Readiscover the world of words and ideas.

Aarti Pathak

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 1:20 pm
Hurt Locker : Jerry Pinto and Aarti Pathak in conversation with Shruti Mohta

Abhijeet Gogoi

Abhijeet Gogoi is a poet from Assam with two 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 like Indian Literature and Samakalin Bharatiya Sahitya and Bharatiya Jnanpith’s magazine Naya Gyanodaya. He received the Sahitya Akademi Young Authors Travel Grant 2024 and the Asam Sahitya Sabha Yuva Award (Kabyashree Hazarika Trust Award 2023-2025). He participated in several literary festivals including the Festival of Letters 2025, Asia’s largest literature festival, organized by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:00 am
The Republic of Poetry : Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, Kadambari Kaul and Ipsita Ganguli

Agnijit Sen

Agnijit Sen, popularly known as Mirchi Agni, is a content creator with Radio Mirchi and Revsportz Bangla. He  currently acts and directs the audiobook series Sunday Suspense and is also the Head of Content, Revsportz Bangla. He has also been one of the lead actors of the first Bangla social media viral series, O Maa Go. He is a perfect combination of wit and a 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

January 24, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Samudrer Dar : Aparajita Dasgupta and Rik Sengupta in conversation with Agnijit Sen

Amaan Ali Bangash & Ayaan Ali Bangash

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 7:45 pm
AfterWords : Exide Kolkata Literary Meet Finale:Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash with Satyajit Talwalkar and Anubrata Chatterjee (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 the novels 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 and Wild Fictions, a collection of essays. Amitav Ghosh’s works have been translated into more than 30 languages. He has been 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, the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honour, was conferred on him. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Erasmus Prize for his writings on the planetary crisis and climate change. 

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 ● 6:50 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

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 ● 6:30 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

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 2:20 pm
The Only City : Anindita Ghose, Shanta Gokhale and Manu Joseph 

January 26, 2026 ● 5:10 pm
The First 25 Years : Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai on completing 25 years of writing and being storytellers in these times. 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 twelve, 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

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 ● 4:20 pm
Silverware On The Indian Bookshelf : Ankhi Mukherjee, Daisy Rockwell, Kanishka Gupta and Upamanyu Chatterjee on the importance of literature awards and the missing literature Nobel. In conversation with Sandip Roy  

Anubrata Chatterjee

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 7:45 pm
AfterWords : Exide Kolkata Literary Meet Finale:Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash with Satyajit Talwalkar and Anubrata Chatterjee (tabla)

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 Session

January 23, 2026 ● 11:40 am
Nila Nilabjo : Anupam Roy discusses his book on relationships and arguments with readings by Somak Ghosh and Isha

Anusha Vishwanathan

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 Session

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

Anuurag Poddar

Attending Session

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

Anuvab Pal

Attending Session

January 22, 2026 ● 11:00 am
Grandiloquence to Emojis : Hal Cazalet and Anuvab Pal on the use of language at a time of Snapchat, LOL and smileys

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 twelve books, including novels, short stories, essays, autobiographical vignettes and children’s stories.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Samudrer Dar : Aparajita Dasgupta and Rik Sengupta in conversation with Agnijit Sen

January 26, 2026 ● 3:40 pm
Stories of the Republic : 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 Dasgupta in conversation with Aritra Sarkar

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Stories of the Republic : Journeying into oneself: Namita Devidayal, Aritra Sarkar and Jonquil Cooper discuss their journey, journals and serendipity. In conversation with Priyambada Jayakumar

Aruna Chakravarti

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

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 ● 1:10 pm
As Times 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 Session

January 25, 2026 ● 11:30 am
The Literary Alchemist : 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 Session

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

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

January 24, 2026 ● 4:45 pm
Ghatak @ 100: A Soft Note On A Sharp Scale : Shamya Dasgupta, Salil Tripathi and Shivendra Singh Dungarapur 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 translated collection Heart Lamp, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize — the first Kannada work to win this prestigious award. Banu Mushtaq 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
Home And Heart : Banu Mushtaq and Shanta Gokhale on their short story collections. In conversation with Mitakshara Kumari

