Readiscover the world of words and ideas.

Aarti Pathak

Aarti Pathak is an author, poet and communications professional whose writing often explores love, life, grief, illness, faith and inner resilience. Writing for nearly two decades across anthologies, magazines, and books, her debut memoir, Triple Negative: a tale of love, faith, and surrender, chronicles her journey through the sudden loss of her mother and her own battle with cancer. Known for her quiet, reflective voice, she writes at the intersection of lived experience and philosophical inquiry. She also finds joy in singing, dancing and crafts as playful ways of reconnecting with the self.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 1:20 pm
Hurt Locker : Jerry Pinto and Aarti Pathak on empathy, the need for palliative care and the resilience of human spirit. In conversation with Shruti Mohta

Abhijeet Gogoi

Abhijeet Gogoi is an Assamese poet with two poetry collections, Music Chair (2022) and Anya Ata Dinor Babe (2024). He has also published in leading magazines like Gariyoshi, Satsori and Prakash. His poems have been translated into other Indian languages and featured in Sahitya Akademi’s journals such as Indian Literature, Samakalin Bharatiya Sahitya, and Bharatiya Jnanpith’s magazine Naya Gyanodaya. He has received the Sahitya Akademi Young Authors Travel Grant (2024) and the Asam Sahitya Sabha Yuva Award (Kabyashree Hazarika Trust Award, 2023–2025). He has participated in several literary festivals, including the Festival of Letters 2025—Asia’s largest literature festival—organized by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. He was recently invited to ‘Telangana Meets North East India’, organized by Raj Bhavan Telangana.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:10 am
The Republic of Poetry : Readings by Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay and Kadambari Kaul

Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee

Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an economist and writer, currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT and a Founder and Co-Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, along with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, for their groundbreaking work in developing innovative experimental approaches to alleviating global poverty. Their fieldwork has significantly influenced public policy and guided transformative shifts in development economics. He has authored a wide range of essays and books, including Poor Economics, Good Economics for Hard Times, Cooking to Save Your Life, and Chhaunk: On Food, Economics and Society. He has also directed a couple of documentary films. His work reflects an ever-evolving, multidisciplinary, and deeply compelling engagement with life’s near-infinite questions.

Attending Session

January 27, 2026 ● 6:00 pm
Poor Economics Revisited : Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee discusses the new edition of his book, and what has changed since its first edition, with Jyotsna Mohan

Agnijit Sen

Agnijit Sen, popularly known as Mirchi Agni, is a content creator with Radio Mirchi and Revsportz Bangla. He currently acts in and directs the audiobook series Sunday Suspense and also serves as the Head of Content, Revsportz Bangla. He was one of the lead actors in the first Bangla social media viral series, O Maa Go. Known for his wit and sense of humour, he is a prolific on-stage host and has moderated several large-scale events.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 12.45 pm
Mahidadur Antidote : Dipanwita Roy discusses her award-winning story with Agnijit Sen

January 22, 2026 ● 1:40 pm
Parashuramer Sangraha @ 100 : Biswajit Ray, Agnijit Sen and Srijato in conversation in conversation with Nilanjan Mukherjee

January 24, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Samudrer Daak : Aparajita Dasgupta and Rik Sengupta on their co-authored murder mystery. In conversation with Agnijit Sen

Ahon Gooptu

Ahon Gooptu is a playwright-actor, theatre producer, and performance studies scholar. He is drawn to interdisciplinary collaborations that tell queer, brown, and im/migrant narratives, often playing with memory in non-linear ways. He has worked with Steppenwolf in Chicago, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Taproot Theatre in Seattle, Treasure Trunk Theatre in New York, Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo, and Ranan, The Red Curtain, and Pickle Factory Dance Foundation in Kolkata, among other notable companies. He is a founding collective member of Curl, co-founder and former Managing Producer of Side B Society, and a former Artistic Associate of Make/Shift Theatre Company. His publications include Labor Day Reunion (Writers Workshop, forthcoming in 2026) and All That Glistens (Grinnell College Press, 2021). Recent theatre credits include Seasons of Love, Item, Looking For, Taramandal! Ek Naya Safar, and Subject for a Short Story, among others.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Grandiloquence to Emojis : Hal Cazalet and Atri Bhattacharya on the use of language at a time of Snapchat, LOL and smileys. In conversation with Ahon Gooptu

January 24, 2026 ● 3:20 pm
The Allen Ginsberg Centenary : Deborah Baker and Subodh Sarkar in conversation with Pinaki De. Readings by Ahon Gooptu

Amaan Ali Bangash & Ayaan Ali Bangash

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 7:45 pm
AfterWords : KaLaM Finale: Sarod recital by Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash. Accompanied by Satyajit Talwalkar and Anubrata Chatterjee on tabla

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. He studied in Delhi, Oxford, and Alexandria. He is the author of several acclaimed works of fiction and non-fiction, including The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, the Ibis Trilogy—comprising Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire—The Great Derangement, Gun Island, The Nutmeg’s Curse, Jungle Nama, The Living Mountain, Smoke and Ashes, Wild Fictions (a collection of essays), and his latest novel, Ghost-Eye. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages, and he has been widely awarded and felicitated across the world. In 2019, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the past decade; the same year, India’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award, was conferred on him. In 2024, he received the prestigious Erasmus Prize for his writings on the planetary crisis and climate change. He was awarded the Pak Kyongni Prize, Korea’s most esteemed international literary honour, in 2025.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 6:10 pm
Ghost-Eye : Amitav Ghosh discusses his long-awaited novel with Malavika Banerjee

January 25, 2026 ● 3:00 pm
Climate Chroniclers : Barbara Kingsolver and Amitav Ghosh discuss the way their stories engage with a rapidly changing planet. In conversation with Keshava Guha

January 26, 2026 ● 6:40 pm
The End of the West is not the End of The World : Amitav Ghosh, Salil Tripathi and Rana Dasgupta discuss what a changing world order means for the arts. In conversation with Ankita Mukherji

Ananda Lal

Ananda Lal, a theatre specialist, retired as Professor of English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, where he also directed university theatre. His important books include Rabindranath Tagore: Three Plays and the Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre. He has translated drama from Bengali to English and reviewed theatre for 40 years. He directs Writers Workshop, Kolkata, and runs KolkataTheatre.com. His new book Centrestage is a collection of essays on Theatre, Indian and Intercultural.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 6:40 pm
Centrestage :  Ananda Lal on his essays on theatre. In conversation with Kathakali Jana

Ananya Vajpeyi

Ananya Vajpeyi is a Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. An intellectual historian, political theorist and writer, she was educated in Delhi, Oxford and Chicago. Her new book, PLACE: Intimate Encounters with Cities is published by Women Unlimited Ink (2026). Her translation of her father Kailash Vajpeyi’s poems from Hindi, Signature on the Wind, is forthcoming from Sahitya Akademi in 2026. Her first book, Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India (2012) won the Thomas J Wilson Memorial Prize from Harvard University Press, the Crossword Award for Non-Fiction, the Tata First Book Prize for Non-Fiction, and was listed among Books of the Year by The Guardian and The New Republic. Apart from her scholarly work, she has published opinion, reportage, non-fiction and short fiction in leading newspapers, magazines and edited volumes in India and abroad. She edited AROOP: Journal of Art, Ideas and Poetry from 2019 to 2024. She is currently completing a book about the modern life of Sanskrit.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
Writing From Memory : Geoff Dyer and Ananya Vajpeyi on the past and remembered places. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti

Anindita Ghose

Anindita Ghose is a writer, journalist and communications consultant based in Bombay. She is the author of the novel The Illuminated, which BBC Radio 4 said ‘gives voice to a new generation’. She was formerly the editor of the Saturday magazine Mint Lounge and the features director of Vogue India and led strategic communications for a global social impact consultancy. She studied journalism and linguistics at Columbia University and the University of Mumbai. Her new book The Only City is a landmark anthology of short stories on Bombay that she has conceived and edited, and it also features a short story by her.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
The Only City : Anindita Ghose and Manu Joseph discuss the anthology celebrating Mumbai. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

January 26, 2026 ● 5:00 pm
The First 25 Years : Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai on completing 25 years of writing and being chroniclers of the quarter century. In conversation with Anindita Ghose

Anjana Basu

At the age of six, Anjana Basu was one of the winners of an all-UK essay competition organised by Cadbury’s and by 12, one of her first stories was serialised by The Times of India. A few years later, Kamala Das, then poetry editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, chose one of her poems for publication marking the beginning of a long and varied literary journey. To date, she has published 11 novels, one work of translation and three books of poetry. Her poetry collections include The Chess Players and Other Poems, Picture Poems and Word Seasons (Authorpress). Her poems have also appeared in a Penguin India anthology and internationally in several journals. One of her stories Smoke Gets In Your Eyes was broadcast by the BBC. Her first collection of magical realism, The Agency Raga, was published in 1994 followed by the novel Curses in Ivory in 2003. In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland where she began work on her second novel, Black Tongue, published in 2007. Conspiracy of Aunts, the sequel to Curses in Ivory, was released in 2019. She began writing for children in 2010 with Chinku and the Wolfboy followed by Rhythms of Darkness and her acclaimed Jim Corbett series on big cat conservation. Most recently, she published Did Someone Say Woof?

