Abin Chaudhuri

Founder and principal architect at Abin Design Studio, Abin Chaudhuri graduated from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 1998 and pursued specialisation in Industrial Design at Domus Academy, Milan in 2003. Very recently, Abin attended Glenn Murcutt’s International Master Class, 2014.

He is an architect, innovator, quirky designer and notable entrepreneur. His creative mind is constantly in the process of exploring new thoughts and ideas, drawing inspiration from the ordinary to create something extraordinary. He founded Abin Design Studio in 2005. Today Abin Design Studio is among the top design firms in the country.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
Infinite Light : Paresh Maity and Abin Chaudhuri in conversation with Darshan Shah

Achyut Chetan

Achyut Chetan is the Dean of Arts and Social Studies at St Xavier’s University, Kolkata. He was educated at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and has received several fellowships for his research on the history of Indian feminism and the Constitution of India, including a Fulbright Fellowship at Columbia University and the South Asian Studies Fellowship at Cornell University. His book Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2022) is the first comprehensive account of women’s contribution to the drafting of the Constitution of India, a book that invites us to acknowledge the feminist voice in the foundational text of Indian democracy.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 11.50 am
Tagore’s University : Swati Ganguly and Biswajit Ray discuss the history of Visva-Bharati. In conversation with Achyut Chetan

Agnijit Sen

Agnijit Sen is a well-known radio jockey associated with Radio Mirchi, and is popularly known as ‘Mirchi Agni’. Along with Mirchi Somak, he regularly stars in the Radio Mirchi video spoof series, O Maa Go. Sen also lends his voice to Mirchi’s popular story-telling podcast, Sunday Suspense. He has also starred in Bengali films such as Golondaaj (2021).

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 4.40 pm
Off Stump-er Bayre : Gautam Bhattacharya and Anindya Chattopadhyay in conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

January 24, 2023 ● 4 pm
Mancher Itihas, Mancher Bhobishyot : Suman Mukhopadhyay, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu on a new era in Bangla theatre. In conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

January 26, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Notun Dashaker Goenda : Sabyasachi Sarkar and Anirban Basu discuss their sleuths with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Ahona Palchoudhuri

Ahona Palchoudhuri is a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department at Brown University. Her research lies at the intersection of aesthetics, ethics and the environmental humanities in rural West Bengal. Before moving to Brown, Ahona studied English Literature at St. Stephen’s College Delhi, Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics, and taught Critical Writing at Ashoka University.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Cultivating Democracy : Mukulika Banerjee discusses her study on agrarian life with Ahona Palchoudhuri

Akshaya Mukul

Akshaya Mukul is the author of Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (2015), which won every major non-fiction award in India on its release, including the Crossword Book Award, Ramnath Goenka Award, Tata Literature Live Award, Atta-Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Prize and the Shakti Bhatt Award. Mukul is the recipient of the Homi Bhabha, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund and the New India Foundation fellowships. He has contributed essays to Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century, edited by Rukmini Bhaya Nair and Peter Ronald deSouza, and A Functioning Anarchy? Essays for Ramachandra Guha, edited by Srinath Raghavan and Nandini Sundar. His latest book is a biography of the iconic Hindi writer Agyeya and is titled Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover:  The Many Lives of Agyeya (2022).

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 3 pm
Writer Rebel Soldier Lover : Akshaya Mukul and Yatish Kumar on the challenges of putting Agyeya on paper. In conversation with Poonam Saxena

January 26, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Write Life – Rani Jindan, Satyajit Ray and Agyeya : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Barun Chanda and Akshaya Mukul on chronicling iconic lives. In conversation with Chinmoy Guha

Alapan Bandyopadhyay

Alapan Bandyopadhyay is an ex-Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former Chief Secretary of State for the Government of West Bengal. He is the Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since June 1, 2021. He has also served as Chief Executive Officer, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and has been the Kolkata Municipal Commissioner, as well. He has headed several departments — Transport, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), Commerce & Industry, Information & Culture, and Home — as Principal Secretary. Additionally, he has served as the interim State Election Commissioner in 2015.

Alapan has penned several books including Amlar Mon in 2016 and edited quite a few other books from Prosongo Gorkhaland (1987) to Philosopher’s Stone: Speeches and Writings of Sir Daniel Hamilton (2000).

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 3.50 pm
Sab Charitra Bastabik : Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Biswajit Ray in conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali session)

Alka Saraogi

Alka Saraogi is a Hindi author from Kolkata. Her first novel Kalikatha via Bypass won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2001. She has published six more novels. She is translated into many European languages like German, Italian, French and Spanish, and regional languages of India.

Her new novel Kulbhushan Ka Naam Darj Kijiye grapples with the theme of long displacement of people migrating to West Bengal between the partition and the formation of Bangladesh.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Hindi Sahitya ka Shahar Kalkatta : Rachana Yadav, Sudha Arora, Alka Saraogi and Ved Raman Pandey discuss Hindi classics born and set in Kolkata. In conversation with Mrityunjay K. Singh (Hindi session)

Amit Lodha

Amit Lodha is a 1995 alumnus of IIT Delhi who joined the IPS in 1998. He holds the Inspector General rank in the Bihar Police. He is known for his book Bihar Diaries: Dangerous Criminal Was Caught. The web series on Netflix named Khakee: The Bihar Chapter takes a page from his book.

Attending Session

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria and is the author of The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, and The Ibis Trilogy, consisting of Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire. His most recent book, The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, appeared in 2016.

Amitav Ghosh’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and he has served on the juries of the Locarno and Venice film festivals. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic and The New York Times. They have been anthologized under the titles The Imam and the Indian (Penguin Random House India) and Incendiary Circumstances (Houghton Mifflin, USA). The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2016 and was given the inaugural Utah Award for the Environmental Humanities in 2018.

Attending Sessions

January 13, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
2020s VISION : Amitav Ghosh and Siddhartha Mukherjee in conversation

January 25, 2023 ● 12.30 pm
Pandemic, Parables and Prophecies : Amitav Ghosh discusses writing through the pandemic and Jungle Nama, The Nutmeg’s Curse and The Living Mountain. In conversation with Annu Jalais

January 26, 2023 ● 5 pm
Do We Need a New History of Humanity? : Amitav Ghosh and David Wengrow in conversation with Julie Banerjee Mehta

Amrish Kumar

Amrish Kumar is an entrepreneur who has spent over a decade working in Indian textiles as the managing director of brand ‘Ritu Kumar’. His desire to be heard has resulted in him building a record label, an internet film venture and leaving a trail of long suffering friends and family. He has an MBA and is a fellow of the Aspen Institute. Gods of Willow is his first novel.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
The Fabric of Freedom : Laila Tyabji, Bappaditya Biswas, Amrish Kumar and Darshan Shah on the textile and design heritage of India, and its future innovations. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 23, 2023 ● 6 pm
Gods of Willow - A Coming of Age Innings : Amrish Kumar and Sharda Ugra in conversation with Jeet Banerjee

Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer is the author of seven works of fiction, including the bestsellers The Confessions of Max Tivoli and Less. Greer has taught at a number of universities, including Stanford and the Iowa Writers Workshop, been a TODAY show pick, a New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellow, a judge for the National Book Award, and a winner of the California Book Award and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award. He is the recipient of a NEA grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He lives in San Francisco and Milan. His latest novel, Less Is Lost, was out September, 2022.

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 3.50 pm
Less is Lost : Andrew Sean Greer discusses the sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In conversation with Sandip Roy

January 26, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
Queersapien : Sharif Rangnekar discusses his book alongside Andrew Sean Greer, Saurabh Kirpal and Sumita. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Anindita Ghose

Anindita Ghose is a journalist and writer based in Mumbai. Her debut novel The Illuminated is published by HarperCollins India and is a bestseller. It has featured on best fiction lists by The Telegraph, The Times of India, Vogue and GQ among others; The Independent has picked Anindita as one of their nine best upcoming authors from India. 

 The Illuminated will be published internationally by the Head of Zeus in January 2023.

Anindita was, till most recently, the editor of Mint Lounge, and previously the Features Director of Vogue India.  

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 11.15 am
Imaginary Rain : Vikas Khanna in conversation with Anindita Ghose. Launch of Vikas Khanna’s Imaginary Rain by Mallika Sarabhai

January 25, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Straight From The Heart : Anindita Ghose and Soumya Bhattacharya discuss their debut novels. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti

Anindya Chattopadhyay

Anindya Chattopadhyay is a Bengali singer, writer, lyricist, composer, film director and actor, and one of the lead singer-composers of Bangla band Chandrabindoo. Among his awards are the National Award for Best Lyrics for Pherari Mon from Antaheen (with fellow-band member Chandril Bhattacharya) and the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award (East) for the song RaatJaaye (AlikSukh). In 2016, he and Anupam Roy composed the music and lyrics for the hit film Praktan. He published his first novel, Niruddesh Somporke Ghoshona in 2012, directed Open Tee Bioscope, Projapoti Biskut, and Manojder Adbhut Bari and acted in the films Jaatishwar and Satyanweshi.