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, Barbara 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 ● 5:40 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   

Barkha Dutt 

Attending Session

Bhawana Somaya

Attending Session

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

Biswajit Ray

Biswajit Ray is a professor of Bangla at Visva-Bharati in Santiniketan. His books on Tagore include Sab Prabandha Rajnaitik, Sachalatar Gan, 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

January 24, 2026 ● 12:50 pm
Raktakarabi : Biswajit Ray discusses and reimagines Tagore’s classic on its centenary in conversation with Semanti Ghosh.Readings by Bratati Bandyopadhyay

Bratati Bandyopadhyay 

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 12:50 pm
Raktakarabi : Biswajit Ray discusses and reimagines Tagore’s classic on its centenary in conversation with Semanti Ghosh.Readings by Bratati Bandyopadhyay

Bratya Basu

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Jukti Tokko Aar Deshbhag : Bratya Basu, Srijato 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, Chaitanya writes on arts and culture, with a specialisation on pop-culture and celebrity profiles 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 ● 4:40 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 :  Chaitanya Tamhane on his films, cinema in the time of OTT, global trends and shrinking attention spans  

January 24, 2026 ● 6:45 pm
Our Films, Their Films: Indian cinema in the World : Chaitanya Tamhane, Paolo Bertolin and Nandita Das and on Indian cinema and its place in the world. In conversation with Priyanka Roy  

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 ● 7.30 pm
Eliaser Chilekotha: Akhtaruzzmaner Chhotogolpo : Chandril Bhattacharya on the writing of Akhtaruzzaman Elias

Chinki Sinha

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 in conversation 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 latest works include two new collections of essays in Bengali (Chilekothhar Unmadini and Garho Shankher Khonje), The Tower and the Sea, Romain Rolland-Kalidas Nag Correspondence and two new 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 Session

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Silverware On The Indian Bookshelf : Ankhi Mukherjee, Daisy Rockwell, Kanishka Gupta and Upamanyu Chatterjee on the importance of literature awards and the missing 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 is author of  The Poisoner of Bengal (Juggernaut), the true story of a murder by plague in Jazz Age Calcutta, and The Black Nile (Viking). He is Senior Editor at USA TODAY, where he led coverage of Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the New York City mayor’s race. 

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Charlottesville : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison in conversation with Rupleena Bose

January 26, 2026 ● 6:00 pm
New York, New York : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on the city as muse, home, aggravation and hope

Debanjan Chakrabarti

Debanjan Chakrabarti is the Director of British Council, East and Northeast India. He has over 20 years of experience in leading education, development and cultural collaboration programmes. A triple gold medallist in English literature from Jadavpur University, he was awarded the prestigious Felix Scholarship from India for his Ph.D in literature and media studies from the University of Reading, UK. In his substantive role as the Area Director for East and Northeast India, he leads on all of the British Council’s education and cultural relations work in East and Northeast India covering 13 states and Bhutan. He is a Trustee of the International Language and Development Conference and sits on the education and heritage committees of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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  

Debnita Chakravarti

Dr 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. In conversation with Pinaki De

January 26, 2026 ● 3:40 pm
Stories of the Republic : 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

Deborah Baker was born in Charlottesville and grew up in Virginia, Puerto Rico and New England. After working many years as a book editor and publisher, in 1990 she wrote In Extremis; The Life of Laura Riding. Published by Grove Press and Hamish Hamilton in the UK, it was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1994. Her third book, A Blue Hand: The Beats in India (a biography of Allen Ginsberg) was published by Penguin Press USA and Penguin India in 2008. The Convert, another acclaimed book by Baker, was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award in Non-Fiction. In August 2018, she published her fifth work of non-fiction, The Last Englishmen: Love, War and the End of Empire.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Charlottesville : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison in conversation with Rupleena Bose

January 26, 2026 ● 6:00 pm
New York, New York : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison on the city as muse, home, aggravation and hope

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 ● 2.15 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

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 ● 1:10 pm
As Times 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 in conversation with Chinki Sinha 

Goutam Ghose

Attending Session

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 ● 4:45 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, Hal’s 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 Anuvab Pal on the use of language at a time of Snapchat, LOL and smileys