Attending Session

January 22, 2026 ● 11:50 am
Canines and Coyotes : Lily Kingsolver and Anjana Basu discuss stories from nature and the cautionary tales within them. In conversation with Sakhi Singhi

Ankhi Mukherjee

Ankhi Mukherjee is Professor of English and World Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow in English at Wadham College. Her teaching and research specialisms lie in Victorian Literature, Culture, Postcolonial Studies and Intellectual History. She is currently teaching at the Institute of World Literature at Harvard University.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 3:10 pm
Mahasweta Devi @ 100 :  Salil Tripathi and Ankhi Mukherjee on Mahasweta Devi’s presence in world literature. In conversation with Sohini Chattopadhyay

January 26, 2026 ● 3:30 pm
Silverware On The Indian Bookshelf : Ankhi Mukherjee, Daisy Rockwell, Kanishka Gupta and Upamanyu Chatterjee on the importance of literature awards and the elusive literature Nobel. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Ankita Mukherji

Ankita Mukherji is an independent media consultant. In her two decades as a broadcast journalist, she was the anchor of several shows on NDTV including Politically Incorrect and The 10 PM News. She produced India’s first literary tv show, Just Books, and has also worked in publishing.

Attending Sessions

January 26, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
New York, New York : Prabal Gurung, Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on the city as muse, home, aggravation and hope. In conversation with Ankita Mukherji

January 26, 2026 ● 6:40 pm
The End of the West is not the End of The World : Amitav Ghosh, Salil Tripathi and Rana Dasgupta discuss what a changing world order means for the arts. In conversation with Ankita Mukherji

Anupam Roy

Anupam Roy is a well-known, popular singer-songwriter and music director. He has composed, written lyrics and sung for many Bengali films. In 2015, he made his Bollywood debut with the film Piku for which he won a Filmfare Award for Best Background Score. Winner of four Filmfare Awards, he has also received a National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song Tumi Jake Bhalobasho from the film Praktan. He is also a prolific writer and has been published in various online and print magazines and newspapers.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 11:40 am
Nila Nilabjo : Anupam Roy discusses his book on relationships and arguments. Readings and discussion with Sanchari Mookherjee

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Lightning Kid : Viswanathan Anand discusses his new book and life lessons gleaned from the chessboard. In conversation with Anupam Roy

January 27, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Oirabot ar Dragon Master : Anupam Roy in conversation with Chandrimaa Roy

Anusha Viswanathan

Anusha Viswanathan is an actor, born and brought up in Calcutta, with a love for books. She has a Masters in English Literature from Jadavpur University. Her filmography includes Aparajito directed by Anik Dutta, a film on the making of Pather Panchali where she played the character of Durga. She has worked with directors like Mainak Bhaumik, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Srijit Mukherji and is also well known for her work on Bengali television.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Bhoot Bangla : Arundhati Nath and Jashodhara Chakraborti on giving Bangla ghost fiction a new life through translation. In conversation with Anusha Viswanathan

January 25, 2026 ● 10:45 am
While We Wait : Durjoy Datta on his new novel. In conversation with Anusha Viswanathan

January 27, 2026 ● 10:30 am
Jane Austen @ 250 : Kate Evans and Anusha Viswanathan on why it is a universally acknowledged fact that Austen’s books are timeless. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

Anuurag Poddar

An alumnus of La Martinere and St Xavier’s College and a businessman by profession, Anuurag Poddar is a Hindustani Classical music aficionado and a keen vocalist who has been pursuing his hobby under the tutelage of Pt. Mohan Lal Mishra and Pt. Deepak Mishra of the Banaras Gharana. A movie-buff, watching monochrome films of Bollywood is what piques his interest. He has grown up idolising icons like Mohammad Rafi, Shammi Kapoor, Guru Dutta and Raj Kapoor.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 4:30 pm
Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye Toh Kya Hai : Nasreen Munni Kabir, Sathya Saran and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur on the melancholy and magic of Guru Dutt. In conversation with Anuurag Poddar

Aparajita Dasgupta

Aparajita Dasgupta is a historian of gender and an author of fiction in Bengali. She studied in Presidency College and the University of Calcutta and taught previously in various government colleges in West Bengal and at St Mary’s College, USA, as a Fulbright Visiting Professor. She is currently CEO of West Bengal State Book Board, Kolkata. Her book, For Home, Family, and Country: Women and the Politics of Gender in Bengal, 1870-1947, was published in 2025. Over two decades, her creative writing in Bengali has produced 12 books, including novels, short stories, essays, autobiographical vignettes and children’s stories.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Samudrer Daak : Aparajita Dasgupta and Rik Sengupta on their co-authored murder mystery. In conversation with Agnijit Sen

January 26, 2026 ● 3:40 pm
For Home, Family And Nation : Aparajita Dasgupta discusses the lives of women in Bengal through a period of social and political flux. In conversation with Debnita Chakravarti

Aritra Sarkar

Aritra Sarkar is a storyteller with a social mission: to help people lead more meaningful, purpose-driven lives. His work blends narrative power with psychological insight, inviting readers to reflect, heal and grow. His debut, Goliath of Shenzhen (2016), broke new ground as the world’s first dual-facing novel, told in both prose and graphic formats, encouraging readers to reclaim their inner strength in the face of authoritarianism. In 2024, he published Stress to Zest: Stories and Lessons for Personal Transformation , the first volume in his Parables for Growth series. The second volume, Are You Lonesome?, will launch in Feb 2026. The series explores how storytelling, when paired with practical wisdom, can serve as a catalyst for emotional and spiritual transformation. His most recent title, Soulful Cal! (Wordphonics, 2025), is a lyrical tribute to his beloved hometown, Kolkata, capturing its soul through essays that blend memory, nostalgia and cultural commentary. Today, he is spearheading an educational initiative with the ABP Group to train the next generation of journalists. When he’s not teaching at the CMI Institute, he devotes his time to spiritual exploration and literary creation. An alumnus of New York University, he is also passionate about tennis, fitness, travel, cinema and, above all, human connection.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Love, Life and Drama : Sohini Roychowdhury discusses her book on the theatre practices across India with Aritra Sarkar

January 26, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
Journeying Into Oneself : Namita Devidayal, Aritra Sarkar and Jonquil Cooper discuss their journey, journals and serendipity. In conversation with Priyambada Jayakumar

Aruna Chakravarti

Aruna Chakravarti has been principal of a prestigious women’s college of Delhi University for 10 years. She is a well-known academic, creative writer and translator with 18 published books.. They comprise five novels, two books of short stories, two academic works and nine works of translation. Her first novel, The Inheritors, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her second, Jorasanko, received critical acclaim and became a best seller. Its sequel, Daughters of Jorasanko, has sold widely and received rave reviews. Her novel Suralakshmi Villa was adjudged ‘Novel of the Year (India 2020)’ by Indian Bibliography published in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, UK. Her other well-known works include The Mendicant Prince and Through a Looking Glass: Stories. Her translated works include an anthology of songs from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitabitaan, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s Srikanta and Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Those Days, First Light and Primal Woman: Stories. Her most recent translation, a curated selection of short stories, is titled Rising from the Dust. Among the various awards she has received are the Vaitalik Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Sarat Puraskar. She is also a script writer and producer of seven multimedia presentations based on her novels.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 2:40 pm
Is There Anybody Out There? : Sanjoy K. Roy and Aruna Chakravarti on ghosts, spooks and the unknown. In conversation with Vikram Iyengar

Arunabha Deb

Arunabha Deb is Managing Partner of Avijit Deb Partners, a Kolkata-based law firm. He takes an interest in Hindustani music, on which he has written for multiple publications in India. He graduated in English Literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi and obtained his LLB at Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. He learnt to play the sarod under the tutelage of Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta. Though an artiste with All India Radio, self-assessment prevents him from performing anywhere.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 11:15 am
Focus on Maharashtra: The Musical Legacy : Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Suresh Talwalkar and Kathakali Jana on Maharashtra as a nursery of Hindustani Classical music and the need to nurture its syncretic legacy. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

January 24, 2026 ● 1:20 pm
As Time Goes By : Geoff Dyer discusses his last two books, The Last Days of Roger Federer and Homework. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Arunava Sinha

Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from Bengali and Hindi into English. He also translates fiction and poetry from English and Hindi into Bengali. He has translated 100 books that have been published so far in India, the UK, the USA and Australia. He teaches at Ashoka University, where he is also the co-director of the Ashoka Centre for Translation.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 12:10 pm
Kalodighi : Ujjal Sinha and his translator Arunava Sinha on writing and transcreating. In conversation with Mou Mukherjee

January 25, 2026 ● 11:30 am
A Hundred Translations and Counting : Arunava Sinha celebrates his 100th translation and discusses ways of bringing Bangla classics to the world. In conversation with Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee. Short readings by Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee and Mou Mukherjee

Arundhati Nath

Arundhati Nath’s debut collection of short-story translations, The Phantom’s Howl: Classic Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings from Bengal, was published in February 2025. She has almost three decades of experience in content writing, editing, event curation and marketing. Having begun her career as an editor in leading publishing houses and led programming at FICCI Frames, she is currently Director of Content and Communication at Teamwork Arts, producer of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival and other well-known cultural and literary experiences across the world and India. She also curates and produces Teamwork Arts’ series on tech and innovation, Be Inspired, held in partnership with the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. She is working on her next book – another supernatural anthology.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Bhoot Bangla : Arundhati Nath and Jashodhara Chakraborti on giving Bangla ghost fiction a new life through translation. In conversation with Anusha Viswanathan