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 4.40 pm
Off Stump-er Bayre : Gautam Bhattacharya and Anindya Chattopadhyay in conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

January 24, 2023 ● 6.15 pm
Boi-Shoik : Anindya Chattopadhyay and Sanchari Mookerjee on their latest book. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury (Bengali Session)

Anirban Basu

Anirban Basu, an engineer and a retired software professional, writes in Bengali and English. Under the tutelage of his mother, he developed a flair for writing in Bengali and has penned nine books in Bengali – all of which are in the genre of detection and science fiction. His creation – Akida – is a detective by passion. Sixteen of the Akida stories compiled in four books deal with a myriad of themes – from the psychological, to the mysterious mind of man, crime of passion, suspense, contemplative crime, even the mysterious wonders of nature. The other five books in Bengali deal with mystery, the horrors of global warming and the inherent dangers of AI and automation.

His four books in English comprise a collection of short stories and translations.

He pursues a keen interest in cinema and photography. His photographs have been exhibited at a national level with a solo exhibition of his photographs on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Notun Dashaker Goenda : Sabyasachi Sarkar and Anirban Basu discuss their sleuths with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Anirban Bhattacharya

A theatre actor, singer, actor and a director, Anirban Bhattacharya is ruling the hearts of his audience with his unparalleled performance in Tollywood. His fame skyrocketed with his character Bishan Roy in Eagoler Chokh and was picked as Filmfare Awards East for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, in 2017. He received the Best Actor Award in 2019 for his role as Nikhilesh Chowdhury in the movie Ghawre Bairey Aaj. He made his directorial debut with the web series Mandaar, inspired by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. His second directed work Ballavpurer Roopkatha, was released on October 21, 2022.

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 6.45 pm
Mosha : A dramatic reading of Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s short story by Anirban Bhattacharya

Anirudha Bhattacharjee

Anirudha Bhattacharjee’s first book won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema. His second book was the winner of the inaugural MAMI award for excellence in writing. Kishore Kumar – The Ultimate Biography is his fourth book. An amateur musician, Anirudha is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and works as a SAP consultant.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Yeh Shaam Mastani - The Magic of Kishore Kumar : Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar discuss their biography with Pritish Nandy. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

Ankhi Mukherjee

Ankhi Mukherjee is Professor of English and World Literatures at the University of Oxford and a Fellow in English at Wadham College. Her most recent book is Unseen City: The Psychic Lives of the Urban Poor (2021). Her second monograph, What Is a Classic? Postcolonial Rewriting and Invention of the Canon (Stanford University Press), won the British Academy Prize in English Literature in 2015. Mukherjee’s other publications include Aesthetic Hysteria: The Great Neurosis in Victorian Melodrama and Contemporary Fiction, and the collections of essays she has edited, namely A Concise Companion to Psychoanalysis, Literature, and Culture (with Laura Marcus) and After Lacan. 

 At present, Mukherjee has two books under contract. She is writing A Very Short Introduction to Postcolonial Literature in the widely circulated VSI series (Oxford UP, 2023) and co-editing a collaborative volume titled Decolonizing the English Literary Curriculum (Cambridge UP, 2023).

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
Unseen City :   Ankhi Mukherjee discusses her book on mental health of the urban poor with Jai R. Ram. In conversation with Supriya Chaudhuri

January 23, 2023 ● 5 pm
Independence : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and in conversation with Ankhi Mukherjee

Annu Jalais

Born and educated in Kolkata, Annu Jalais was fascinated with the largest natural habitat of the Bengal tigers – the Sundarbans. This fascination ultimately led her to study Anthropology and she was awarded a PhD in Anthropology at the London School of Economics, in 2004. Currently an Assistant Professor at Krea University, Annu Jalais has authored a book – Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans (2010) and co-authored The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim Migration (with Claire Alexander and Joya Chatterji), in 2015. She teaches a course called “Beasts, People, Wild Environments: South Asia” and is an Associate Editor of the journal – Conservation and Society. She has helped numerous media houses and journalists, which include The Independent, NPR, The Telegraph, and Daily Star to understand the Sundarbans, or the Bengal Delta.

Her most recent work is the project, ‘Nonhumans and Zoonoses: What Do They Tell Us About Ourselves?’

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 2.30 pm
Chronicling A Forest : Annu Jalais on writings in and on the Sunderbans. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 25, 2023 ● 12.30 pm
Pandemic, Parables and Prophecies : Amitav Ghosh discusses writing through the pandemic and Jungle Nama, The Nutmeg’s Curse and The Living Mountain. In conversation with Annu Jalais

Anuja Chauhan

After working in advertising for over 17 years and becoming a vice president at JWT, Anuja Chauhan decided to leave advertising and focus on literary endeavours. Her sixth and most recent novel Club You to Death was released in February 2021. Her other famous works include Those Pricey Thakur Girls, Battle of Bittora and The Zoya Factor. Battle For Bittora her second book, was claimed to be a “worthy successor to The Zoya Factor by Tehelka magazine and Mint scribed her writing of Those Pricey Thakur Girls as “a mix of wit and colloquial exuberance and calling her the only Indian writer of popular fiction really worth buying”.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 4 pm
That Feisty Chauhan Girl : Anuja Chauhan on 15 years of storytelling. In conversation with Jashodhara Chakraborti    

January 25, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
School Of Thrillers : Anuja Chauhan, Ashwin Sanghi and Krishnan Srinivasan in conversation with Balaji Vittal

Anupam Roy

Anupam Roy is a Kolkata-based singer, song writer, music director, guitarist and composer. He made his debut with the song Amake Amar Moto Thakte Dao and Benche Thakar Gaan from the film Autograph in 2010. He was nominated for the 61st Filmfare Award for the Best Background Score for Piku and won the 64th National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song Tumi Jaake Bhalobasho from the movie Praktan.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 7.20 pm
Bechey Thakar Gaan - Lockdowney Lekha : Chandril Bhattacharya, Srijato and Anupam Roy in conversation with RJ Riya (Bengali Session)

Anuradha Kapoor

Anuradha Kapoor is the Founder and Director of Swayam, a feminist organisation committed to advancing women’s rights and ending gender inequality and violence against women. An activist, trainer and consultant for women and human rights organisations, Anuradha is actively involved in advocacy on women’s rights and keenly advocated for the introduction of The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Anuradha was involved in conducting Judicial Trainings in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with judges and judicial officers from the High Courts and District Courts as part of the Asia Pacific Forum on Judicial Education on Equality Issues. Anuradha has a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She completed her schooling from La Martiniere for Girls, in Calcutta.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 3.15 pm
Iran’s Zan, Zendagi, Azadi Revolution : Ghazala Wahab, Sharda Ugra, Anuradha Kapoor in conversation with Sumona Chakravarty

Aparajita Dasgupta

Aparajita Dasgupta received her Bachelor’s degree in History from Presidency College, and her MA, MPhil and PhD degrees in History from Calcutta University. She is currently the CEO of the West Bengal State Book Board and is a member of the State Heritage Commission. She has been a Visiting Scholar in South Asian Studies in the University of Pennsylvania, and a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at St Mary’s University. She is working on her first academic book – Domesticating Nationalism: Women and the Politics of Gender in Bengal, 1870-1950. She has written Surer Smriti, Smritir Sur, a book of short stories, Chhayapath, a novel, and a collection of autobiographical vignettes, Ichchher Gaachh.

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 12 pm
Spivak Moving : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in conversation with Lakshmi Subramanian. Launch of Ei Je Pather Ei Dekha by Aparajita Dasgupta

January 21, 2023 ● 3 pm
47er Shei August : Sankar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Semanti Ghosh revisit the first moments of freedom. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali Session)

January 22, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Boier Sansar : Aparajita Dasgupta and Jayanta Sengupta on their literary journeys. In conversation with SV Raman (Bengali session)  

January 25, 2023 ● 3.50 pm
Sab Charitra Bastabik : Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Biswajit Ray in conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali session)

Arka Das

Arka Das is a cultural observer, a visual artist and a member of the Kolkata-based rock band Easy Riders. He has been associated with Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Times of India and The Telegraph, primarily writing on music and art. He is a part of Team Daakbangla.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Rupamer Kalam : Rupam Islam on his literary inspirations. In conversation with Arka Das (Bengali Session)

Aruna Chakravarti

Aruna Chakravarti is a well-known academic, creative writer and translator with 14 published books on record. They comprise three novels, one book of short stories, two academic works and eight translations. Chakravarti has been Principal of a prestigious Women’s College of Delhi University for ten years. Her first novel The Inheritors was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and her third, Jorasanko, received critical acclaim and also became a best seller. Her seven 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 novel, Daughters of Jorasanko, is a sequel to Jorasanko. She is also a script writer and producer of six multi-media presentations based on her novels. Comprising dramatized readings interspersed with songs and accompanied by a visual presentation by professional artists and singers, these programmes have been widely acclaimed and performed in many parts of India and abroad. Her latest work, a novel titled Suralakshmi Villa, scheduled for publication by this year, will be her fifteenth book. Among the various awards she has received are the Vaitalik Award, the Sarat Puraskar and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Mendicant Prince : Aruna Chakravarti in conversation with Julie Banerjee Mehta