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, Subarnaerkha

 Harinder Baweja

Harinder Baweja is a senior journalist and author. She has been reporting on current affairs, with a particular emphasis on conflict, for over four decades. Her journey has taken her through the battlefields of Punjab and onwards to insurgency-ridden Jammu and Kashmir. She has also mapped various crises in Pakistan and was in Afghanistan when the Taliban first rode into Kabul in 1996.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Stories from the Valley :  Harinder Baweja and Ipsita Chakravarty in conversation

January 26, 2026 ● 11:30 am
Printing A Republic : Harinder Baweja, Jyotsna Mohan and Sanjoy Hazarika on chronicling the republic in black and white

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 ● 12:40 pm
Stories of the Republic : Robin Hoods to a Man For All Seasons: The unsung heroes of the freedom struggle to unsung policy shapers of Indian foreign policy. Narayani Basu and Indranath Mukherjee

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 :  Harinder Baweja and Ipsita Chakravarty in conversation

Ipsita Ganguli

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:00 am
The Republic of Poetry : Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, Kadambari Kaul and Ipsita Ganguli

Irawati Karnik

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 2:15 pm
Focus on Maharashtra - Crossplay; Theatre Dialogues between Bengal and Maharashtra : Shanta Gokhale, Irawati Karnik and Suman Mukhopadhyay on the links between the Kolkata and Mumbai stage. In conversation with Salil Tripathi

Isha

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 11:40 am
Nila Nilabjo : Anupam Roy discusses his book on relationships and arguments with readings by Somak Ghosh and Isha

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 R.K. 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 Secondary school level in London for seven years. As Jash Sen, Jashodhara 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. Jashodhara has written fiction, non-fiction, OTT content, 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 : Megha Majumdar and Tathagata Bhattacharya on dystopian futures. In conversation with Jashodhara Chakraborti

January 25, 2026 ● 2:15 pm
Imagining the Author : Nandita Das and Srijit Mukherji discuss their cinematic chronicles on 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. He is 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 published by Oxford University Press have been hailed by film critics as the most definitive works on Indian Cinema and are in the libraries of major Ivy League Universities in the USA. Javed Akhtar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) as a Member of Parliament by the President of India in 2010. He is the architect of the Copyright Amendment Bill passed by both Houses of Indian Parliament, which 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 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 ● 12:20 pm
Focus on Maharashtra - Tapestry of Tales : Shanta Gokhale, Prafull Shiledar and Rajesh Patil 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 in conversation with Shruti Mohta

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, her debut story collection that explores 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 the fall of 2003 to great acclaim. A film version (directed by Mira Nair) was released in 2007. Lahiri’s 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 book, 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 in fiction. Lahiri’s first book written 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 her New York Times bestselling 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 translated three novels by Domenico Starnone and has also edited and partly translated The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories. Lahiri’s abilities to convey the oldest cultural conflicts in the most immediate fashion and to achieve the voices of many different characters are among the unique qualities that have captured the attention of a wide audience. 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. Lahiri was also granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2006. She was also 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 Malavika Banerjee

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

January 26, 2026 ● 5:10 pm
The First 25 Years : Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai on completing 25 years of writing and being storytellers in these times. In conversation with Anindita Ghose

Jonathan Gil Harris

Jonathan Gil Harris is Professor of English at Ashoka University, India. His research interests include Shakespeare, early modern English theatre, travel literature in the age of colonialism, early modern English writing about India, medieval and early modern silk road culture and global Jewish history. He is also an avid follower of Hindi cinema and his articles on Bollywood and globalization have been published in the Hindustan Times.