January 25, 2026 ● 6:20 pm
Ghost Writing : Daisy Rockwell and Arundhati Nath on their tryst with the supernatural. In conversation with Debanjan Chakarbarti

Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande

Ashwini Bhide Deshpande is a Hindustani classical singer in the famous Jaipur-Atrauli Khayal singing tradition. She chose music as her first love and career after completing a PhD in Biochemistry at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, University of Mumbai. She was born into a musical family and received the Sangeet Visharad of the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and the President’s Gold Medal in All India Radio Music Competition at the age of 16. Along with classical Khayal, semi-classical genres like thumri-dadra, devotional bhajans/Marathi abhangs and Sanskrit hymns/stotras effortlessly blend in her repertoire. She has performed at various prestigious music festivals within and outside the country and has received acclaim from critics and music lovers all over the world. She has published a book (along with a CD) of self-composed bandishes Raag Rachananjali in 2004. Raag Rachananjali 2 was published in October 2010. Launched in 2023, her YouTube channel, Batiya Daurawat, is popular among classical music audiences. Her first recording album was released by HMV in 1985 followed by albums under various banners. She is a Top Grade artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan. As a teacher she has guided many disciples who are now successful concert artists themselves. Among her numerous honours are the Padma Shri and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 11:15 am
Focus on Maharashtra: The Musical Legacy : Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Suresh Talwalkar and Kathakali Jana on Maharashtra as a nursery of Hindustani Classical music and the need to nurture its syncretic legacy. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Atri Bhattacharya

Atri Bhattacharya is a senior bureaucrat with the West Bengal government. A quizzer of great repute and voracious reader, he won his round of the Mastermind quiz by choosing PG Wodehouse as his subject of specialisation. He lives in Kolkata with his wife and daughter.

Attending Session

January 22, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Grandiloquence to Emojis : Hal Cazalet and Atri Bhattacharya on the use of language at a time of Snapchat, LOL and smileys. In conversation with Ahon Gooptu

Balaji Vittal

Balaji Vittal is a National Award winning author/co-author of Bollywood books like RD Burman – The Man, The Music, Gaata Rahe Mera Dil – 50 Classic Hindi Film Songs and Pure Evil – The Bad Men of Bollywood. He is also a columnist, a TEDx speaker, a Bollywood commentator, book reviewer and an experienced moderator at prestigious literary festivals.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 6:45 pm
Uttam Shotoborsho : Moon Moon Sen, Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay and Srijit Mukherji on the mystique and mastery of Bengal’s Mahanayak. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 24, 2026 ● 7:10 pm
Centennials for Millennials : Priyambada Jayakumar, Shamya Dasgupta and Nasreen Munni Kabir on lessons that youngsters can glean from the legacy of MS Swaminathan,Ritwik Ghatak and Guru Dutt. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 24, 2026 ● 3:45 pm
Marathi, Indian, World Cinema : Chaitanya Tamhane on his films, cinema in the time of OTT, global trends and shrinking attention spans. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 24, 2026 ● 4:45 pm
Ghatak @ 100: A Soft Note On A Sharp Scale : Sudhir Mishra,Shamya Dasgupta, Nirupama Kotru and Salil Tripathi discuss Ghatak beyond Bengal. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

Banu Mushtaq

Banu Mushtaq was born and brought up in Hassan, Karnataka. She began her literary journey in the 1970s, becoming a strong voice in Kannada literature with stories and poems focusing on women and marginalized communities. Alongside her writing, she trained and worked as a lawyer, practicing for over 30 years. Her early work gained recognition within the Bandaya (protest) literary movement. She has received several prestigious honours including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award. Her story Karinaagaragalu inspired the Kannada film Haseena directed by Girish Kasaravalli, which won the Golden Lotus National Award and was screened internationally. In 2024, the English translation of her stories won the PEN Translates Award. Then in 2025, her collection of short stories, Heart Lamp, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize, the first Kannada work to win this prestigious award. She has served on literary bodies such as the Karnataka Sahitya Academy, the Central Sahitya Academy and as State Secretary of the Kannada Sahitya Parishad. The Karnataka State Information and Publicity Department also produced a documentary on her life and achievements. She continues to live and practice law in Hassan, where she remains committed to advocating for women’s rights and social justice through both her writing and legal work.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 5:10 pm
Heart Lamp : Banu Mushtaq on her International Booker Prize-winning collection of short stories. In conversation with Chinki Sinha

January 23, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Invisible Ink : Banu Mushtaq and Lucy Hannah in conversation with Mitakshara Kumari

Bappaditya Biswas

Bappaditya Biswas is a leading practitioner in Indian textiles, known for innovative weaves that have redefined Bengal handloom. As Co-Founder of Bai Lou and the iconic Kolkata store Byloom, he merges traditional craftsmanship with contemporary aesthetics. A graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, he further honed his skills during a residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. His work has garnered international recognition, including the UNESCO Seal of Excellence for his pioneering double cloth weaving technique. He showcased Weftscapes at the Serendipity Arts Festival – an exhibition which featured 20 distinct jamdani robes created by him, in different shades of indigo. During the COVID-lockdown, he explored natural dyes to reclaim traditional chintz techniques. He was also featured in the Sutr Santati exhibition at the National Gallery of India in 2022 and in the first Bengal Biennale (2024-25). His artistic practice and advocacy continue to shape the world of textiles in India and beyond.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Stories We Wear : Shefalee Vasudev and Bappaditya Biswas discuss the politics of appearance and our sartorial choices with Smita Roy Chowdhury

Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in rural Kentucky. She earned degrees in biology from DePauw University and the University of Arizona and has worked as a freelance writer and author since 1985. She is the author of 18 books, which include works of fiction, non-fiction, essays, short stories, and poetry. Her best-known works include The Poisonwood Bible, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Demon Copperhead (a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield) for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for fiction in 2023. Her books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have been adopted into the core literature curriculum in schools throughout the US. She has two daughters and a husband, Steven Hopp, who teaches environmental studies. Since 2004, she and her family have lived on a farm in southern Appalachia where they raise an extensive vegetable garden and Icelandic sheep. She believes her best work is accomplished through writing and being an active citizen of her own community.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 5:20 pm
Copperfield to Copperhead : Barbara Kingsolver on her retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic. In conversation with Shahana Chatterjee

January 24, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
Meet the Kingsolvers : Barbara Kingsolver and Lily Kingsolver about the influences and points of divergence in their writings. In conversation with Tathagata Bhattacharya

January 25, 2026 ● 3:00 pm
Climate Chroniclers : Barbara Kingsolver and Amitav Ghosh discuss the way their stories engage with a rapidly changing planet. In conversation with Keshava Guha

Bhawana Somaaya

Bhawana Somaaya has been a film critic for more than 40 years and has written for a galaxy of Indian publications. She is the former editor of Screen and has authored several books on cinema including biographies of Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan. Several of her books are taught to students of cinema in India. She has served on the advisory panel of the Indian Central Board of Film Certification and the governing council of the Film and Television Institute of India. She is also a classical dancer, a broadcaster, a podcaster, and an author of 19 books, Farewell Karachi being her 20th. She was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2017; an honorary doctorate by Jagran Lakecity University in 2021; and the Kanak Nartan Puraskaar from Nalanda Nrityakala Mahavidyalay in 2022. She is the entertainment editor at 92.7 BIGFM radio station.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 2:50 pm
Family Albums : Bhawana Somaaya and Jonathan Gil Harris on how personal histories and world history shape the destiny of families. In conversation with K Mohanchandran

Binod Chaudhary

For Nepalese billionaire Binod Chaudhary life doesn’t stop after making it big. He is forever relentless in his pursuit of making it bigger. Wai Wai, his popular noodle brand is no longer limited to neighboring India; it has expanded its tentacles across geographies as varied as Serbia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Bangladesh and Egypt. He is a quintessential rebel, ready to push all boundaries and looking to pit his pawn against a rival’s knight, usually to the latter’s detriment. In his book Made in Nepal, he details his forays in businesses such as cement, hospitality, telecom, banking and the challenges he takes head on, sometimes succeeding, sometimes learning. He takes readers through his political encounters, his succession plan and how he perceives the future of his business empire that has been both a labour of love and the work of a lifetime.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 2:30 pm
Made In Nepal : Binod Chaudhary discusses his memoirs and life lessons with Harshavardhan Neotia

Biswajit Ray

Biswajit Ray is a professor of Bangla at Visva-Bharati in Santiniketan. His books on Tagore include Sab Prabandha Rajnaitik, Sachalatar Gan and Rabindranath O Vivekananda: Swadeshe Samakale. He has written in The Cambridge Companion to Rabindranath Tagore. Beyond his academic contributions, he is widely recognised for his prose and newspaper columns. His novel, Tambuli-Akhyan, received widespread acclaim from readers.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 1:40 pm
Parashuramer Sangraha @ 100 : Biswajit Ray, Agnijit Sen and Srijato in conversation in conversation with Nilanjan Mukherjee