Ashwin Sanghi

Ashwin Sanghi ranks amongst India’s highest selling English fiction authors. His bestsellers include – Chanakya’s Chant, The Sailkot Saga, Keepers of Kalachakra, The Vault of Vishnu and he is the co-author of the New York Times best-selling crime thrillers Private India and Private Delhi. Ashwin received the Crossword Popular Choice Award in 2012 and has been included by Forbes India in their Celebrity 100.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 5 pm
The Magicians of Mazda :   Ashwin Sanghi in conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha. Launch of Tamal Kumar Majumder’s The Undercover Monk

January 25, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
School Of Thrillers : Anuja Chauhan, Ashwin Sanghi and Krishnan Srinivasan in conversation with Balaji Vittal

Atri Bhattacharya

Atri Bhattacharya is a senior bureaucrat with the West Bengal government. A quizzer of great repute and a voracious reader, Bhattacharya 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 Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
Carry On Jeeves : Ben Schott and Atri Bhattacharya discuss the enduring magic of Jeeves and other PG Wodehouse characters. In conversation with Soumya Bhattacharya

January 24, 2023 ● 2.10 pm
Sweetening India :   Jael Silliman and Barry O’Brien discuss the hidden histories of Parsis, Jews and Anglo-Indians in India. In conversation with Atri Bhattacharya

Avik Chanda

Avik Chanda is a business adviser, bestselling author, entrepreneur, trainer and a speaker at the Outstanding Speaker’s Bureau. He has published two poetry collections – Jokhon Bideshe and Footnotes. Besides poetry, he has written a novel Anchor (2015) and co-authored the nationally-acclaimed business book From Command to Empathy: Using EQ in the Age of Disruption (2017). His book, Dara Shukoh: The Man Who Would Be King (2019), was on the National Non-Fiction Top 10 Bestsellers List and garnered huge praise from academics and was made into an audiobook by Audible.

Avik is the Founder and CEO of NUVAH ELINT LLP – a highly innovative, positive psychology-driven personality assessment platform.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Weaponising AI : Pravin Sawhney and Avik Chanda on artificial intelligence and future confrontations with China. In conversation with Krishnan Srinivasan

Bachi Karkaria

Bachi Karkaria is a game changer in India’s journalism, having helped create path-breaking brands for The Times of India Group. She is also a best-selling author, litfest curator and international media trainer. She was the first Indian board member of the Paris-based World Editor’s Forum, is a Jefferson Fellow from Hawaii’s East West Center, and a recipient of the Mary Morgan Hewitt Award for Lifetime Achievement. Karkaria’s books include the critically acclaimed In Hot Blood: The Nanavati Case That Shook India; Dare to Dream – the bestselling biography of MS Oberoi; Mumbai Masti; Mills, Molls and Moola; Behind The Times; and The Cake That Walked.

Attending Session

Balaji Vittal

Balaji Vittal is the co-author of the National Award-winning book RD Burman: The Man, The Music and the MAMI Award-winning Gaata Rahe Mera Dil – 50 Classic Hindi Film Songs. His most recent book is also his first solo-authored – Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 2.30 pm
Chronicling A Forest : Annu Jalais on writings in and on the Sunderbans. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 22, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Yeh Shaam Mastani - The Magic of Kishore Kumar : Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar discuss their biography with Pritish Nandy. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 25, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
School Of Thrillers : Anuja Chauhan, Ashwin Sanghi and Krishnan Srinivasan in conversation with Balaji Vittal

Bappaditya Biswas

Bappaditya Biswas is one of India’s foremost textile experts and has been creating masterly weaves over the last decade and more; weaves that have redefined Bengal handloom and given the textiles of the state a new look and feel. He has created the brand bai lou as well as the iconic store Byloom in Kolkata. Bappaditya has travelled the world to study the traditions of weaving and dyeing and one of his weaves has also won the Unesco Seal of Excellence.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
The Fabric of Freedom : Laila Tyabji, Bappaditya Biswas, Amrish Kumar and Darshan Shah on the textile and design heritage of India, and its future innovations. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

Baran Farooqi

Baran Farooqi is Shamsur Rahman Faruqi’s younger daughter. A professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, her areas of special interest are Shakespeare, Translation, and Women’s Studies. She has translated extensively from Urdu into English.

Baran is the acclaimed translator of The Colours of My Heart, a selection of poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Dhwani Aur Goonj Se Resonance Tak : Daisy Rockwell, Poonam Saxena and Baran Farooqi discuss translating from Hindi and Urdu to English. In conversation with Yatish Kumar

January 23, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
JCB Prize Special : Khalid Jawed speaks about his award-winning ‘The Paradise of Food’ with translator Baran Farooqi. In conversation with Mita Kapur

Barry O’Brien

Educationist Barry O’Brien’s classroom is the length and breadth of India. One of the country’s leading quizmasters, Barry is a skilled motivational speaker who conducts workshops for teachers, corporate managers, and B-school students, besides public speaking courses designed by him.

A writer, his canvas has been wide – as a social commentator and columnist for The Pioneer and The Telegraph, and a pioneering author of school textbooks for leading publishers over the last three decades with several best selling titles and now, as a writer of narrative non-fiction.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
The Anglo-Indians : Barry O’Brien discusses his new book with Ruskin Bond. In conversation with SV Raman. (Ruskin Bond will be joining the session virtually)

January 24, 2023 ● 2.10 pm
Sweetening India :   Jael Silliman and Barry O’Brien discuss the hidden histories of Parsis, Jews and Anglo-Indians in India. In conversation with Atri Bhattacharya

Barun Chanda

A Bengali actor and author based in Kolkata, Barun Chanda is mostly remembered for his role in Satyajit Ray’s Seemabaddha. After a hiatus of 20 years, he again worked in Rituparno Ghosh’s debut film Hirer Angti (1992). His most recent and significant work is his role as the landlord and father of Sonakshi Sinha in the Hindi film Lootera. In 2019, he starred in an independent psychological thriller Rakkhosh which gained positive critical acclaim. His other notable works include his roles in Chotushkone, Roy, Mishor Rohoshyo, Bela Sheshe and many more. His first English novel is Coke.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Write Life – Rani Jindan, Satyajit Ray and Agyeya : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Barun Chanda and Akshaya Mukul on chronicling iconic lives. In conversation with Chinmoy Guha

Ben Schott

Born in London, Ben Schott spent most of his twenties as a freelance portrait photographer for a diverse range of clients including The Independent, Reader’s Digest, Sunday Business, The Times and Sunday Times.

He published his first book named Schott’s Original Miscellany which became a bestseller within a week. He subsequently published a series of Miscellanies and Almanacs and his book Schottenfreude sold 2.5 million copies in 21 different languages. His first novel Jeeves and The King of Clubs was published in 2018 and is a homage to PG Wodehouse, and its sequel Jeeves and The Leap of Faith was published in 2020. He is currently a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
Carry On Jeeves : Ben Schott and Atri Bhattacharya discuss the enduring magic of Jeeves and other PG Wodehouse characters. In conversation with Soumya Bhattacharya

January 26, 2023 ● 11 am
No Laughing Matter : Has dark humour edged the droll and delightful out of literature? Ben Schott, Sandip Roy and Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

Bickram Ghosh

Maestro Bickram Ghosh is well-known for his performance in the Grammy awarded album Full Circle with Pandit Ravi Shankar. He has played in four Grammy nominated albums including George Harrison’s Brainwashed, performed at the UNESCO headquarters for the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore celebrations, and played the finale performance of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 at New Delhi as a part of a 17 member team of top Indian musicians. His long standing band Rhythmscape which performs neo-fusion music, celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021. He has scored music for over 25 films and his soundtrack from Jal earned him an Oscar nomination.

He has won the award for the best Pop/Rock Single at the Global Indian Music Academy (GIMA) in 2012. His most significant collaborations include those with Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan and Sunidhi Chauhan.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar : Oliver Craske discusses his biography of Ravi Shankar with Bickram Ghosh

Binayak Bandyopadhyay

Binayak Bandyopadhyay is a teacher by profession. He is a Bengali poet whose collections of poetry include Nehat Gorib Nehat Chhoto, Daracchi Dorjar Baire, Jototuku Mene Nite Paro, Tumi-i Pran Tumi-i Por, Potaka Noy Digonto among many others, which have received critical attention and public appreciation. He is also a well-known prose writer, having popular titles to his name. He has been awarded the Krittibas Award and the Bangla Academy Shakti Chattopadhyay Award.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 3.20 pm
Uddam Rajanir Kabya : Subodh Sarkar discusses his new book with Binayak Bandyopadhyay, Moumita and Sibashish Mukhopadhyay (Bengali Session)

Biswajit Ray

Biswajit Ray is Associate Professor of Bengali, Visva-Bharati. His publications on Rabindranth include Sachalatar Gan, Rabindranath O Vivekananda: Swadeshe Samakale, Rabindranath and His Times (Cambridge Companion to Rabindranath Tagore). A well-known columnist, he writes regularly for Anandabazar Patrika about various socio-cultural aspects of Bengali life. He has received the Rupali Sahitya Samman, 2017 and the Nilanjana Sen Smriti Puraskar, 2019.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 3.50 pm
Sab Charitra Bastabik : Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Biswajit Ray in conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali session)

January 26, 2023 ● 11.50 am
Tagore’s University : Swati Ganguly and Biswajit Ray discuss the history of Visva-Bharati. In conversation with Achyut Chetan

Bratya Basu

Bratya Basu, the current education minister of West Bengal and an eminent member of the Trinamool Congress, is also an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director and a professor. He has been conferred the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 – the most prestigious award of the country for outstanding work in literature, for his anthology Mir Jafar O Onanyo Natak (Bengali).