Attending Session

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

Jonquil Cooper

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Stories of the Republic : 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 Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:30 am
Printing A Republic : Harinder Baweja, Jyotsna Mohan and Sanjoy Hazarika on chronicling the republic in black and white

K. Mohan Chandran

Attending Session

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

K Sridhar

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 7:10 pm
Time, Space and the Restless Author : Philosophy and the storyteller. K. Sridhar and Lukáš Cabala   

Kadambari Kaul

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:00 am
The Republic of Poetry : Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, Kadambari Kaul and Ipsita Ganguli

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. Kanishka 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 Session

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Silverware On The Indian Bookshelf : Ankhi Mukherjee, Daisy Rockwell, Kanishka Gupta and Upamanyu Chatterjee on the importance of literature awards and the missing 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 Session

January 24, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Austen-tatious : Kate Evans and Debnita Chakravarti on the life, the books and the influence of Jane Austen. In conversation with Pinaki De

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 also 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 ● 6:30 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 Session

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  

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 ● 4:40 pm
Dystopia Capital : Keshava Guha and Sayantan Ghosh in Delhi as a character in their novels. In conversation with Chaitanya Srivastava  

Kiran Desai

Attending Sessions

January 26, 2026 ● 1:10 pm
The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny :  Kiran Desai discusses her new novel with Shahana Chatterjee

January 26, 2026 ● 5:10 pm
The First 25 Years : Jhumpa Lahiri and Kiran Desai on completing 25 years of writing and being storytellers in these times. 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 ● 2:00 pm
Across Genre, Languages And Decades : Kunal Basu discusses past and future books with Pinaki De and Rituparna Roy

Labonita Ghosh

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 4:45 pm
River Muse : Sanjoy Hazarika and Gurnaik Johal on rivers as muse. 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 ● 5:40 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 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
Stories of the Republic : My Dear Kabul: Lucy Hannah on the stories of Afghanistan through the eyes of displaced women. Video uplink with Afghan contributor. 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. Lukáš Cabala 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 Author : Philosophy and the storyteller. K. Sridhar and Lukáš Cabala   

Maheshweta Devi

Attending Session

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 Malavika Banerjee

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

January 25, 2026 ● 4:30 pm
Absolute Jafar : Sarnath Banerjee in conversation with Malavika Banerjee  

Manu Joseph

Manu Joseph is an Indian journalist, novelist and screenwriter. His latest book is ‘Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us’, which 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 film by Netflix.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 4:00 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 between urban-rural and rich-poor divides, from resignation to vendetta. In conversation with Vandana Vasudevan

January 25, 2026 ● 2:20 pm
The Only City : Anindita Ghose, Shanta Gokhale and Manu Joseph 

Megha Majumdar

Megha Majumdar is the author of the novel A Guardian and a Thief, which is Oprah’s Book Club selection for October 2025. The novel is a finalist for the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize and has been longlisted for the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal. Her first book, A Burning, won a Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, among other honors.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 12:10 pm
A Guardian and A Thief : Megha Majumdar in conversation with Ritika Biswas  

January 23, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Nowtopia : Megha Majumdar and Tathagata Bhattacharya on dystopian futures. In conversation with Jashodhara Chakraborti

Milee Ashwarya

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 2.15 pm
Sati to Shikhandi -The Stories They Don’t Tell You : Devdutt Pattanaik in conversation with Milee Ashwarya

Mir Afsar Ali

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Tumhari Auqaat Kya Hai : Piyush Mishra discusses his book with Mir Afsar Ali

Mitakshara Kumari

Mitakshara Kumari is an Education Policy specialist. Over the last 20 years, she has worked at both the national and state level with governments and non profits. Her focus has been on building state capacity to drive systemic changes in government schools in order to improve learning opportunities for the vast majority of our children. In her last role as Adviser – Education with the State Planning Commission, Government of Chhattisgarh, she led the state’s flagship project to improve the quality of education and learning outcomes, aligned with the New Education Policy (NEP 2020). She sits on the Boards of education trusts that invest in not for profit education in underserved areas in North Bengal and Assam. In the past she has worked with the National Knowledge Commission and the National Innovation Council, both key federal think tanks on education and public policy. She graduated reading International Education Policy at Harvard University and English Literature at St Stephen’s College.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Home And Heart : Banu Mushtaq and Shanta Gokhale on their short story collections. In conversation with Mitakshara Kumari

January 24, 2026 ● 5:40 pm
OTP Please : Nandita Das and Vandana Vasudevan discuss the invisible world of delivery agents. In conversation with Mitakshara Kumari

Moon Moon Sen

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 3:30 pm
Uttam Shotoborsha : Moon Moon Sen, Sanjoy Bandyopadhyay, Srijit Mukherji