January 24, 2026 ● 1:00 pm
Raktakarabi : Readings from unpublished manuscripts by Bratati Bandyopadhyay. Biswajit Ray discusses and reimagines Tagore’s classic on its centenary in a conversation with Semanti Ghosh

January 25, 2026 ● 6:50 pm
Mahasweta Debir Shataborsho : Nalini Bera, Biswajit Ray and Tathagata Bhattacharya in conversation with Swati Bhattacharjee

Bratati Bandyopadhyay 

Bratati Bandopadhay is a Bengali language elocutionist. She is the founder head of Kabyayan, an institution for practising elocution and Bratati Parampara, an organization that works on elocution and other forms of performing arts. She has delivered over 2000 poetry recitals in India and abroad and been invited to perform by several countries around the world. She has been associated with Doordarshan as a newscaster and HMV as a regular artist. She mentors schoolchildren and senior students in elocution and is a proponent of the power of culture therapy.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 1:00 pm
Raktakarabi : Readings from unpublished manuscripts by Bratati Bandyopadhyay. Biswajit Ray discusses and reimagines Tagore’s classic on its centenary in a conversation with Semanti Ghosh

Bratya Basu

Bratya Basu is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor, educationist and politician who has been the Education Minister of West Bengal since 2021. He has been conferred the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 for outstanding work in literature for his anthology Mir Jafar O Onanyo Natak (Bengali). At present, he is the Chairperson of Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and Minerva Natyasanskriti Charchakendra

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Jukti Tokko Aar Deshbhag : Bratya Basu, Srijato, Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay and Shamya Dasgupta discuss how Partition shaped Ghatak’s cinema. In conversation with Jayanta Sengupta

Chaitanya Srivastava

Chaitanya Srivastava is a communications and PR professional currently looking after marketing and brand communications at Bloomsbury Publishing India. Previously, he led publicity and marketing at Penguin Random House’s Southeast Asia operations. He is known to  blend traditional publicity with digital storytelling to champion award-winning, bestselling and critically acclaimed authors and has worked with names such as Omar Musa, Ivy Ngeow, Saras Manickam, Patti Smith, Ashley Winstead, Tshering Tobgay, among several others. His campaigns have earned him  awards from the Singapore Book Publishers Association in both 2024 and 2025. Outside publishing, he writes on arts and culture, with a specialisation in pop-culture and celebrity profiles in ELLE, Esquire, Scroll and The Federal. An experienced speaker and moderator, he’s appeared on many national and international platforms including Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Singapore Book Council, Bangalore Literature Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival, Kolkata Literary Meet, Seagull Books and more.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 4:45 pm
Dystopia Capital : Keshava Guha and Sayantan Ghosh in Delhi as a character in their novels. In conversation with Chaitanya Srivastava

Chaitanya Tamhane

Chaitanya Tamhane is an independent filmmaker based in Mumbai. His debut feature Court premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2014, where it was awarded the Best Film – Orizzonti and the ‘Lion of the Future’ award. It went on to win over 30 awards at film festivals worldwide including the National Award for Best Feature Film and was India’s official entry for the 2016 Oscars. His second film, The Disciple, executive produced by Alfonso Cuarón, had its World Premiere at the 77th Venice Film Festival in competition.  It was awarded the ‘Golden Osella’ for Best Screenplay by the jury and the International Critics Prize for Best Film by FIPRESCI. The film was released worldwide in 2021 as a Netflix Original. In 2023 he was invited to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was recently awarded the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in Italy and a fellowship by the NIPKOW Programme in Berlin.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 1:30 pm
Film Show : Court by Chaitanya Tamhane (116 mins)

January 24, 2026 ● 3:45 pm
Marathi, Indian, World Cinema : Chaitanya Tamhane on his films, cinema in the time of OTT, global trends and shrinking attention spans. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 24, 2026 ● 6:45 pm
Our Films, Their Films - Indian Cinema in the World : Sudhir Mishra, Chaitanya Tamhane and Nandita Das on Indian cinema and its place in the world. In conversation with Nirupama Kotru

Chandril Bhattacharya

Chandril Bhattacharya is a popular Bengali columnist, lyricist, poet, singer and director. He is one of the main lyricists of the Bengali band Chandrabindoo and occasionally sings for them. He has written 13 books and directed four short films. Together with Anindya Chatterjee, he won the 2010 National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song Pherari Mon from the film Antaheen. His Uttam Madhyam columns for Anandabazar Patrika were compiled in a book. Later, he began to air his views in the weekly Robbar Pratidin in a column titled Du Chhokka Pnaach. His satirical perspective addresses cultural phenomena, national and international current affairs, human psychology and social norms. He coins peculiar idioms, playful jargon, spoonerisms and reconstructs colloquial Bengali phrases and expressions to formulate absurdist humorous puns in most of his articles.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 7:40 pm
Eliaser Chilekotha: Akhtaruzzmaner Chhotogolpo : Chandril Bhattacharya on the writings of Akhtaruzzaman Elias

Chandrimaa Roy

Chandrimaa Roy is a rare blend of aesthetics and excellence. Kobitay Kathalap is her namesake. She has received a national scholarship from Bal Bhawan, Government of India. Her poetry presentations have travelled all over the world. Besides her cultural acumen, she has a doctorate of engineering and has been professor of Electronics and Communications Engineering for a decade now.

Attending Session

January 27, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Oirabot ar Dragon Master : Anupam Roy in conversation with Chandrimaa Roy

Chinki Sinha

Chinki Sinha is the Editor of Outlook. A seasoned journalist, she has an expansive experience of almost two decades across prominent media houses like BBC News, Al Jazeera, Open, India Today and The Indian Express. With a Master’s in journalism from Syracuse University, New York, she loves delving into the less-talked about facets of today’s fragmented socio-political world.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 5:10 pm
Heart Lamp : Banu Mushtaq on her International Booker Prize-winning collection of short stories. In conversation with Chinki Sinha

January 24, 2026 ● 11:45 am
The Hindi Heartland : Ghazala Wahab discusses her new book with Chinki Sinha

Chinmoy Guha

Chinmoy Guha is Professor of English and Former Head, Department of English, at the University of Calcutta. He has also been the Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and the Director of Publications, Embassy of France in India in New Delhi. A leading essayist in Bengali and a distinguished translator of French literature, he was the editor of book reviews of the Bengali literary magazines, Desh and Boier Desh. His works include two collections of essays in Bengali (Chilekothhar Unmadini and Garho Shankher Khonje), The Tower and the Sea: Romain Rolland-Kalidas Nag Correspondence and two anthologies of 20th century French poetry. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Knighthood of Academic Palms from France.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 7:20 pm
Glorious Failure Then, Cultural Allies Now : Robert Ivermee and Chinmoy Guha discuss France’s history in India. In conversation with Pinaki De

Daisy Rockwell

Daisy Rockwell is an artist, writer and Hindi-Urdu translator living in Vermont. Her translations have garnered several notable honours including the International Booker Prize for translation Tomb of Sand, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, the MLA Aldo and Jean Scaglione Prize for Translation of a Literary Work and the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. Alice Sees Ghosts is her new novel. Her forthcoming books include Mixed Metaphors, her collection of creative non-fiction and poems, and her memoir, Our Friend, Art. 

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 6:20 pm
Ghost Writing : Daisy Rockwell and Arundhati Nath on their tryst with the supernatural. In conversation with Debanjan Chakarbarti

January 26, 2026 ● 3:30 pm
Silverware On The Indian Bookshelf : Ankhi Mukherjee, Daisy Rockwell, Kanishka Gupta and Upamanyu Chatterjee on the importance of literature awards and the elusive literature Nobel. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Dan Morrison

Dan Morrison’s writing on science, culture and conflict has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic and Artforum. He was at Newsday’s New York City edition for seven years covering the bombast of the Rudolph Giuliani era. He later moved to South Asia where his topics ranged from militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan to the dying art of the hand-painted Bollywood movie poster. He reported from Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Libya between 2005 and 2008 covering the conflict in Darfur, the looming struggle for oil in southern Sudan, Libya’s bizarre attempt at glasnost and the effects of climate change on the Nile ecosystem. During this time, he traveled down the length of the White Nile from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea through the entirety of Uganda, Sudan and Egypt. That six-month journey was the basis for his first book, The Black Nile. He is also the author of  The Poisoner of Bengal, the true story of a murder by plague in Jazz Age Calcutta.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Charlottesville : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on how the USA is changing from within as it tries to change the world. In conversation with Rupleena Bose

January 26, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
New York, New York : Prabal Gurung, Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on the city as muse, home, aggravation and hope. In conversation with Ankita Mukherji

Dana Roy

Attending Session

January 22, 2026 ● 3:30 pm
Inauguration : Readings from Mahasweta Devi's writings by Senjuti Mukherjee and Dana Roy