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
Mir Jafar O Onanyo Natak : Bratya Basu in conversation with Subodh Sarkar (Bengali Session)

January 24, 2023 ● 4 pm
Mancher Itihas, Mancher Bhobishyot : Suman Mukhopadhyay, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu on a new era in Bangla theatre. In conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Chandril Bhattacharya

Winner of the 2010 National Film Award for Best Lyrics for the song Pherari Mon in the film Antaheen, Chandril Bhattacharya is a popular Bengali personality who is a lyricist, essayist, poet, orator and director. He is one of the main lyricists of the Bengali band Chandrabindoo.

Chandril has published many books, mostly his collection of poems and articles – Dhur Dhur A Porobaase Ke Thakbe (2008), Ugo Bugo Chouko Chugo (2012), Uttam Maadhyom (2009), Sondher Songe Casual Guley (2015) and many more. His 2022 publication is a collection of selected essays named Something Something.

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 1 pm
Bhibuti Bhushaner Sansar : Chandril Bhattacharya on the eclectic universe of the literary colossus (Bengali Session)

January 22, 2023 ● 7.20 pm
Bechey Thakar Gaan - Lockdowney Lekha : Chandril Bhattacharya, Srijato and Anupam Roy in conversation with RJ Riya (Bengali Session)

Chinmoy Guha

Chinmoy Guha is Professor of English at the University of Calcutta and a distinguished French scholar. A well-known essayist and translator, he has had the rare honour of being knighted twice by the French Ministries of Culture and National Education. The President of France conferred on him the Ordre National du Mérite in 2019. He won the Sahitya Akademi award for his collection of essays Ghumer Darja Thele (2019), the Vidyasagar Puroshkar of the Government of West Bengal (2017) and the Bimala Charan Law Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society in 2022.  Literary Editor of Desh for a decade, he has been a jury member of the Romain Rolland Award of the Institut Français.

His books include Where the Dreams Cross: T S Eliot and French Poetry, Bridging East and West: Rabindranath Tagore and Romain Rolland Correspondence 1919-1940, Chilekothar Unmadini and Bindu theke Bindute.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 6 pm
Bindu Thekey Bindutey : Chinmoy Guha discusses his recent book with Pinaki De (Bengali session)

January 26, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Write Life – Rani Jindan, Satyajit Ray and Agyeya : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Barun Chanda and Akshaya Mukul on chronicling iconic lives. In conversation with Chinmoy Guha

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee is an India-born American author and poet. Her short story collection Arranged Marriage won the American Book Award in 1996. Two of her novels, namely, The Mistress of Spices and Sister Of My Heart, were adapted into films. Her works have the backdrop of America and the United States and often focus on the experiences of South Asian immigrants. Her novel genre spans from realistic fiction, realistic fiction, magical realism, myth and fantasy. Her notable works include The Palace of Illusions, The Conch Bearer, The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, and many more.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 5 pm
Independence : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and in conversation with Ankhi Mukherjee

January 26, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Write Life – Rani Jindan, Satyajit Ray and Agyeya : Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Barun Chanda and Akshaya Mukul on chronicling iconic lives. In conversation with Chinmoy Guha

Chitrita Banerji

Chitrita Banerji, a Bengali-American writer, grew up in Calcutta, and went to the United States as a graduate student. She received her Master’s Degree in English from Harvard University.

In her writing, Banerji uses both fiction and non-fiction to examine the relationships between memory, history, culture, religion, and food. She is the author of several books – Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals, Feeding the Gods, and Eating India. Time Out, London, listed Eating India among the best new food books of 2008.

Her first novel is Mirror City (2014) and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (2018) is her first biography. Chitrita Banerji’s latest book, A Taste of My Life – A Memoir in Essays and Recipes was published in December 2021.

Banerji has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Gastronomica, Gourmet, and Granta. She has presented papers at the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery where she twice won a Sophie Coe Award in Food and History, in 1998 and 1999. Many of her articles have been reprinted in anthologies in the UK and the US, including the Granta Book of India and the Best American Travel Writing 2006.

She worked for several years as an editor, journalist, and translator. Between 1992-2000, she was the Publications Director of the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Hesheler History : Chitrita Banerji and Jayanta Sengupta discuss the history of Bengal’s culinary platter. In conversation with Poorna Banerjee (Bengali Session)

January 23, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
India in a Kitchen : Chitrita Banerji, Mita Kapur and Vikas Khanna and on food as an unsung unifier of India. In conversation with Sneha Singhi

January 25, 2023 ● 1.20 pm
Born in 1947 : Laila Tyabji, Subhasini Ali and Chitrita Banerji discuss the peaks and troughs of the midnight generation. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury

Daisy Rockwell

Daisy Rockwell, who works under the alias Lapata which is Urdu for “missing”, is an American Hindi and Urdu writer, artist and translator. Her 2021 translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand made it as the first South Asian book to win the International Booker Prize. Her other works include the translation of Upendranath Ashk’s Falling Walls (2015), Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas (2016) and Khadija Mastur’s The Women’s Courtyard (2018). Being a writer and a painter, Rockwell, in 2012, published The Little Book of Terror, a volume of paintings and essays on the Global War on Terror and her novel Taste was published in April 2014.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Dhwani Aur Goonj Se Resonance Tak : Daisy Rockwell, Poonam Saxena and Baran Farooqi discuss translating from Hindi and Urdu to English. In conversation with Yatish Kumar

January 25, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Tomb of Sand : Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell discuss their Booker International Prize-winning novel. In conversation with Debnita Chakraborti

January 26, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
A New Dawn For South Asian Literature : Geetanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell and Shehan Karunatilaka on ways in which South Asian literature can reach a wider readership. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Damodar Mauzo

Damodar Mauzo is a Goan short story writer, critic, novelist, and script writer who has served as a member of the executive board, general council, as well as the finance committee of the Sahitya Akademi. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Karmelin in 1983 and was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 2021. His collection of short stories Teresa’s Man and Other Stories from Goa was nominated for the Frank O’Connor International Award in 2015. 

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 3 pm
Blank Verse : Damodar Mauzo, Subodh Sarkar, and Jerry Pinto discuss whether poetry is being translated enough. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

January 25, 2023 ● 4 pm
Mauzo’s World : Damodar Mauzo in conversation with Jerry Pinto

Darshan Mekani Shah

Darshan Mekani Shah was born and raised in Kolkata. After attending La Martiniere for Girls, she completed her B.Com from Calcutta University, and was popular as a keen athlete and debater. She pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and a MEP Diploma from IIM, Ahmedabad after marriage. Post graduation, she joined Hindustan Lever Ltd. in Mumbai with a dream job that turned into a stint following the birth of her daughter Radhika.

Upon returning to Kolkata, she began working with handloom textiles. Her first job was marketing curated exhibitions and handcrafted collections. Through these ventures, she started Weavers Studio to provide substantial employment to women and skilled artisans who faced bleak futures due to the dominance of power loom products.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
The Fabric of Freedom : Laila Tyabji, Bappaditya Biswas, Amrish Kumar and Darshan Shah on the textile and design heritage of India, and its future innovations. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 24, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
Infinite Light : Paresh Maity and Abin Chaudhuri in conversation with Darshan Shah

David Wengrow

David Wengrow is a British archaeologist and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He has co-authored the New York Times international bestseller The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity which was a finalist for the 2022 Orwell Prize.