Mou Mukherjee

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 12:00 pm
: Ujjwal Sinha in conversation with Mou Mukherjee

January 25, 2026 ● 11:30 am
The Literary Alchemist : 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 

Mudar Patherya

Mudar Patherya is a businessman, garbage picker, Urdu lover, butterfly-chaser, stock picker, social activist and writer. He runs Trisys, India’s oldest agency in the area of corporate financial communications. He is also a prominent activist in Kolkata, responsible for cleaning urban water bodies including the well-known Santragacchi Jheel twice over and for the turnaround of the famed Rabindra Sarobar. He inspired the creation of a philanthropic NGO called Kolkata Gives that mobilised resources in cash and kind during the pandemic. He kickstarted the trend of painting electricity boxes around eminent Kolkata personalities and masterminded and organised the Live in Lakes musical events inside Rabindra Sarobar. He also initiated the clean-up of Vivekananda Park, Lily Pool, Avenue Sammilani lighting, water sprinklers inside Rabindra Sarobar and the open-air gallery inside Rabindra Sarobar. He helped replant 149 fallen trees in Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar in 2020.

Attending Session

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  

Nalini Bera

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Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Gold Sand, Gold Water : Nalini Bera and Hansda Sowrendra Shekhar discuss the journey of Subarnarenu, Subarnaerkha

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

Namita Devidayal

Namita Devidayal is the author of The Music Room, Aftertaste and The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan. Her most recent book is Tangerine: How to Read the Upanishads Without Giving Up Coffee. She is a senior journalist with The Times of India based in Mumbai and a trained Indian classical singer. She graduated from Princeton University in the US.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Stories of the Republic : Journeying into oneself: Namita Devidayal, Aritra Sarkar and Jonquil Cooper discuss their journey, journals and serendipity. In conversation with Priyambada Jayakumar

Nandita Das

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 5:40 pm
OTP Please : Nandita Das and Vandana Vasudevan discuss the invisible world of delivery agents. In conversation with Mitakshara Kumari

January 24, 2026 ● 6:45 pm
Our Films, Their Films: Indian cinema in the World : Chaitanya Tamhane, Paolo Bertolin and Nandita Das and on Indian cinema and its place in the world. In conversation with Priyanka Roy  

January 25, 2026 ● 12:00 pm
Film show : Manto by Nandita Das (116 mins)

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

Narayani Basu

Narayani Basu is the bestselling author of V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India (2020) and Allegiance: Azaadi & the End of Empire (2022). A historian and foreign policy analyst, her current area of interest focuses on the less known but key players in the story of Indian independence. A Man for All Seasons, the biography of K.M Panikkar, is her third book and has already garnered critical and popular acclaim.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 12:40 pm
Stories of the Republic : Robin Hoods to a Man For All Seasons: The unsung heroes of the freedom struggle to unsung policy shapers of Indian foreign policy. Narayani Basu and Indranath Mukherjee

Nasreen Munni Kabir

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 4:00 pm
Film Show : Documentary by Guru Dutt by Nasreen Munni Kabir (85 mins)

Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 11:00 am
The Republic of Poetry : Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, Kadambari Kaul and Ipsita Ganguli

Nilanjana Dasgupta

Attending Session

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

Paolo Bertolin

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 6:45 pm
Our Films, Their Films: Indian cinema in the World : Chaitanya Tamhane, Paolo Bertolin and Nandita Das and on Indian cinema and its place in the world. In conversation with Priyanka Roy  

Payal Mohanka

Payal Mohanka started her career as a journalist with the Illustrated Weekly of India and spent over a decade with the magazine covering a wide range of subjects. In 1995, she was selected for the prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge. She then moved to TV18, where she reported for India Business Report telecast weekly on BBC World and CNBC India for almost eight years. In 2002, she made a documentary on Chandernagor, a former French colony, titled Little France on the Hooghly and in 2003, she made a documentary on Mother Teresa, From Saint to Sainthood, which was screened at the Nehru Centre in London and telecast on CNN-IBN and Doordarshan International. In 2007, her book In the Shadows: Unknown Craftsmen of Bengal was published. Her article in the British think tank magazine The Round Table titled Religion and Conflict in India: A Sikh Perspective is part of the course work at the South Asia Institute of Harvard University.

