Sandip Roy's Dispatches from Kolkata

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.

I had assumed the lockdown was a time when the frenetic world would finally slow down... 

In the year 1427, there will be no celebration. 

  Nature marks the season whether or not our human world is out of whack, but soon it will all be back to its old noisy polluted self. But for these few weeks as humans suffer, the earth is healing itself. I just wish we didn’t need a pandemic to hear our earth breathe.

This week Sandip remembers his early childhood attraction to that group of 'mustachioed morons.'

As the world self-isolates and more and more countries enact lockdown policies, Sandip reflects on the connections between us, and the responsibility of us all to remain apart.  

Could the global outbreak of COVID-19 keep us apart, in more ways than just physical.

The Indian festival ‘Holi’ is usually a riot of abandonment and color…but then Corona came to town.  

I am a samosa and this is my sad sad story.

Sandip Roy looks at all the ways Trump’s recent visit to India has been a benefit to all concerned.  

To see the video of Trump as Baahubali visit 

  The wealth gap in india is made clear by just a few families' extravgent wealth. 

Sandip takes us to one of his favorite places, the Kolkata Book Fair, now in it’s 44th year!  

American author Katherine Eban has put Indian pharma on the literary map...

Sandip explores the very unique sounds that make up a Kolkata winter.

After watching “Tales of the City” on Netflix, Sandip reflects on his own tale of the city.

Sandip Roy reflects on the fast paced decade that defined “Social Media.”

There are protests in many cities all over India with signs saying No NPR.  

India has scores of literature festivals these days. But the Rainbow Lit Fest in Delhi this December was still special….

How did just a few thousand British control the country of India? 

She comes once a year. Sometimes she is jet black, sometimes she is blue, a dark midnight blue or the powdery blue of a summer evening sky. While the rest of India celebrates Diwali with its sweets and fireworks, Kolkata gets ready for the arrival of the Goddess Kali, the one of the deep blue night.

Many things divide a country, but it’s the overlooked, personal slights that hurt the most.