David has conducted many archaeological fieldworks in Africa and the Middle East and is the author of books including The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformations in North-East Africa,c. 10,000 – 2650 BC; What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West; The Origins of the Monsters: Image & Cognition in the First Age of Mechanical Reproduction. He has also contributed many op-eds on climate changes and inequality in The Guardian and The New York Times which has led him to rank #10 in ArtReview’s (2021) ‘Most Influential People in the Contemporary Art World’.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
The Dawn of Everything : David Wengrow in conversation with Mukulika Banerjee

January 26, 2023 ● 5 pm
Do We Need a New History of Humanity? : Amitav Ghosh and David Wengrow in conversation with Julie Banerjee Mehta

Debanjan Chakrabarti

Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti is Director, British Council, East and Northeast India. He has over 20 years of experience in leading education, development and cultural collaboration programmes in the UK-India corridor and internationally. A triple gold medallist in English literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Debanjan was awarded the prestigious Felix Scholarship from India for his PhD –  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 British Council’s education and cultural relations work in East and Northeast India, covering 13 states and Bhutan. Debanjan 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 25, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Straight From The Heart : Anindita Ghose and Soumya Bhattacharya discuss their debut novels. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti

Debnita Chakravarti

Dr Debnita Chakravarti is Associate Professor of English at Shri Shikshayatan College where she tries to get students who are reading to learn, to learn to read as well. After Jadavpur, she did her Ph.D. from the University of Reading. She was subsequently a Charles Wallace scholar with a visiting fellowship at the University of Southampton. She has taught at the erstwhile Presidency College, Calcutta University, and has also taught French to management students. Alongside presenting and publishing academic papers, she enjoys freelancing as a creative writer. Dr Chakravarti has hosted several literary events with Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Ruskin Bond, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, AshwinSanghi, Amish Tripathy and Shashi Deshpande, among others.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Tomb of Sand : Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell discuss their Booker International Prize-winning novel. In conversation with Debnita Chakraborti

Divya Dutta

Divya Dutta is an Indian actress and model. She debuted in Hindi cinema with the film Ishq Mein Jeena Ishq Mein Marna. She received widespread critical acclaim for her role as Shabbo in Veer Zaara which earned her a Filmfare. She received the IIFA Award for the Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Jalebi in the 2009 film Delhi 6. She continued to play significant characters in movies like Heroine, Gippi and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. She was awarded the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the social drama Irada.

Divya is the author of the book The Stars in My Sky.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 1 pm
The Stars in My Sky : Divya Dutta in conversation with Mir Afsar Ali

January 23, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Readings and Recitations : Pritish Nandy, Divya Dutta, Mritunjay K. Singh, Yatish Kumar, Sudha Arora

Ganesh Rajagopalan

Indian classical violin maestro Ganesh Rajagopalan is an internationally renowned performer and composer for the past four decades. As a child prodigy, he has been performing since the young age of seven and subsequently rose to stardom. He completed his 100th stage appearance before he was ten years old.

His brother Kumaresh and he are the Indian violinist duo who are a part of the Carnatic Music Fraternity (South India). They were awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2018) for Carnatic Instrumental Music (Violin).

In his four decades of experience in performing, teaching, collaborating, and composing, he has carved a niche for himself with his remarkable technique and incredible virtuosity. He has toured worldwide including performances at prestigious venues like Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall in London, Chicago Symphony Center, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, Walt Disney Center, LA, Festival of Violin – Barcelona, Symphony Space – NY, Summermela, Rome, etc.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 12.15 pm
Shakti@50 - Celebrating Love and Harmony :   John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan discuss 50 years of the iconic band. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Gaur Gopal Das

Born in Maharashtra, Gaur Gopal Das is an Indian monk, a lifestyle coach, a motivational speaker and a former electrical engineer at Hewlett Packard for a brief period – before leaving the company to become a monk. In 2018, he published the book Life’s Amazing Secrets: How to Find Balance and Purpose in Your Life, and received an honorary doctorate from KIIT. Reportedly, he has over 4.36 million followers on YouTube. His other published work is The Way of the Monk: The Four Steps to Peace, Purpose and Lasting Happiness (2020). Gaur Gopal Das’s _Energize Your Mind: A Monk’s Guide to Mindful Living _is his most recent work.

He is a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 11.15 am
Energise Your Mind :   Gaur Gopal Das speaks about his new book and the virtues of a mindful life

Gautam Bhattacharya

Gautam Bhattacharya started his career as a sports journalist. He then went on to become a published author, a cricket commentator on Star Sports, and an anchor of national and international shows. He was the associate editor of Anandabazar Patrika where he handled both – sports and entertainment – for the publication. He is now the editor of one of Eastern India’s most renowned TV news channels, Zee 24 Ghanta.

He has written a biography on Sachin Tendulkar titled Sach and also authored a book in Bengali: Jaya He.

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 4.40 pm
Off Stump-er Bayre : Gautam Bhattacharya and Anindya Chattopadhyay in conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian scholar, literary theorist and feminist critic. She is a professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. She is best known for her translation and introduction to Jacques Derrida’s “Of Grammatology” and her essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?”. Gayatri Spivak was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2013 – one of India’s highest honours.

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 11.30 am
Inauguration : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak opens the 11th edition of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet

January 21, 2023 ● 12 pm
Spivak Moving : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in conversation with Lakshmi Subramanian. Launch of Ei Je Pather Ei Dekha by Aparajita Dasgupta

Geetanjali Shree

Geetanjali Shree is an Indian Hindi language novelist and short-story writer based in New Delhi, India. The translation of her 2018 novel Ret Samadhi into English, by Daisy Rockwell (Tomb of Sand) won the International Booker Prize in 2022. This makes it the first book in Hindi and the first from an Indian writer to receive this accolade.

The English translation of her novel Mai catapulted her to fame. The novel has been translated into several different languages including Serbian and Korean, French and German. Nita Kumar was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for translating Mai into English. Her other works include Khali Jagah (2006), Humara Shahar Us Baras, Bel Patra (1987), and was followed by Anugoonj (1991).

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Tomb of Sand : Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell discuss their Booker International Prize-winning novel. In conversation with Debnita Chakraborti

January 26, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
A New Dawn For South Asian Literature : Geetanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell and Shehan Karunatilaka on ways in which South Asian literature can reach a wider readership. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Ghazala Wahab

Ghazala Wahab is the writer of Born A Muslim: Some Truths About Islam in India. She uses her learning from her personal experiences and conversations with other people to comment on the subjects that she tackles like violence, terrorism or homeland security. The idea of writing a book to convey her thoughts and opinions came from her column. She has also co-authored Dragon on our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power (with Parvin Sawhney, 2017). She has also contributed a chapter on the changing profile of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir for the book Operation Parakram (2001).

She is, now, the Executive Editor of FORCE magazine and writer of the column First Person. 

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 3.15 pm
Iran’s Zan, Zendagi, Azadi Revolution : Ghazala Wahab, Sharda Ugra, Anuradha Kapoor in conversation with Sumona Chakravarty

January 23, 2023 ● 7 pm
Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism : Pritish Nandy, Sharda Ugra, Pratik Sinha, Monideepa Banerjie and Ghazala Wahab on how the digital life has impacted media and journalists. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

Gianluca Rubagotti

Gianluca Rubagotti is the Consul General of Italy in India. After studying International Law and getting his Master’s Degree in Environmental Law from the University of Milan, he obtained a Ph.D. in International Economic Law from the Bocconi University of Milan. He has been a diplomat with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome and has held postings in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Singapore, Karachi and now Kolkata.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 12 pm
Tagore in Italy, Italy in Tagore : Luisa Prayer, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Pramantha Tagore and Gianluca Rubagotti discuss Tagore in Italy. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

Himadri Banerjee

Prof Himadri Banerjee was Guru Nanak Chair in the Department of History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, until 2010. He has extensively researched and written on the Sikh diasporas within India, with special focus on the Sikh communities living in West Bengal, Assam, and Manipur.

Dr Banerjee has been working on Sikhs and Sikhism in eastern India for nearly four decades now. In recent years, Dr Banerjee has been travelling in search of Sikh mosaics of eastern and north-eastern India as far as Moreh along the Indo-Myanmar border, about which neither the Sikhs of Punjab nor those of the West have any idea. His book The Other Sikhs: A View from Eastern India is widely regarded as a path-breaking work on the Sikhs and their history and heritage in Assamese, Oriya and Bengali traditions. He has studied the information and records, published over a century—between the First Sikh War (1845) and the Partition of India (1947)—and has shown how the regional flavour lends its own colour to the traditions of the Sikhs. His work rediscovering the Second Diaspora beyond Punjab in India is particularly significant and relevant.

