Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite American holiday, and this has been a year where we learned to be thankful for all the things we once took for granted.  

Even though the pandemic put a damper on Diwali, last Sunday tens of thousands of people still poured out onto the streets. 

Everybody wants a piece of the first female vice president of the United States; Or at least a few degrees of separation from her.

Indians now look at the 2020 American elections and understand that there’s chaos that’s colorful and then there’s chaos thats toxic.

More than anything else the pandemic has forced us to reckon with what really lies at the heart and soul of Durga Puja. And it’s not necessarily big budgets grand feasts and corporate sponsorships.

Durga Puja, the festival of the ten armed Goddess Durga, has always been a time of excess in Kolkata. But this is the story of the “Little Durga.”

For more information visit Meghdutam Foundation (https://www.meghdutamfoundation.org/)  

Writer and actor Rupert Everett spoke recently with Sandip Roy for the Jaipur Lit. Fest. about comparing pandemics and sainthood.

The caste system is a long and controversial cultural norm in India, but now the Dalits may be getting a boost from America’s civil rights movements.  

Oct. 2nd is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, and in an angry toxic world, we would do well to remember a man who fasted, intermittently, to force us to think about a better humanity.  

…the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill.

There is a pandemic demon that needs slaying...

As San Francisco’s heat wave hits 100º Sandip Roy recalls how to battle heat waves in his native Kolkata.  

It was just two years ago that India Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality, but the real hope for change might not lie in politics.

The dogs that wander the streets in Kolkata are not strays, but part of an extended family, cared for and fed by many of the cities lesser known individuals.

Pariah Dog the movie is now available on Apple TV, iTunes and Amazon Prime

http://www.pariahdogmovie.com/  

The furor over a Kamala seems much ado over very few syllables, but how one handles the mispronunciation can be telling.  

Sandip Roy wonders if the new normal is really normal.

"Coronavirus Rhapsody" by Raúl Iravién on YouTube here:

At Bakra Mania, a goat dealership in Mumbai Fahad Zariwala runs the youtube channel FSA Entertainment which showcases many goat gems 

With the news of Olivia de Havilland’s death this week coinciding with the Indian celebration of Rakhi Purnima, Sandip reflects on how the holiday might have helped the de Havilland sisters.  

The social media app TikTok has taken India by storm, but a political storm may mean that time has run out for its users.

"To hear the full interview with Snigdha Poonam on The Sandip Roy Show on Audio Express click here." https://indianexpress.com/audio/the-sandip-roy-show/what-the-tiktok-ban-means-for-young-india-with-snigdha-poonam/6501755/

How can we possibly dream of a better future in the middle of a pandemic? 

When does phobia cross over into hate speech? 

Why is it when there is tension between two countries, the fear always seems to end up at the dining table.

The recent trouble on the 'Line of control' between China and India has spilled over into the streets of Kolkata's Chinatown.

In the midst of Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. Johnson & Johnson has announced it will stop selling skin whitening creams.

  In the news recently, statues have been defaced and pulled down from their perches ala Saddam Hussein.

The Sundarbans in Bengal, India have become a speeded up version of global climate change.

We don’t have to win the war against Covid as much as we need to learn to make peace with its existence in our world for now. 

When life gives you cyclones, make mango rice.

The COVID-19 lockdown has forced many street vendors inside, but now the sounds of the street are returning.  

The COVID pandemic has had a terrible effect on all of us, and opened our eyes to some of those who were invisible before.  

Actor Irrfan Khan wasn’t the biggest star in Bollywood, but he was unique.