Debanjan Chakrabarti

Debanjan Chakrabarti is Director, British Council, East and Northeast India, and was the UK’s in-post lead for the culture track of G20 in 2023. He is a co-supervisor for the Oxford-Cambridge-Open University Collaborative Doctoral Award on ‘Multilingual teaching, learning and assessment of English in India’s primary schools,’ which is a partnership with the British Council. He has a background in research, especially in public policy, and has scoped and scouted two landmark research projects for the British Council – The Creative Economy Mapping of Durga Puja in West Bengal on behalf of the state government of West Bengal in India and a Cambridge University-led project on multilingualism  in Indian primary schools. A triple gold medallist in English literature from Jadavpur University, India, he has a multidisciplinary PhD, combining literature, films and media studies, from the University of Reading, UK, for which he received a Felix Scholarship from India. He started his career as a journalist with The Telegraph and then taught literature, culture and films at Visva Bharati University in India and in the UK early in his career. He has a number of scholarly and journalistic publications to his name. He retains an active interest in sports, especially tennis and cricket, and often writes and speaks on related topics for media publications and literature festivals.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
Writing From Memory : Geoff Dyer and Ananya Vajpeyi on the past and remembered places. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti

January 25, 2026 ● 6:20 pm
Ghost Writing : Daisy Rockwell and Arundhati Nath on their tryst with the supernatural. In conversation with Debanjan Chakarbarti

Debnita Chakravarti

Debnita Chakravarti is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Shri Shikshayatan College. She is associated with Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, Visva Bharati and St Xavier’s College and University among other institutions as guest faculty, examiner and resource person. Her doctoral research on British Romantic women writers at University of Reading was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at University of Southampton as a Charles Wallace scholar. She is among the lucky few to have spent a scholar residence at Chawton, researching at the Great House archives and the Jane Austen Museum. Besides Romanticism, she has presented and published internationally and at several national forums on gender and popular culture. She is a member of the Kolkata chapter of the Indo-British Scholars’ Association. She also writes poetry, fiction, screenplays and reviews. She is a freelance editor and translator working in Bengali, French and Hindi. A keen wildlife enthusiast, she was the recipient of The Independent’s Travel Writer Award, and earlier, the President’s Award for Children’s Poetry. 

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Austen-Tatious : Kate Evans and Debnita Chakravarti on the life, the books and the influence of Jane Austen

January 26, 2026 ● 3:40 pm
For Home, Family And Nation : Aparajita Dasgupta discusses the lives of women in Bengal through a period of social and political flux. In conversation with Debnita Chakravarti

Deborah Baker

Born in Charlottesville, Deborah Baker grew up in Virginia, Puerto Rico and New England. In 1990 she moved to Calcutta where she wrote In Extremis, a biography of the American modernist poet, Laura Riding which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in biography. A Blue Hand: The Beats in India (2008) explored the imaginative relationship between India and America as seen through the Indian travels of Allen Ginsberg et al in the early 60s. In 2008-2009 she was a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis C. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at The New York Public Library. There she researched and wrote The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism (2011), a narrative account of the life of an American convert to Islam, drawing on letters she found in the library’s manuscript division. The Convert was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her latest book Charlottesville shows how a city more associated with Thomas Jefferson than civil unrest became a flashpoint in a continuing struggle over a nation’s founding myths.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 3:20 pm
The Allen Ginsberg Centenary : Deborah Baker and Subodh Sarkar in conversation with Pinaki De. Readings by Ahon Gooptu

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Charlottesville : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on how the USA is changing from within as it tries to change the world. In conversation with Rupleena Bose

January 26, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
New York, New York : Prabal Gurung, Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on the city as muse, home, aggravation and hope. In conversation with Ankita Mukherji

Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik is a much sought after speaker and culture consultant who uses mythology as a toolkit to make sense of work, life, business and entrepreneurship. He has written over 50 books on the relevance of Indian and World mythology in modern times. These include the bestselling Jaya, Sita, Olympus, Eden, Shikhandi, Sati Savitri, My Gita, Business Sutra, Faith, Shiva to Shankara, Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art and Fun in Devlok. His latest book is Escape the Bakasura Trap. He has written over 1000 newspaper columns that appear regularly in reputed English and Hindi journals. His TV shows Business Sutra and Devlok have been seen as pathbreaking. He has single-handedly mainstreamed mythology in India over the last 30 years. Trained in medicine, he worked in the pharma and healthcare industry for 15 years before plunging full-time into the world of stories, symbols and rituals.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 2:20 pm
Sati to Shikhandi -The Stories They Don’t Tell You : Devdutt Pattanaik in conversation with Milee Ashwarya

Dipanwita Roy

Dipanwita Roy belongs to the new generation of 21st century writers in Bengali. She began her journey as a writer in 2008 with the publication of a collection of short stories for children. She went on to write for young adults and, eventually, forayed into adult literature. Her works have been published by leading publishers like Ananda Publishers, Sahitya Sansad, Patra Bharati, Debsahitya Kutir and Mitra Ghosh to name a few. Her stories for young children have been translated in English and various Indian languages and published by the National Book Trust, New Delhi. Her stories are regularly broadcast on radio. She has received several prestigious awards including the Bal Sahitya Akademi Puraskar in 2024. She has been functioning as an Executive Committee Member of the Shishu Kishore Academy of the Government of West Bengal for the last 14 years, performing a key role in the publication of the Academy’s bimonthly children’s magazine Chiro Sobuj Lekha and the holding of the annual Kolkata Children’s Film Festival.

Attending Session

January 22, 2026 ● 12.45 pm
Mahidadur Antidote : Dipanwita Roy discusses her award-winning story with Agnijit Sen

Durba Bandyopadhyay

Durba Bandyopadhyay has more than 12 years of experience as a researcher and trainer in a variety of sectors in social work. She is presently the leader of the ‘Adolescent Programme’ of Jabala Action Research Organisation that has made significant interventions in the fields of child rights, human trafficking, sex work, migration and women’s labour in the Indian states of West Bengal and Jharkhand. Trained as a scientist, she has held teaching positions at some prestigious educational institutions in Kolkata including the Department of Pharm Tech at Jadavpur University. For the past 15 years, she has been working as a resource person for several NGOs that work in the areas of public health, reproductive rights and child marriage. She also actively provides research support to initiatives on sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS control and prevention of child marriage. She has been a speaker at several significant international forums including the Ford Foundation Centre for Social Justice, New York. Currently, her primary area of action research is the socio-cultural aspects and fundamental rights of women and girls from the Santhal and Pahariya indigenous and marginalized tribes in the eastern states of India.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Gold Sand, Gold Water : Nalini Bera and Hansda Sowrendra Shekhar discuss the journey of Subarnarenu, Subarnarekha. In conversation with Durba Bandyopadhyay

Durjoy Datta

Durjoy Datta is the author of 21 bestselling romance novels. Born in New Delhi, he completed a degree in engineering and business management before embarking on a writing career. His first book, Of Course I Love You… was published when he was 21 years old and was an instant bestseller. His successive novels – Till the Last Breath, Hold My Hand, When Only Love Remains, World’s Worst Best Boyfriend, The Girl of My Dreams, The Boy Who Loved, The Boy with a Broken Heart and The Perfect Us – have also found prominence on various bestseller lists, making him one of the highest-selling authors in India. He also has to his credit 11 television shows, for which he has written over 1000 episodes. 

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 10:45 am
While We Wait : Durjoy Datta on his new novel. In conversation with Anusha Viswanathan

Gautam Hazarika

Gautam Hazarika is a Singapore based ex-banker who now researches World War II in Southeast Asia. His focus is on lesser-known stories of the Indian army, INA, the anti-Japanese resistance and war crimes trials. He has spoken at museums, WWII conferences and literary festivals in India, Singapore and the UK. The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II, published by Penguin India and Pen & Sword UK, is his first book. It has received widespread acclaim in the Indian press for bringing human stories to the forefront.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
The Forgotten Indian Prisoners Of World War II : Gautam Hazarika discusses the price India paid in the eastern theatre of war. In conversation with Jayanta Sengupta

Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer’s many books include the novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; But Beautiful (about jazz); Out of Sheer Rage (about DH. Lawrence); Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It; The Last Days of Roger Federer and, most recently, Homework, a memoir. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College,  Oxford and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. His books have won numerous prizes and have been translated into 26 languages. After 10 years as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, he has recently returned to live in London. 