His published work includes Agrarian Society of the Punjab: 1849-1901 (1982). He is currently working on a two-volume history of the Sikhs and Sikhism in eastern India, of which the first volume, titled The Other Sikhs: A View from Eastern India has already been published.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 11 am
Nanak and the Sikhs in Eastern India : Himadri Banerjee and Jagmohan Singh Gill discuss the history of the community in East and Northeast India. In conversation with Vibha Mitra from Own The Past initiative

Ileana Citaristi

Dr Ileana Citaristi is an Italian-born Odissi and Chhau dancer, guru and choreographer, based in Bhubaneswar, India since 1979. She was awarded the 43rd National Film Awards for Best Choreography for Yugant, a Bengali film directed by Aparna Sen, in 1996 and conferred with the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2006 for her contributions to Odissi dance. Besides Yugant, Dr Citaristi has also choreographed for MF Husain’s Meenaxi: Tale of Three Cities (2003) and Goutam Ghose’s Abar Aranye (2004). Dr Citaristi is the author of four books: ‘The Making of a Guru: Kelucharan Mohapatra, His Life and Times’ (2001), ‘Traditional Martial Practices in Orissa’ (2012), ‘My Journey: A Tale of Two Births’ (2015) and ‘Odissi and the Geeta Govinda’ (2022). She is imparting training in Odissi and Chhau dance in her own institution Art Vision in Bhubaneswar, founded by her in 1996.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Indian Traditional Martial Arts : Ileana Citaristi in conversation with Vikram Iyengar

Jael Silliman

An author, scholar, and a women’s right activist, Jael Silliman is currently working as a consultant on gender and development, women of colour and reproductive rights, and gender and environment issues. She has several publications to her credit, having co-written Undivided Rights: Women of Colour Organizing for Reproductive Justice (with Elena Gutierrez, Loretta Ross and Marlene Gerber Fried), and co-edited Policing the National Body: Race, Gender, and Criminalization (with Anannya Bhattacharjee). Apart from writing several academic papers on transnational feminist issues, women’s rights and reproductive rights, she has also worked on issues relating to the Calcutta Jewish community. Recently, she has developed a digital archive – Recalling Jewish Calcutta, which has brought to attention the rich cultural heritage of the Jewish community in Calcutta. 

Her recent publications include The Teak Almirah and Where Gods Reside: Sacred Places of Kolkata. 

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 2.10 pm
Sweetening India :   Jael Silliman and Barry O’Brien discuss the hidden histories of Parsis, Jews and Anglo-Indians in India. In conversation with Atri Bhattacharya

Jagmohan Singh Gill

Jagmohan Singh Gill is currently Convenor/In-charge (honorary) Sikh Mission Kolkata (Poorvi Bharat), Dharam Parchar Committee S.G.P.C. Amritsar & General Secretary – Punjabi Sahit Sabha, Kolkata.

He joined community service at the age of twenty-eight (1994) and has since organised hundreds of Gurmat camps to raise awareness about the spirituality of Guru Granth Sahib in the Eastern and the North-Eastern parts of the country.

He has written extensively on early Sikh settlements of Khatris, Aroras and Brahmins with Punjabi roots. He has presented papers on subjects related to Sikhs, Punjabis or Punjabi language or the freedom movement and participated in various inter-faith programs for harmony and peace organised by various sects: Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists.

He is now a full-time social historian and is on the field interacting and exploring the roots of his community.

His book Exploring The Sikh Roots in East India is waiting to be published.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 11 am
Nanak and the Sikhs in Eastern India : Himadri Banerjee and Jagmohan Singh Gill discuss the history of the community in East and Northeast India. In conversation with Vibha Mitra from Own The Past initiative

Jai R. Ram

Dr. Jai Ranjan Ram is one of the best Psychiatrist in West Bengal. Dr. Jai Ranjan has a vast experience of 22 years in this field.

In 2010, Dr. Jai Ranjan Ram and his wife founded Mental Health Foundation (MHF), Kolkata, to address the growing mental health needs in the city, that would cater to such needs in children, adolescents and adults. In our organisation we have professionals from the fields of Psychiatry, Social Care, Psychology, Special Education, Speech and Language Therapy and Pediatric Physiotherapy providing evidence based Mental Health and Social Care services and training.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
Unseen City :   Ankhi Mukherjee discusses her book on mental health of the urban poor with Jai R. Ram. In conversation with Supriya Chaudhuri

Janet Gasper Chowdhury

Janet Gasper Chowdhury is a self-proclaimed ‘kaleidoscope’: a cool mom to two independent-minded teenagers and a demanding professional to a high performing team. She, along with her husband, leads an organisation that runs ICSE & CBSE co-ed schools educating over 6500 students as well as a free evening school for underprivileged girl students. She is a sucker for anything artsy and cultural – be it designing interiors or writing poetry. She enjoys challenging herself with golf, badminton and recently by playing cricket. The grey cells are not spared, especially now with all the different Wordle puzzles out there. With little or no exposure to Hindi mythology while growing up, Amish’s Shiva Trilogy opened up a new world for her and she’s been a fan ever since.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom : Sanjeev Sanyal and Rudra Chatterjee in conversation with Janet Gasper Chowdhury

Jashodhara Chakraborti

Jashodhara Chakraborti is an alumna of Lady Shri Ram College and IIM Calcutta. She writes, translates and teaches a course on storytelling.  

Jashodhara is the author of two books of The Wordkeepers Trilogy – The Wordkeepers and Skyserpents – the first one a bestseller on debut. She has been a columnist on Scroll.in. In 2019, she created a concept and Bible for a web series with Disney-Hotstar. Jashodhara recently serialized a translation of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s opera, The Illusion Game on digital platform Scrollstack. Her earlier translation of Hemen Roy’s adventure for Young Adults is due for publication in 2023.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 4 pm
That Feisty Chauhan Girl : Anuja Chauhan on 15 years of storytelling. In conversation with Jashodhara Chakraborti    

Javed Akhtar

Javed Akhtar is an Indian poet, lyricist, screenwriter and political activist. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007. He has won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics five times and the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist eight times. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha. For his work, he received the Richard Dawkins Award in 2020.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 4.30 pm
Talking Life : Javed Akhtar on gathering life, making memories with Nasreen Munni Kabir. In conversation with Sangeeta Datta

January 24, 2023 ● 10 am
Morning with Poets : Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Sumantra Ghoshal and Rakshanda Jalil on the poetry of Kaifi and Jan Nisar. In conversation with Mudar Patherya

Jayanta Sengupta

Jayanta Sengupta is currently Secretary and Curator (Director) of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, and a former Director of the Indian Museum and the Anthropological Survey of India. He is a historian of modern India with research interests in the interrelationship between colonialism, nationalism, and democracy and authoritarianism in modern South Asia, cultural practices in modern India, and transnational and comparative intellectual history. He is the author of At the Margins: Discourses of Development, Democracy and Regionalism in Orissa (2015), and Those Noble Edifices: the Raj Bhavans of Bengal (2019).

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Hesheler History : Chitrita Banerji and Jayanta Sengupta discuss the history of Bengal’s culinary platter. In conversation with Poorna Banerjee (Bengali Session)

January 22, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Boier Sansar : Aparajita Dasgupta and Jayanta Sengupta on their literary journeys. In conversation with SV Raman (Bengali session)  

January 25, 2023 ● 4.40 pm
Discovering India Through The Arts : Richard Blurton discusses his new book with Jayanta Sengupta

January 26, 2023 ● 12.40 pm
Future Perfect Museums : Vidya Dehejia, Richard Blurton and Jayanta Sengupta discuss museums of the future. In conversation with Rudra Chatterjee

Jerry Pinto

Based in Mumbai, Jerry Pinto has won the Best Book on Cinema Award for Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb in 2006. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2016 for his novel Em and the Big Hoom. He is a poet, novelist, short story writer, translator and a journalist. He is also the co-editor of Confronting Love and has a collection of poems to his name – Asylum and Other Poems which appeared in 2003.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 3 pm
Blank Verse : Damodar Mauzo, Subodh Sarkar, and Jerry Pinto discuss whether poetry is being translated enough. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

January 25, 2023 ● 4 pm
Mauzo’s World : Damodar Mauzo in conversation with Jerry Pinto

January 26, 2023 ● 1.30 pm
The Education of Yuri : Jerry Pinto in conversation with Pratiti Ganatra

John McLaughlin

The creator of the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971, John McLaughlin acquired the name Mahavishnu after becoming the disciple of the spiritual guru Sri Chinmoy in 1970. They played concerts in rock rather than jazz and recorded popular albums such as The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and Visions of the Emerald Beyond (1975).  He played acoustic guitar with Indian violinist Lakshminarayana Shankar and tabla player Zakir Hussain. His inventiveness remained undiminished even in the 21st century. Five Peace Band Live (2009) won a Grammy Award for best Jazz instrumental album. His other works include “Industrial Zen” (2006), “Floating Point” (2008), “Now Here This” (2012), and “Black Light” (2015). McLaughlin performed various incarnations of Mahavishnu Orchestra in his final tour which began in 2017. He reunited with Zakir Hussain and collaborated with Shankar Mahadevan for Is That So? – a collection of Indian devotional songs that melds classical Indian music with world jazz.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 12.15 pm
Shakti@50 - Celebrating Love and Harmony :   John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan discuss 50 years of the iconic band. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Julie Mehta

