Sudha Bhardwaj have been in jail for 3 years also under this very law. Human rights have always been a controversial subject in India. Governments have been openly hostile and the public suspicious of what they mean. This has allowed the police, under all kind of political dispensations, to reply disregard civil liberties laws and arrest suspects at random, many of whom are found to be totally innocent many years later.
What exactly do we mean by missing human rights?
On this episode, host Sidharth Bhatia is joined by advocate Shadan Farasat, who had defended many individuals targeted by the State. A graduate of the National Law School of India and Harvard, he practises in the Supreme Court. His areas of practise include Constitutional Law, Civil and Criminal Law and also Commercial Law.
Follow Shadan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shadanhci
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
33 min - The BJP Has Not Taken Well its Loss in West Bengal feat. Suhas Palshikar
The general elections are are at least three years away, and already the first stirrings of political activity have already begun. Of course, the state elections seem like good indicators as to where voting patterns lie, but as we know, in the past, state elections have not been good representation of how the national vote would go. Nonetheless, the BJP, which is always in election mode, has started preparing because it also has to now go fight elections in the crucial state of UP, and the opposition is trying to see what possibilities exist.
On this episode, host Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Dr. Suhas Palshikar, eminent political scientist. Dr. Palshikar is an Indian academic and social and political scientist. He taught Political Science at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, and is the Chief Editor of Studies in Indian Politics. He is also co-director of Lokniti Programme on Comparative Democracy, CSDS. Tune in as Dr. Palshikar breaks all this down, and tons more.
Follow Dr. Palshikar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalshikarSuhas
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
52 min - The Anti Digital Drive is a Distraction feat. Mishi Choudhary
Internet freedoms have become a topic of worldwide debate. In India, we have seen growing government interference in the digital domain. The internet has been shut down at will, digital news platforms are threatened and stringent new regulations have been imposed on independent digital news sites. What does all this indicate and how can citizens resist this encroachment on their rights?
On this episode, host Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Mishi Choudhari, a technology lawyer, online civil liberties activist with a pretty long record of raising these issues. Mishi is the Legal Director at the Software Freedom Law Centre in Delhi which she founded and practises in India and New York.
The centre has conducted landmark litigation cases, petitioned the government of India on freedom of expression, and campaigned for WhatsApp and Facebook to fix a feature on their platform which has been used to harass women in India.
Mishi and Sidharth talk about all this and more on this episode of The Wire Talks.
Follow Mishi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MishiChoudhary
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
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.
47 min - Government is Becoming More Intolerant feat. ManjulThe Indian government has been regularly asking Twitter to take down posts especially of those who are critical of it. Recently, it told Twitter to remove the tweets of a few people, and one of them was the cartoonist Manjul, whose cartoons appear all over the place. No one knows which particular department wrote to Twitter, but the social media platform, in the notice that they sent to Manjul, said, "We are writing to inform you that Twitter had received a request from Indian law enforcement regarding your Twitter account @MANJULtoonsz that claims that the content violates the laws of India." No details are available on what particular tweets violate which laws of India.Shortly after this happened, it emerged that this notice is office sent out two account holders. Manjul simply ignored it and went about his work but almost immediately after, his contract with a news portal was abruptly cancelled. The cartoonist has been in the business for many many years, but rarely talks to the media or even publishes his photos online. His cartoons are very sharp and I think they speak for themselves. In the past, Manjul has been critical of past prime ministers and governments as well.Manjul joins host Sidharth Bhatia on this episode of The Wire Talks to talk about the background to what is happening, his philosophy to cartooning, and a little bit about his early days.Sidharth and Manjul also talk about whether Manjul ever got pressure when criticising previous governments and PMs, the types of journalists and editors running news outlets today, why this government seemingly gives more importance to Hindi news, the cartoonists who inspire him, and more. Tune in to this amazing conversation.Follow Manjul on Twitter and Instagram: https://twitter.com/MANJULtoons and https://instagram.com/manjultoonsFollow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallahbombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallahYou 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.
40 min - This Regime is Frightened feat. Jawhar SircarA new set of rules imposed by the central government recently, will make it almost impossible for retired civil servants to write and publish anything that is critical of government policies. According to these rules, any writing by retired bureaucrats and intelligence officers must be cleared by their former departments before it can be published. If they don't do so, the risk losing their pensions. Regular writers for publications and websites are stunt by these new regulations, already many of them have gone silent.On this episode, Sidharth Bhatia is joined by Jawhar Sircar, who has become a very familiar name with his prolific writing on issues of governance and more. Jawhar Sircar retired recently after 40 years in the civil services, and his last job was as CEO of Prasar Bharti, one of the largest public broadcasters in the world.
Sidharth and Jawhar discuss the implications of these new set of rules. Tune in to this invigorating conversation.
Follow Jawhar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jawharsircarFollow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallahbombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallahYou 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.
55 min
About The Wire Talks
From the publisher's feed
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.