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
Writing From Memory : Geoff Dyer and Ananya Vajpeyi on the past and remembered places. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti

January 24, 2026 ● 1:20 pm
As Time Goes By : Geoff Dyer discusses his last two books, The Last Days of Roger Federer and Homework. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Ghazala Wahab

Ghazala Wahab is the Editor of FORCE magazine and a prominent journalist and author. Her books include The Hindi Heartland (July 2025), The Peacemakers (edited, July 2023), Born a Muslim: Some Truths About Islam in India (March 2021), which won the Tata Lit Live and AttaGalatta Book of the Year (Non-Fiction) awards and was shortlisted for the Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay Book Prize 2022, and Dragon on Our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power (co-authored with Pravin Sawhney, February 2017). She co-founded FORCE in August 2003 with Pravin Sawhney and regularly writes on homeland security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, Left-Wing Extremism, and religious extremism, in addition to contributing a monthly column, First Person. Her writing has also appeared in publications such as The Wire, Scroll, and The Indian Express. Prior to this, she worked as a principal correspondent in the Delhi bureau (features) of The Telegraph from 1998 to 2003 and began her journalism career with The Asian Age in 1994.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 11:45 am
The Hindi Heartland : Ghazala Wahab discusses her new book with Chinki Sinha

Gurnaik Johal

Gurnaik Johal’s short story collection We Move (Serpent’s Tail, 2022) won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Tata Literature Live! Prize, was a Guardian Book of the Year and a Hindustan Times Book of the Year. He won the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize in 2022.  His work has been featured in BBC Radio 4’s Short Works series as well as in the short fiction anthology Duets (Scratch Books, 2024). His first novel Saraswati is an Observer Best Debut of 2025 and has been shortlisted for the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 3:10 pm
Saraswati : Gurnaik Johal discusses his acclaimed novel with Sujaan Mukherjee

January 24, 2026 ● 4:50 pm
River Muse : Sanjoy Hazarika and Gurnaik Johal on rivers as muse. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

Hal Cazalet

Hal Cazalet is a British tenor opera singer trained at the Juilliard School in New York. He has created leading roles in World Premieres for composers Philip Glass (Les Enfants Terribles), Roxanna Panufnik (The Music Programme) and Tod Machover (Death and the Powers). He has worked much of his life in the USA performing at various prestigious venues including the Santa Fe Opera and the Lincoln Centre. As a composer/lyricist, his musical of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince was presented at The Place Theatre, London. His Play of Words is a musical celebration of his step great-grandfather PG Wodehouse on Broadway.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Grandiloquence to Emojis : Hal Cazalet and Atri Bhattacharya on the use of language at a time of Snapchat, LOL and smileys. In conversation with Ahon Gooptu

January 24, 2026 ● 7:00 pm
AfterWords : Play on Words: Hal Cazalet takes us through PG Wodehouse’s musical years on Broadway. Accompanied by Simon Beck on the piano

Hansda Sowrendra Shekhar

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar writes in English and Hindi and translates from Santali, Hindi and Bengali to English and from English to Hindi. He grew up in Moubhandar and is currently based in Chandil, both on the banks of the river Subarnarekha.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Gold Sand, Gold Water : Nalini Bera and Hansda Sowrendra Shekhar discuss the journey of Subarnarenu, Subarnarekha. In conversation with Durba Bandyopadhyay

Harshavardhan Neotia

Harshavardhan Neotia is the Chairman of the Ambuja Neotia Group. He is an entrepreneur, a connoisseur of the arts and an enthusiast of Indian heritage. A pioneer in India’s social housing sector, he was conferred with the Padma Shri in 1999. He has also been bestowed with the Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour from the Government of West Bengal. He is a recipient of the YPO Legacy of Honour Award and was conferred the DLitt. (Honoris Causa) by Vidyasagar University and the Assam Royal Global University. He is an active member and a past President of both FICCI and AIMA. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, as Chairperson of the National Institute of Technology, Mizoram and a Council Member of the National Culture Fund of the Government of India. He is a Director on the Board of Invest India, a member of the West Bengal Heritage Commission and Chairman of the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership. He has formerly been on the board of IIM Kolkata, IIT Kharagpur, and a member of The Court of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He heads Jnana Pravaha, a Centre for Cultural Studies and Research in Varanasi as Chairman and is one of the trustees of the Shree Somnath Trust.  

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 2:30 pm
Made In Nepal : Binod Chaudhary discusses his memoirs and life lessons with Harshavardhan Neotia

Indranath Mukherjee

Indranath Mukherjee, one of the co-founders of Paperclip, is a data scientist by day and a storyteller at heart. An avid traveller, he finds the extraordinary within the ordinary, blending analytical precision with a passion for uncovering human stories.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 10:30 am
Robin Hoods to a Man For All Seasons : Unknown tales from the freedom struggle to unsung foreign policy makers of the 1950s. Narayani Basu and Indranath Mukherjee in conversation with Kanishka Gupta

Ipsita Chakravarty

Ipsita Chakravarty is an award-winning journalist who has reported on politics and armed conflict in Kashmir and North-East India for a decade. She has worked as a reporter, editor and opinion writer for national dailies including The Times of India, The Telegraph, The Indian Express and Scroll.in. She currently teaches at the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Stories from the Valley : Ipsita Chakravarty in conversation with Sumona Chakravarty

Jashodhara Chakraborti

Jashodhara Chakraborti is the force behind Write Right and an author, literary translator, TEDx speaker, moderator and editor. She is an alumna of Delhi Public School RK Puram, Lady Shri Ram College for Women and Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and has previously worked in the IT industry. She also taught Mathematics at the Secondary school level in London for seven years. As Jash Sen, she is the author of two books published by Duckbill; she has translated a work from Bengali into English as Jashodhara Chakraborti, which was published by Speaking Tiger. She has written fiction, non-fiction, OTT content and content for diverse stakeholders in the corporate, social and cultural space. She has created, developed and executed workshops on narrative building for students at educational institutions including IIM Kozhikode. She lives and works in Calcutta and collects crime fiction.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Nowtopia : Ritika Biswas and Tathagata Bhattacharya on how art and literature depict dystopian futures. In conversation with Jashodhara Chakraborti

January 24, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Bhoot Bangla : Arundhati Nath and Jashodhara Chakraborti on giving Bangla ghost fiction a new life through translation. In conversation with Anusha Viswanathan

January 25, 2026 ● 2:15 pm
Imagining the Author : Nandita Das and Srijit Mukherji discuss their cinematic vision of Manto and Arthur Conan Doyle. In conversation with Jashodhara Chakraborti

Javed Akhtar

Renowned script writer, lyricist, poet and activist, Javed Akhtar is the recipient of two of India’s highest civilian honors – the Padma Shri (1999) and the Padma Bhushan (2007). He received the Dostoevsky Star Award in 2025. Known for his contribution to Hindi cinema leading to 15 Filmfare Awards for Best Lyricist and Best Screenwriter and five National Awards for Best Lyricist, he is also the recipient of several honorary doctorates including one from SOAS, University of London. His first collection of poetry Tarkash is in its 21st edition in Hindi and 9th edition in Urdu. It has been translated into English, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and recently in French. His books Talking Films and Talking Songs have been hailed by film critics as the most definitive works on Indian Cinema and are in the libraries of major Ivy League Universities. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha as a Member of Parliament by the President of India in 2010. He is the architect of the Copyright Amendment Bill that has finally given copyright royalties to writers and music directors. 

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 1:10 pm
Main Har Ek Pal Ka Shayar Hoon… : Javed Akhtar on the role of poetry and the artiste in times of global change and strife. In conversation with Mudar Patherya  

January 23, 2026 ● 3:00 pm
Sholay @ 50 : Javed Akhtar and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur on what makes the classic timeless. In conversation with Priyanka Roy 

Jayanta Sengupta

Educated at Presidency College, Kolkata, and the Universities of Calcutta and Cambridge, Jayanta Sengupta is Director, Alipore Museum, and former Director of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. Before joining the museum profession, he taught History at Jadavpur University and the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of At the Margins: Discourses of Development, Democracy and Regionalism in Orissa (Oxford University Press, 2015), Those Noble Edifices: The Raj Bhavans of Bengal (Victoria Memorial Hall, 2019) and two books of essays in Bengali. He is also co-editor of The Long History of Partition in Bengal: Event, Memory, Representations (Routledge, 2024).

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
The Forgotten Indian Prisoners Of World War II : Gautam Hazarika discusses the price India paid in the eastern theatre of war. In conversation with Jayanta Sengupta

January 24, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Jukti Tokko Aar Deshbhag : Bratya Basu, Srijato, Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay and Shamya Dasgupta discuss how Partition shaped Ghatak’s cinema. In conversation with Jayanta Sengupta

Jerry Pinto

Jerry Pinto is a Mumbai-based poet, novelist, short story writer, translator and journalist. He has a liberal arts as well as a law degree. For his 2006 book Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb on the acclaimed dancer-actress Helen, he went on to receive the National Film Award for the Best Book on Cinema. His debut novel, Em and The Big Hoom, won him a plethora of honours including the Hindu Literary Prize, the Crossword Book Award, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for fiction and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Focus on Maharashtra - Tapestry of Tales : Prafull Shiledar and Kavita Kané discuss trends, themes and challenges for Marathi literature. In conversation with Jerry Pinto

January 25, 2026 ● 1:20 pm
Hurt Locker : Jerry Pinto and Aarti Pathak on empathy, the need for palliative care and the resilience of human spirit. In conversation with Shruti Mohta

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut story collection exploring issues of love and identity among immigrants and cultural transplants. Her novel, The Namesake, expanding on the perplexities of the immigrant experience and the search for identity was published in 2003 to great acclaim. A film version (directed by Mira Nair) was released in 2007. Her book of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, received the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She contributed the essay on Rhode Island in the 2008 book State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. Her novel, The Lowland, won the DSC Award for South Asian fiction and was a finalist for both the Man Booker prize and the National Book Award. Her first book in Italian, In Altre Parole, later published in English as In Other Words, explores the often emotionally fraught links between identity and language. Her nonfiction includes The Clothing of Books (Il vestito dei libri) and Translating Myself and Others. Her first full-length self-translation is the novel, Whereabouts (Dove Mi Trovo). Her book of poetry is Il quaderno di Nerina. Her most recent novel is Roman Stories (Racconti Romani). Translated into English by Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz, the book was a New Yorker 2023 Best Book of the Year. She has received several prestigious awards including the National Humanities Medal, the PEN/Hemingway Award, an O Henry Prize, the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Vallombrosa Von Rezzori Prize, the Asian American Literary Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. She was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2006. She was named Commander of the Italian Republic in 2019 by President Sergio Mattarella.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 4:15 pm
Roman Stories : Jhumpa Lahiri on her tryst with Rome and her stories from the Eternal City. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 23, 2026 ● 4:50 pm
When in Rome : Jhumpa Lahiri on her tryst with the Italian language. In conversation with Rudrangshu Mukherjee