Julie Mehta was born in Calcutta and educated at Irish convents — Loreto House and Loreto College — and then studied at Jadavpur University Calcutta, where she received her first Master’s degree in English Literature. She worked as a literary reviewer and featured editor in Australia, Singapore and Bangkok, and went on to earn her second Master’s and Doctoral degrees in English Literature and South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Julie is a specialist in Postcolonial and World Literatures, and taught in the Department of English and Canadian Studies Program for seven years at the University of Toronto and received several prestigious fellowships. Her translation of Tagore’s play Dak Ghar (Post Office) was performed by Pleiades Theatre, Toronto, in 2010 to critical acclaim and earned her the title of “One of Sixteen most Influential South Asians in Canada.” Her current research and publications are on Diasporic Identities, Memory and Trauma and Food Histories, and her articles are widely published in journals and books. Author of Dance of Life: The Mythology , History and Politics of Cambodian Culture, which is about the resurrection of Cambodian dance by seven women survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime, and co-author of Strongman, the best-selling biography of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen with Harish Mehta, she considers herself a homeless, global nomad, living between foodways and cultures. Mehta currently resides in Calcutta, teaching postgraduate English at her alma mater Loreto College, riding out the pandemic, and looking forward to returning to Toronto with my historian husband.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
The Mendicant Prince : Aruna Chakravarti in conversation with Julie Banerjee Mehta

January 26, 2023 ● 5 pm
Do We Need a New History of Humanity? : Amitav Ghosh and David Wengrow in conversation with Julie Banerjee Mehta

Kaushik Sen

Kaushik Sen is an Indian actor of film, television and theater based in Kolkata. He is the director of the well-acclaimed theater group Swapnasandhani. He has won the BFJA awards for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Mrinal Sen directed film, Aamar Bhuvan.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 6 pm
Hamlet : presented by Swapnasandhani, directed by Kaushik Sen

January 24, 2023 ● 4 pm
Mancher Itihas, Mancher Bhobishyot : Suman Mukhopadhyay, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu on a new era in Bangla theatre. In conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Kavita Panjabi

Kavita Panjabi is an independent researcher and former Professor of Comparative Literature at  Jadavpur University, Kolkata, where she also founded the Centre for Studies in Latin American Literatures & Cultures. Over three decades of activism in the South Asian women’s movement, a passion for oral history, and a lively interest in cross-border people’s perspectives inform her book Unclaimed Harvest : An Oral History of the Tebhaga Women’s Movement  and her Pakistan diary, Old Maps and New: Legacies of the Partition. She has written in the past on the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and narratives of the Dirty War in Argentina, and is co-editor of two volumes relating to Latin America, namely, Cartographies of Affect: Across Borders in South Asia and the Americas, and Centering Borders in Latin American and South Asian Contexts: Aesthetics and Politics of Cultural Production.

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
Garcia Marquez in Colombia, Garcia Marquez in the World : Oscar Guardiola-Rivera in conversation with Kavita Panjabi

Khalid Jawed

Khalid Jawed is one of the leading Urdu novelists of today. He is the author of fifteen works of fiction and non-fiction and is a recipient of the Katha Award, the Upendranath Ashk Award, the UP Urdu Academy Award and the JCB Prize for Literature. He is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
JCB Prize Special : Khalid Jawed speaks about his award-winning ‘The Paradise of Food’ with translator Baran Farooqi. In conversation with Mita Kapur

Krishnan Srinivasan

He is a retired Indian diplomat who has served as India’s Ambassador/High Commissioner to Zambia and Botswana, Nigeria, Benin and Cameroon, the Netherlands and Bangladesh. He is also a historian, an author, former Indian Foreign Secretary and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations for Political Affairs.

He received the ‘Hind Ratna’ (India) in 2002 and was made the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Valeur’ (Cameroon) in 2007. As an author he has written many books including Tricks of the Trade, Diplomatic Channels, Europe in Emerging Asia, Guesswork, The Invisible African, The Ambassador and the Private Eye – and is a regular columnist for several Indian newspapers.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Weaponising AI : Pravin Sawhney and Avik Chanda on artificial intelligence and future confrontations with China. In conversation with Krishnan Srinivasan

January 25, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
School Of Thrillers : Anuja Chauhan, Ashwin Sanghi and Krishnan Srinivasan in conversation with Balaji Vittal

Labonita Ghosh

Labonita Ghosh has been a journalist for the past 30 years and has worked with India Today, Outlook, Mumbai Mirror. She is based out of Mumbai.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 3 pm
Blank Verse : Damodar Mauzo, Subodh Sarkar, and Jerry Pinto discuss whether poetry is being translated enough. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

Laila Tyabji

Laila Tyabji is Chairperson and founder member of Dastkar, an NGO working with Crafts & Craftspeople all over India. Laila’s work with artisans over the last 45 years includes the Chikan workers of SEWA Lucknow, Lambani tribals in Karnataka, Ari, mirror-work, Sujni and Kantha craftswomen in Kashmir, Kutch, Bihar and Bengal.

Many of her most rewarding and exciting projects involve creating new employment avenues through craft for pastoral and marginalised rural communities – bonded labour in Bihar, displaced villages in Ranthambhore, victims of insurgency in Kashmir.

Previous to Dastkar  Laila studied art in Baroda and Japan, and worked as a freelance designer in textiles, graphics, interiors and the theater.

She writes and speaks regularly on craft, design and social issues, and is part of numerous government and non-government committees and think-tanks on crafts, culture and development.

She was awarded the Padma Shri for her work in craft and development in 2012, and is also the recipient of the Aid To Artisans PRESERVATION OF CRAFT AWARD, New York, and the NIFT Lifetime Achievement Award among others.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
The Fabric of Freedom : Laila Tyabji, Bappaditya Biswas, Amrish Kumar and Darshan Shah on the textile and design heritage of India, and its future innovations. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 25, 2023 ● 1.20 pm
Born in 1947 : Laila Tyabji, Subhasini Ali and Chitrita Banerji discuss the peaks and troughs of the midnight generation. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury

Lakshmi Subramanian

Lakshmi Subramanian has had a long teaching and research career and in that capacity has had the opportunity of serving a number of universities in India and abroad. This has enabled me to participate actively in framing and teaching history at several levels from the undergraduate to the pre-doctoral level and in translating some of my experience into an advanced text book on Indian History. (History of India, 1757-1857, Orient BlackSwan, 2010)

In terms of research and specialized interest, she has successfully carved out an important field of India’s cultural history, especially relating to music and performance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her initial interest was in exploring the ramifications of Indian capital formations in pre-colonial and early colonial India looking specifically at Gujarat and Bombay in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Subsequently, she has looked more closely at social networks including those of piracy and predation in the Indian Ocean and have enjoyed the distinction of making an original contribution to this growing field. Subramanian’s expertise and interest in business and commercial history has enjoyed a fair degree of recognition on the basis of which she was invited to coordinate a research network under the India-Europe Advanced Research network for three years from 2018-21.

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 12 pm
Spivak Moving : Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in conversation with Lakshmi Subramanian. Launch of Ei Je Pather Ei Dekha by Aparajita Dasgupta

Luisa Prayer

Concert pianist Luisa Prayer is Chamber Music Professor at the Conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan, where she lives. Born in Rome, a piano laureate of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and of the Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg, she studied with renowned pianists such as Sergio and Annamaria Cafaro, Gilbert Schuchter, Bruno Canino and Gerhard Oppitz. She attended the chamber music mastercourses held by Riccardo Brengola at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Young prize winner of piano and chamber music competions, she widely performed concerts in Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, Bulgaria, Japan, China, Taiwan, USA. She has been invited to play at Newport Music Festival (USA), Orlando Festival (Kerkrade, Netherland), Moon Beach Okinawa Music Festival (Japan), and famous Italian music festivals such as Ravello and Toscanini Festival in Parma. Among her recordings, Johannes Brahms’ Piano and Clarinet Sonatas (Taiwan, 1992) and Piano and Cello Sonatas (Milan 2001), Camille Saint-Säens Cello and Piano works (Paris, 2004), and the first complete recordings of Giuseppe Martucci voice and piano repertoire (Bologna, 2006). She recorded two Cds of the first complete F. P. Tosti Romances series (Brilliant Classic, 2019). In Italy she is very well known for her commitment in the field of musical culture: she run her own music Festival “Pietre che cantano” from 2000 to 2015, then she was appointed artistic director of one of the Italian national Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, until 2017. She has often broadcasted for the Italian national cultural radio channel Radio 3 RAI, both as pianist and as a musicologist. She is the author of multi-media music and literature concert programs. She held seminaries at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and at the National Conservatory CNMDP in Paris. She edited a essay book on the Italian composer Alfredo Casella (Libreria Musicale Italiana, Lucca 2021), and her essay “Rabindranath Tagore as reflected in the Works of Early 20th-Century Italian Composers” will soon appear in “Bengal and Italy: trans-cultural Encounters form the mid-19th- to the Early 21st Century”, edited by P. Chakravarti and M. Prayer (Routledge, New York and London 2023, in print).