Attending Session

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

Pinaki De

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. In conversation with Pinaki De

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

January 26, 2026 ● 2:00 pm
Across Genre, Languages And Decades : Kunal Basu discusses past and future books with Pinaki De and Rituparna Roy

Piyush Mishra

Piyush Mishra is a celebrated Indian artist — singer, composer, performer, actor — whose voice has cemented him as a cultural icon. Born in Gwalior in 1962, he trained at the National School of Drama and became a prominent force in Delhi’s theatre circuit before moving to Mumbai, where his collaborations with directors like Anurag Kashyap (Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur) defined a new, fearless creative voice in Indian cinema. His iconic songs like ‘Aarambh Hai Prachand’ and ‘Husna’ showcase his poetic ferocity and deep social consciousness, blending rebellion, pain and introspection in equal measure. A self-described nonconformist, Mishra’s artistry defies boundaries; his words sting, his performances provoke and his music moves. Whether on stage, on screen, or through his writings, he continues to embody an unfiltered voice of truth and passion, standing as one of the most authentic and uncompromising creative spirits in contemporary Indian art.

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 12:30 pm
Tumhari Auqaat Kya Hai : Piyush Mishra discusses his book with Mir Afsar Ali

Prabal Gurung

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 6:00 pm
Walk Like A Girl : Prabal Gurung discusses his memoirs with Shefalee Vasudev

Prafull Shiledar

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2026 ● 12:20 pm
Focus on Maharashtra - Tapestry of Tales : Shanta Gokhale, Prafull Shiledar and Rajesh Patil discuss trends, themes and challenges for Marathi literature. In conversation with Jerry Pinto

January 26, 2026 ● 11:00 am
The Republic of Poetry : Abhijeet Gogoi, Prafull Shiledar, Nilanjan Bandyopadhyay, Kadambari Kaul and Ipsita Ganguli

Pratiti Ganatra

Attending Session

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

Pritha Kejriwal

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 6:30 pm
The Hush Of The Uncaring Sea : Upamanyu Chatterjee discusses the novellas with Pritha Kejriwal

Priyadarshinee Guha

An alumna of Loreto House, La Martiniere for Girls and Presidency College, Calcutta, Priyadarshinee Guha has a Masters in Modern History and a gold medal from Calcutta University. Passionate about teaching she chose to make this her life force. She has taught History and English for the last 30 years in reputed schools of Calcutta. As a teacher of History, she has conducted several workshops for students and for training of teachers in using novel and creative approaches in the classroom. She was the Vice-Principal of Indus Valley World School from 2021-24. A trained Rabindra Sangeet singer, she has worked for several years in a reputed Bengali theatre group in Calcutta. She has mounted award winning theatre productions for schools and directed water ballets set to Tagorean themes. A multi-faceted person, she has been the master of ceremonies for events and is a regular moderator at the city circuit. Presently as the Associate Vice-President of the Kolkata Centre for Creativity she carries on her passion in the sphere of education by designing courses, talks, workshops and events.

Attending Session

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  

Priyambada Jayakumar

Priyambada Jayakumar was raised in India specifically in the City of Joy, Kolkata. Born to a Bengali mother and a Tamil father, she completed her schooling from La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata. The capital city of Delhi soon beckoned where she received her BA (Hons) degree in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. A Tripos in Social and Political Sciences followed thereafter from the University of Cambridge. Subsequently, she attended Harvard University for a further period of study. She has lived variously between Delhi, London and Boston. She is married with three children and currently lives in Singapore. MS Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India is her first book.

Attending Sessions

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

January 26, 2026 ● 4:20 pm
Stories of the Republic : Journeying into oneself: Namita Devidayal, Aritra Sarkar and Jonquil Cooper discuss their journey, journals and serendipity. In conversation with Priyambada Jayakumar

Priyanka Roy

Priyanka Roy heads the screen beat at The Telegraph t2. She has 18 years of experience in film writing, which includes reviews, interviews, trend stories and opinion pieces. She writes on Hindi, English, regional Indian films and world cinema. When she isn’t watching something to review, she relaxes by watching true-crime documentaries.