January 26, 2026 ● 5:00 pm
The First 25 Years : Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai on completing 25 years of writing and being chroniclers of the quarter century. In conversation with Anindita Ghose

Jonathan Gil Harris

Jonathan Gil Harris is descended from a long line of migrants on both sides of his family. Born in New Zealand and educated in England, he worked in the US for 23 years before moving to India in 2011. He is the author of the best-selling The First Firangis (2015) and Masala Shakespeare (2018), as well as many other books. He now lives in Delhi where he was Founding Dean at Ashoka University. His new book, The Girl from Fergana: Secrets of My Mother’s Chinese Tea-Chest, has just been published by Aleph.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 2:50 pm
Family Albums : Bhawana Somaaya and Jonathan Gil Harris on how personal histories and world history shape the destiny of families. In conversation with K Mohanchandran

Jonquil Cooper

Jonquil Cooper is a wellness practitioner, yoga teacher, filmmaker, author and storyteller with a relationship with India spanning over 30 years. She first arrived in India in 1992, the period in which her book It’s Not Yoga, It’s You! is set. In 2002, she returned to make her first documentary film, India and Beyond. In 2010, she made a second film, The Pilgrim: A Journey to Mount Kailash in Tibet, working alongside Academy Award winning collaborators. She has been teaching yoga and wellbeing practices for over 30 years, working internationally, in London, and for 10 years in Mumbai. She has worked extensively with children and teenagers, teaching self-awareness, mindfulness, communication and emotional resilience and has also taught wellness and presentation skills in corporate and creative environments. Her second book, What Yoga Is Not, is a continuation of her journey. She is now based in Goa, choosing to live and continue her work in India as an act of respect and reciprocity to the land that has taught her the most. 

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
Journeying Into Oneself : Namita Devidayal, Aritra Sarkar and Jonquil Cooper discuss their journey, journals and serendipity. In conversation with Priyambada Jayakumar

Jyotsna Mohan

Jyotsna Mohan is a journalist and writer with nearly 30 years in television, print and digital media. A former Senior Editor and Senior Anchor at NDTV, her debut book, Stoned, Shamed, Depressed, was an exposé on urban teenagers. Based on the family newspaper, her latest book, Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper, which she co-authored with her journalist father, dives into the legacy of fearless journalism. She is a columnist for publications in India and abroad and hosts the podcast ‘Table Talk with Jo.’ She is a recipient of the 2025 Sanatan Puraskar for Literature.

Attending Sessions

January 26, 2026 ● 11:30 am
Printing A Republic : Jyotsna Mohan and Sanjoy Hazarika on chronicling the republic in black and white. In conversation with Shreevatsa Nevatia

January 27, 2026 ● 6:00 pm
Poor Economics Revisited : Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee discusses the new edition of his book, and what has changed since its first edition, with Jyotsna Mohan

K Mohanchandran

With over 35 years of experience in hospitality, K Mohanchandran’s strength lies in his thorough knowledge of the industry and his people management skills. He embarked on his journey with IHCL/the Taj Group in 1989 as a Management Trainee and has been an integral part of the Taj legacy ever since. He is now the Senior Vice President for the East & North East, overseeing a portfolio of 33 hotels. An alum of the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa, New Delhi, he has worked across hotel functions and in multiple locations with the Taj Group. An avid reader, his interests include Medieval and Indian History, the books of John Steinbeck, travel and food, and listening to a wide range of music, spanning the classical and contemporary genres with a special place in his collection for West African music. He is actively involved with Udayan, an NGO providing residential schooling for children of people with leprosy in Barrackpore, outside Kolkata, serving on their Governing Body since 2013. He is also on the Board of the Center for Historic Houses, a non-profit that works with Heritage Houses based in New Delhi. He is currently on the Executive Committee of the Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 2:50 pm
Family Albums : Bhawana Somaaya and Jonathan Gil Harris on how personal histories and world history shape the destiny of families. In conversation with K Mohanchandran

K. Sridhar

A particle physicist, K. Sridhar lived in Bombay and worked at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research before moving to Bangalore to work at the Azim Premji University. Other than the 150-odd research papers in physics that he has published, he has a book, Brane Worlds and Extra Dimensions, in the Cambridge Mathematical Monographs Series and an edited volume, Breaking the Silo: Integrated Science Education in India published by Orient Blackswan. He regularly publishes articles on philosophy and the visual arts. His first novel, Twice Written, was published in 2011 followed by a critical edition in 2019. Ajita, his second novel, was published in January 2025 by Westland Books.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 7:10 pm
Time, Space and the Restless Narrator - Philosophy and the storyteller : K. Sridhar and Lukáš Cabala in conversation with Supriya Chaudhuri

Kadambari Kaul

A Sociology Honours graduate from the Elphinstone College, Mumbai, Kadambari Kaul is a poet and author of books on Indian philosophy, namely Brihadaaranyaka, the Great Upanishad – Understanding Brahman and the Ultimate Reality, Verses from the Dhammapada and Gautama Buddha – A Noble Life. Writing poetry is an integral part of her spiritual journey. Her poem Peace was published in 2010 in the Literary Paritantra – An International Journal on Literature and Theory and was re-published in 2022 in the Anthology entitled Where Flowers Bloom – Poems and Essays of Hope, Strength and Resilience. Her poem Freedom was published in the Anthology Freedom Raga that was released on Indian Independence Day in 2020. She is a regular contributor of poetry to several other reputed literary journals and magazines. She also composes satirical verses and poems on various social issues. In 2024 she received the Sahitya Ratna Award for her contribution to English Literature from the Sangeet Seni Sabha founded by Acharya Birendra Kishore Roychowdhury.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:10 am
The Republic of Poetry : Readings by Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay and Kadambari Kaul

Kanishka Gupta

Kanishka Gupta is a literary agent based in New Delhi and represents a glittering list of award-winning authors. They include Daisy Rockwell, winner of the International Booker Prize in 2022 for her translation of Gitanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand. He represents other acclaimed authors such as Avni Doshi and Jerry Pinto and has also worked closely with Shehan Karunatilaka, the winner of the 2022 Man Booker Prize. He founded Writer’s Side in 2010 which has evolved into the largest and most influential literary agency and consultancy in South Asia. Dedicated to nurturing literary talent, it now represents over 1,000 writers.

Attending Sessions

January 26, 2026 ● 10:30 am
Robin Hoods to a Man For All Seasons : Unknown tales from the freedom struggle to unsung foreign policy makers of the 1950s. Narayani Basu and Indranath Mukherjee in conversation with Kanishka Gupta

January 26, 2026 ● 3:30 pm
Silverware On The Indian Bookshelf : Ankhi Mukherjee, Daisy Rockwell, Kanishka Gupta and Upamanyu Chatterjee on the importance of literature awards and the elusive literature Nobel. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Kate Evans

Kate Evans is a British writer, cartoonist, multimedia artist and public speaker with 30 years’ experience. Her previous work includes the internationally acclaimed historical biography Red Rosa and the award-winning graphic reportage Threads from the Refugee Crisis. Patchwork is her eighth work of graphic non-fiction based on the quilt that Jane Austen created in the later years of her life. Kate Evans takes the fabrics of this patchwork coverlet and uses them to illustrate a beautiful, brilliantly immersive and compelling comic-book retelling of Jane Austen’s life. She patchworks together the narrative from Austen’s own words, seamlessly interweaving snippets from her letters and stories and tells her life story from the cradle to the grave, including riotously joyous comic excerpts of her novels.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Austen-Tatious : Kate Evans and Debnita Chakravarti on the life, the books and the influence of Jane Austen

January 25, 2026 ● 5:45 pm
Drawing Books : Kate Evans and Sarnath Banerjee discuss new projects and the growing popularity of illustrated narratives. In conversation with Pinaki De

January 27, 2026 ● 10:30 am
Jane Austen @ 250 : Kate Evans and Anusha Viswanathan on why it is a universally acknowledged fact that Austen’s books are timeless. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

Kathakali Jana

Kathakali is the head of administration and events at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy. Besides her day job, she also works as a reviewer and dance writer for The Telegraph and other publications. A former journalist and a life-long student of literature, she dabbles in literary translation.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 11:15 am
Focus on Maharashtra: The Musical Legacy : Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Suresh Talwalkar and Kathakali Jana on Maharashtra as a nursery of Hindustani Classical music and the need to nurture its syncretic legacy. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

January 24, 2026 ● 6:40 pm
Centrestage :  Ananda Lal on his essays on theatre. In conversation with Kathakali Jana

Kavita Kané

Kavita Kané is the best selling author of nine novels and is considered a force in Indian writing mainly because she has brought in feminism where it is most needed – mythology. All her books are based on lesser known women in Indian mythology – Karna’s Wife (2013), Sita’s Sister (2014), Menaka’s Choice (2015), Lanka’s Princess (2016), The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty (2017), Ahalya’s Awakening (2019), Sarasvati’s Gift (2021), Tara’s Truce (2023) and the latest Bhima’s Wife. She began her writing journey as a journalist and, eventually, quit her job as Assistant Editor of TOI to devote herself to full-time writing. Passionate about theatre, cinema and the arts, she is also a columnist, screenplay writer and a motivational speaker.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 2:15 pm
Bhima’s Wife : Kavita Kané and Titas Samuho discuss their journeys into the invisibilised world of Hidimbi. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

January 24, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Focus on Maharashtra - Tapestry of Tales : Prafull Shiledar and Kavita Kané discuss trends, themes and challenges for Marathi literature. In conversation with Jerry Pinto

Keshava Guha

Keshava Guha is the author of the novels The Tiger’s Share (John Murray, 2025) and Accidental Magic (HarperCollins, 2019). His essays and journalism – on politics, culture and sport have been widely published. He was previously a senior editor at Juggernaut Books and a columnist for NDTV. 

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 3:00 pm
Climate Chroniclers : Barbara Kingsolver and Amitav Ghosh discuss the way their stories engage with a rapidly changing planet. In conversation with Keshava Guha

January 25, 2026 ● 4:45 pm
Dystopia Capital : Keshava Guha and Sayantan Ghosh in Delhi as a character in their novels. In conversation with Chaitanya Srivastava

Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai was born in New Delhi, India, was educated in India, England and the United States, and now lives in New York. She is the author of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, which was published to unanimous acclaim in over 22 countries. She also wrote The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Booker Prize in 2006 as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. In 2015, the Economic Times listed her as one of 20 most influential global Indian women. 

Attending Sessions

January 26, 2026 ● 1:00 pm
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny :  Kiran Desai discusses her new novel with Shahana Chatterjee

January 26, 2026 ● 5:00 pm
The First 25 Years : Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai on completing 25 years of writing and being chroniclers of the quarter century. In conversation with Anindita Ghose

Kunal Basu

Kunal Basu is an Indian author of English fiction who has written seven novels – The Opium Clerk, The Miniaturist, Racists, The Yellow Emperor’s Cure, Kalkatta, Sarojini’s Mother and In an Ideal World. He has also written a collection of short stories, The Japanese Wife (2008), the title story of which has been made into a film by the Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen. He has worked in advertising, in freelance journalism, dabbled in filmmaking and taught at Jadavpur University for a brief period of 16 months. He has taught at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, from 1986–1999. His 13 years at McGill were interrupted only by a brief stint at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1989. Since 1999, he has been teaching at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. He has also written financial pieces for business publications such as Fast Company and MIT Sloan Management Review.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 1:50 pm
Across Genre, Languages and Decades : Kunal Basu discusses past and future books with Pinaki De and Rituparna Roy

Labonita Ghosh

Labonita Ghosh is a journalist who has worked with some of the finest publications of the country. She has covered current affairs, culture and policy for over three decades. At present, she lives in Mumbai and works with a publication that deals with policy and CSR.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 4:50 pm
River Muse : Sanjoy Hazarika and Gurnaik Johal on rivers as muse. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
The Only City : Anindita Ghose and Manu Joseph discuss the anthology celebrating Mumbai. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

Lily Kingsolver

Lily Kingsolver grew up in southwest Virginia where the Appalachian Mountains ignited her passion for wild creatures and the places they live. She holds degrees in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia and Environmental Education from the Florida Institute of Technology, which she uses to share her love of nature as an educator, naturalist and author. She has returned to the Appalachian Mountains she loves so much where she lives with her husband on a farm near the forest. She hopes to advocate for the importance of all animals as well as for conservation of natural places around the world. She has co-authored the richly illustrated children’s book Coyote’s Wild Home with her mother, Barbara Kingsolver.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 11:50 am
Canines and Coyotes : Lily Kingsolver and Anjana Basu discuss stories from nature and the cautionary tales within them. In conversation with Sakhi Singhi

January 24, 2026 ● 5:50 pm
Meet the Kingsolvers : Barbara Kingsolver and Lily Kingsolver about the influences and points of divergence in their writings. In conversation with Tathagata Bhattacharya

Lucy Hannah

Lucy Hannah is founder and director of Untold Narratives. A social entrepreneur, editor, and author, she has worked with writers in the UK and worldwide to develop and promote their work. Other initiatives she has established include Commonwealth Writers, Out of the Gate and BBC Writers. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College, London and a director of the Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Invisible Ink : Banu Mushtaq and Lucy Hannah in conversation with Mitakshara Kumari

January 25, 2026 ● 5:30 pm
Be the Change : Lucy Hannah, Nilanjana Dasgupta and Swati Panday on how it is hope that eventually brings change. In conversation with Pratiti Ganatra

January 26, 2026 ● 2:00 pm
My Dear Kabul : Lucy Hannah on the stories of Afghanistan through the eyes of displaced women. Video uplink with Marie Bamyani. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

Lukáš Cabala

Lukáš Cabala lives, writes and works in Trenčín, Slovakia. He runs the online second-hand bookstore Čierne na bielom (Black on White). He has published three prose books: Satori v Trenčíne (Satori in Trenčín), Jar v Jekaterinburgu (Spring in Yekaterinburg) and Spomenieš si na Trenčín? (Will You Remember Trenčín?), and one children’s book, Jeseň v lese (Autumn in the Forest). Two of his novels have been nominated for the Anasoft Litera Award and one was voted Book of the Year by the readers of the literary magazine Knižná revue. All his covers are illustrated by artists. Jindřich Janíček, a famous Czech illustrator and graphic designer; Anna Cima, a magical Czech author and illustrator based in Tokyo; Csilla Dózsa, a book illustrator and Juraj Toman, an outdoor painter from Trenčín have all collaborated with Cabala. He is now working on a novel suitable for all ages, as well as new books for children. He was nominated for the 2025 European Union Prize for Literature.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 7:10 pm
Time, Space and the Restless Narrator - Philosophy and the storyteller : K. Sridhar and Lukáš Cabala in conversation with Supriya Chaudhuri

Malavika Banerjee

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2026 ● 4:15 pm
Roman Stories : Jhumpa Lahiri on her tryst with Rome and her stories from the Eternal City. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 23, 2026 ● 6:10 pm
Ghost-Eye : Amitav Ghosh discusses his long-awaited novel with Malavika Banerjee

January 25, 2026 ● 4:40 pm
Absolute Jafar : Sarnath Banerjee in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

Manu Joseph

Manu Joseph is an Indian journalist, novelist and screenwriter. His latest book, Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us, has been on non-fiction bestseller lists in India since its release in August. He wrote the ‘Letter from India’ for the New York Times for several years. He also served as the editor-in-chief of Open Magazine, an Indian newsmagazine. Among several prizes and acclaim, is the Hindu Literary Prize and the American PEN Open Book Award whose jury described him as ‘…that rare bird who can wildly entertain the reader as forcefully as he moves them’. He is also the creator of the Netflix comedy, Decoupled. One of his novels, Serious Men, was adapted as a film by Netflix.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 4:10 pm
Why The Poor Don’t Kill Us : Manu Joseph goes solo on his new title

January 25, 2026 ● 1:10 pm
Us and Them : Manu Joseph and Snigdha Poonam discuss the dynamics across urban-rural and rich-poor divides, from resignation to vendetta. In conversation with Vandana Vasudevan

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
The Only City : Anindita Ghose and Manu Joseph discuss the anthology celebrating Mumbai. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

Marie Bamyani

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 2:00 pm
My Dear Kabul : Lucy Hannah on the stories of Afghanistan through the eyes of displaced women. Video uplink with Marie Bamyani. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

Milee Ashwarya

Milee Ashwarya is the Publisher of the Adult Publishing Group at Penguin Random House India. Throughout her career, she has published numerous acclaimed and bestselling books across various genres. An award-winning publisher, she is dedicated to championing diverse voices and discovering talented debut writers. She has the distinction of publishing three Booker Prize winning books in three years – The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell and Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi. She has played a pivotal role in building and expanding the inclusive publishing program at Penguin Random House India, ensuring a broad representation of voices and stories. Her authors include Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sudha Murty, Devdutt Pattnaik, S. Hussain Zaidi, Rahman Abbas, Gurcharan Das, Harish Bhat, Bibek Debroy and Karan Johar among others.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 2:20 pm
Sati to Shikhandi -The Stories They Don’t Tell You : Devdutt Pattanaik in conversation with Milee Ashwarya

Mir Afsar Ali

Mir Afsar Ali has been a popular and well-known radio jockey (RJ) for almost 30 years. He is also an emcee, host, actor, musician, food vlogger and storyteller. He hosted the stand-up comedy show Mirakkel and was an integral part of the show Sunday Suspense on Radio Mirchi. He has produced and presented the Bengali food vlogging channel Foodka. He runs Goppo Mirer Thek, an audio story show on his YouTube channel that has more than 1 million subscribers. 

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 8:10 pm
Bishwasghataker Hotya : An ode to our freedom fighters by Mir Afsar Ali