Attending Sessions

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 

January 24, 2026 ● 6:45 pm
Our Films, Their Films: Indian cinema in the World : Chaitanya Tamhane, Paolo Bertolin and Nandita Das and on Indian cinema and its place in the world. In conversation with Priyanka Roy  

R. Siva Kumar 

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 12:50 pm
A History of Santiniketan : Uma Das Gupta in conversation with R. Siva Kumar 

Rahul Bhattacharya

Rahul Bhattacharya is a novelist, journalist and editor. He is the author, most recently, of Railsong, a novel about a woman forging a life for herself in twentieth-century India. His novel The Sly Company of People Who Care won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Hindu Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize. Pundits from Pakistan, his first book, was a Wisden Cricketer top ten cricket book of all time. He was born in Bombay and lives in Delhi.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
Songs of Then : Rahul Bhattacharya and Rupleena Bose on how their novels on times gone by frame the India of today. In conversation with Sarojesh Mukherjee 

January 26, 2026 ● 12:00 pm
Stories of the Republic : Railsong: Rahul Bhattacharya in conversation on his new novel. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Rajesh Patil

Rajesh Patil was born to poor farm workers in the backward Khandesh region of Maharashtra. He worked as a child labourer picking cotton, selling bread and doing small jobs. But what set him apart was that, unlike most of his peers, he was driven by an intense desire to improve his life through education. Against great odds, he moved to Nasik for a B.Sc. and then to Pune for an M.Sc. in Statistics, all this with the help of freeships, scholarships and the support of his teachers and well-wishers. By dint of his hard work, he managed to get into the Indian Statistical Service, but the Indian Administrative Service was his goal. Unsuccessful at first, he persisted until eventually he cracked the competitive exams and qualified for the IAS. Maa, I’ve Become a Collector is the inspiring account of his struggles that has been a bestseller in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati and Odia and motivated thousands of students in India’s hinterlands in their quest for a better life.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 12:20 pm
Focus on Maharashtra - Tapestry of Tales : Shanta Gokhale, Prafull Shiledar and Rajesh Patil discuss trends, themes and challenges for Marathi literature. In conversation with Jerry Pinto

Rana Dasgupta

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 12:20 pm
After Nations : Rana Dasgupta in conversation with Rudra Chatterjee

January 26, 2026 ● 6:50 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

Richa Agarwal

Richa Agarwal, Chairperson of the Kolkata Centre for Creativity and CEO of Emami Art, is a distinguished patron and art connoisseur dedicated to preserving Bengal’s artistic and cultural heritage while embracing its contemporary evolution. With strong business acumen and hands-on experience within her family enterprises, she brings a distinctive perspective to her leadership in the arts. Her contributions to art and culture have earned her numerous accolades, including the FEMINA Achievers’ 2024 East Award for Excellence in the Promotion of the Arts, the New Indian Express Group DEVI Award in 2022, and the Times Power Women Award in 2018. She has spearheaded initiatives that span multiple disciplines and approaches from contemporary and cutting-edge art practices to inclusive programmes such as Art for All and DEAI (Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion) initiatives like a Braille library. She has also prioritised documenting and archiving lesser-known artists, organising annual art and craft festivals that engage the entire city and hosting ground-breaking symposiums. 

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 4:30 pm
Mitahara :  Rujuta Diwekar discusses wisdom and life lessons from  the Indian kitchen. In conversation with Richa Agarwal  

Rik Sengupta

Rik Sengupta is a mathematician and theoretical computer scientist who studied in South Point School, Princeton University, M.I.T., and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and now works as a research scientist in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is an avid fan of literature, music (especially the Beatles), cricket, films, magic, crosswords, juggling, puzzles and mysteries, and dabbles in several of them in a good way.

Attending Session

January 24, 2026 ● 11:20 am
Samudrer Dar : Aparajita Dasgupta and Rik Sengupta in conversation with Agnijit Sen

Ritika Biswas

Ritika Biswas is a curator, artistic researcher, and writer from Kolkata who lives and works nomadically, primarily across South Korea, Berlin and Bengal.  She works on and via ecological criticism, experimental kinships, necropolitics and questions of justice. Along with Chander Haat, she will curate the next Bengal Biennale (2026-27). Holding a Liberal Arts degree from Yale-NUS College and an MPhil in Film and Screen Studies from the University of Cambridge, Ritika was a curator at New Art Exchange Gallery (Nottingham, UK) from 2019-2021 and Artistic Director for the 2021 Sea Art Festival, Non-/Human Assemblages (Busan Biennale). Selected recent exhibitions include scape (Gallery 88 Mumbai), Spectres of Our Own Making (15th Gwangju Biennale), Nine Nodes of Non-Being (421 Arts Campus Abu Dhabi), the digital research platform Littoral Chronicle with artists Shezad Dawood and ikkibawiKrrr (2023-ongoing), among others. She was the 2024 Curator-in-Residence at Fondation Fiminco in Paris and 2022 International Research Fellow at MMCA Seoul.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 12:10 pm
A Guardian and A Thief : Megha Majumdar in conversation with Ritika Biswas  

Rituparna Roy

Attending Session

January 26, 2026 ● 2:00 pm
Across Genre, Languages And Decades : Kunal Basu discusses past and future books with Pinaki De and Rituparna Roy

Robert Ivermee

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

Rudra Chatterjee

Rudra Chatterjee is the MD of Luxmi Group and the Chairman of Obeetee. Luxmi is a tea producer with estates in Assam, West Bengal and Tripura in India and in Rwanda, Africa. Makaibari, acquired by Luxmi in 2013, produces some of the most famous teas in the world. He is also a Director of Luxmi Township that develops vibrant and inclusive urban spaces. Obeetee is India’s largest carpet company that exports carpets to the United States and Europe and has won numerous Indian and International awards for its social accountability, environment stewardship and design leadership. In 2016, he founded Manor and Mews, a UK-based furniture company.

Attending Session

January 25, 2026 ● 12:20 pm
After Nations : Rana Dasgupta in conversation with Rudra Chatterjee

Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Rudrangshu Mukherjee is the Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University of which he was also the Founding Vice Chancellor. He studied History as an undergraduate at Presidency College, Calcutta and completed his MA in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. He went up as an Inlaks Scholar to St Edmund Hall, Oxford and was awarded a D.Phil in Modern History by the University of Oxford. He was Reader in the History department of Calcutta University. He held visiting appointments at Princeton University, Manchester University and University of California, Santa Cruz. He was also the Editor, Editorial Pages, The Telegraph. He has written six books on the Revolt of 1857 of which the most notable is Awadh in Revolt 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance and of which the latest is A Begum and a Rani: Hazrat Mahal and Lakshmibai in 1857. His other books include Nehru & Bose: Parallel Lives, Twilight Falls on Liberalism, Nehru: A Short Introduction and Tagore & Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together. He has also co-authored A New History of India. He is the editor of The Penguin Gandhi Reader, Great Speeches of Modern India, The Best of Tagore and other volumes.

Attending Session

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

Rujuta Diwekar

Rujuta Diwekar is India’s leading public health advocate and amongst the most followed nutritionists globally. Her books have sold more than 1.75 million copies and her videos have received more than 300 million views. Her clear and simple message to eat local, seasonal and traditional has redefined the discourse on health and wellness, nudging it away from diet trends and towards the sustainable well-being of people and the planet.

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 4:30 pm
Mitahara :  Rujuta Diwekar discusses wisdom and life lessons from  the Indian kitchen. In conversation with Richa Agarwal  

Rupam Islam

Attending Session

January 23, 2026 ● 7:15 pm
AfterWords : Ekok: Rupam Islam Unplugged

Rupleena Bose

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2026 ● 2:10 pm
Charlottesville : Deborah Baker and Dan Morrison in conversation with Rupleena Bose

January 25, 2026 ● 3:50 pm
Songs of Then : Rahul Bhattacharya and Rupleena Bose on how their novels on times gone by frame the India of today. In conversation with Sarojesh Mukherjee 

Saeed Mirza

Attending Session