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
Setting Poetic Icons To Music : Opera star Soprano Paoletta Marrocu and Piano virtuoso Luisa Prayer perform compositions based on the poems of Rabindranath Tagore and Gabriele D'Annunzio, and famous Italian Opera arias and piano pieces. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

January 22, 2023 ● 12 pm
Tagore in Italy, Italy in Tagore : Luisa Prayer, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Pramantha Tagore and Gianluca Rubagotti discuss Tagore in Italy. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

Malavika Banerjee

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
The Fabric of Freedom : Laila Tyabji, Bappaditya Biswas, Amrish Kumar and Darshan Shah on the textile and design heritage of India, and its future innovations. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 23, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
In Free Fall : Mallika Sarabhai discusses her book and its learnings with Malavika Banerjee

January 24, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
The Many Lives of Maali Almeida : Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 26, 2023 ● 11 am
No Laughing Matter : Has dark humour edged the droll and delightful out of literature? Ben Schott, Sandip Roy and Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

Mallika Sarabhai

Mallika Sarabhai has been one of India’s leading choreographers and dancers for over four decades. In constant demand as a soloist and with her own dance company, Darpana, she has been creating and performing both classical and contemporary works. She has also produced over 3000 hours of television work talking about issues of the environment, women, communal harmony and violence. She has a Ph.D. in Organisational Behaviour and has been honorary Director of Darpana Academy of Performing Arts for 40 years. She first came to international notice when she played the role of Draupadi in Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata for 5 years, first in French and then English, performing in France, North America, Australia, Japan and Scotland. Always an activist for societal education and women’s empowerment, Mallika began using her work for social change. She is known for creating hard-hitting theatrical works and stage productions which have raised awareness, highlighted crucial issues and advocated change, several of which productions have toured internationally as well as throughout India. Over the last 18 months she has motivated hundreds of people through her many webinars and interviews, and through Darpana’s project Nritya Parichay to bring mental health and self-esteem to thousands of marginalised youngsters.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 11.15 am
Imaginary Rain : Vikas Khanna in conversation with Anindita Ghose. Launch of Vikas Khanna’s Imaginary Rain by Mallika Sarabhai

January 23, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
In Free Fall : Mallika Sarabhai discusses her book and its learnings with Malavika Banerjee

Sankar

Rewarded with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 for his outstanding work Eka Eka Ekashi, Shankar da is best known for his debut novel ‘Koto Ajanare’. In 1962, he conceived Chowringhee which is set in the opulent hotel he named Shahjahan. It was later made into a cult movie in 1968. 

His other works include the travelogue – Jekhane Jemon, Banglar Meye, Gharer Moddhe Ghar, Sri Sri Ramkrishna Rahsyamrito, his collection Ek Bag Sankar, and numerous others. Some of his works have been translated into English as The Middleman (Jana Aranya), The Great Unknown (Koto Ajanare), and Thackeray Mansion (Gharer Moddhe Ghor). 

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 3 pm
47er Shei August : Sankar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Semanti Ghosh revisit the first moments of freedom. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali Session)

Mir Afsar Ali

Radio jockey, television anchor, singer, comedian, actor and a media personality, Mir Afsar Ali is well known as the host of Mirakkel. He lends his voice to Radio Mirchi’s  Sunday Suspense and he is the producer and presenter of the Bengali food vlogging channel Fooka. He has featured in movies like Bhooter Bhabishyat (2012), Ashchorjyo Prodeep (2014), Dhananjay (2017) and his most recent work in Bijoyar Pore (2022) which he promoted in The Kapil Sharma Show. 

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 1 pm
The Stars in My Sky : Divya Dutta in conversation with Mir Afsar Ali

Mita Kapur

Mita Kapur is the founder and CEO of Siyahi, India’s leading literary consultancy. Her first book, The F-Word, is a food book, memoir and travelogue. She has edited Chillies and Porridge: Writing Food, an anthology of essays on food. As a freelance journalist, she writes regularly for different newspapers and magazines on social and development issues along with travel, food and lifestyle. She has received many awards, including the Femina Women Super Achiever Award (2018) at the World HRD Congress, the Maharani Gayatri Devi Award for Woman of Excellence (2014), and the Karamveer Puruskar (2009) for her work as a journalist in creating social awareness and for being the best literary consultant in the country. She curated Masala Chowk, a food court in street food in Jaipur in 2018, and was a member of the executive council for Jawahar Kala Kendra from November 2016 – October 2018. She is also the producer for the Woman Up! Summit, and Soul Connect Experiences, and was producer for Mountain Echoes – The Bhutan festival of Art, Literature and Culture (2010-2019). Mita is currently Literary Director for the JCB Prize for Literature.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
India in a Kitchen : Chitrita Banerji, Mita Kapur and Vikas Khanna and on food as an unsung unifier of India. In conversation with Sneha Singhi

January 23, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
JCB Prize Special : Khalid Jawed speaks about his award-winning ‘The Paradise of Food’ with translator Baran Farooqi. In conversation with Mita Kapur

Moin Mir

Moin Mir is a writer of both nonfiction and fiction. He began writing under the influence of his grandfather, a scholar of Sufism, Omar Khayyam and MirzaGhalib. His latest book ‘The Lost Fragrance of Infinity’ is a novel glowing with the essence of Sufism. India Today described it ‘as a Gospel of our times with a text so astounding that if a million copies were taught by rote, the world would certainly see a better direction and melting of hearts.’ Set in the 18th century against the dust clouds of three fading empires- the Ottomans, Persians and the Mughals, a tile maker flees Delhi and makes his way to Andalusia, Spain. A swirling historical epic in which craft, poetry and Sufi philosophy merge seamlessly in a story of passionate love, loss, compassion, psychological reckoning and redemption. The book majestically brings to life the contribution of Sufism to humanity, art and mathematics and is a celebration of human diversity and multicultural identities. Fluent in Urdu and Persian, Moin Mir speaks regularly at leading international literature festivals on topics ranging from Sufism, history and travel writing. He lives in London with his wife Leonie, an art and ceramics curator. His first book ‘Surat: Fall of a port. Rise of a prince’ (publ.2017) received high critical acclaim and was subsequently published in Britain as ‘The Prince who beat the Empire’ in 2018.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 3.15 pm
Lost Fragrance of Infinity : Moin Mir discusses his novel with Payal Mohanka

Monideepa Banerjie

In Kolkata, Monideepa Banerjie for NDTV. Exactly one year ago, with those words that she made familiar in homes across India, Monideepa signed off from NDTV after a 28 year tenure. But once a journalist always a journalist and she today remains a newshound, working independently across platforms and watching the media in India march to drumbeats that have certainly changed since she joined the profession 40 years ago!

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 7 pm
Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism : Pritish Nandy, Sharda Ugra, Pratik Sinha, Monideepa Banerjie and Ghazala Wahab on how the digital life has impacted media and journalists. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

Moumita

Moumita is a Bengali story writer, columnist and a novelist. By profession she is a doctor, attached to ESI hospital, Budgebudge and she has her own clinic at Bagha Jatin. She is a member of Indian Dental Association (IDA). She has seven published books (novels) to her credit. She has received the prestigious Sahitya Academy Yuva Puraskar for her first novel titled Kuntal Fire Ase. Besides this she has won the Punorjonmo Sommanona, Nabankur Sahitya Samman, Prekhkhon Sahitya Puroskar and many more. She has been invited to Gateway Literary Festival Mumbai (2019), International Literature Festival Shimla (2022),  and many literary programs organized by Sahitya Academy such as Ashmita Yuva Sahiti, Young Writer’s meet. 

She is a regular Columnist in leading magazines and newspapers of West Bengal such as Ananda Bazar, Pratidin, Ei Samay, Aajkal. Her new novel Network is currently being serialized in a daily Bengali newspaper Pratidin. She lives in Garia, Kolkata and her husband Nigel Akkara is an actor, businessman and social activist.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 3.20 pm
Uddam Rajanir Kabya : Subodh Sarkar discusses his new book with Binayak Bandyopadhyay, Moumita and Sibashish Mukhopadhyay (Bengali Session)

Mrityunjay Kumar Singh

Mrityunjay Kumar Singh is an IPS officer of the West Bengal Cadre of the 1987 batch. He is also a poet, columnist, lyricist and folk musician. His Collection of poems Kirchen in 2007 attracted critical appreciation from many Hindi literary magazines and received special critique of Mr. Arun Kamal, a Hindi poet of exceptional repute. His Meghdoot: The Emissary of Sunderance is a transcreation of Sanskrit classic of Kalidasa and was published by Trafford Publishing of the US in 2012.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Readings and Recitations : Pritish Nandy, Divya Dutta, Mritunjay K. Singh, Yatish Kumar, Sudha Arora

January 23, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Hindi Sahitya ka Shahar Kalkatta : Rachana Yadav, Sudha Arora, Alka Saraogi and Ved Raman Pandey discuss Hindi classics born and set in Kolkata. In conversation with Mrityunjay K. Singh (Hindi session)

Mudar Patherya

Mudar Patherya is a businessman, garbage picker, Urdu lover, butterfly-chaser, stock picker, social activist and writer. Mudar runs Trisys, India’s oldest (and among the largest) agency in the area of corporate financial communications. Mudar is also a prominent activist in Kolkata (urban, environmental and social). Responsible for cleaning urban water bodies including the famed Santragacchi Jheel twice over and the turnaround of the famed Rabindra Sarobar. Inspired the creation of a philanthropic NGO called Kolkata Gives that mobilized nearly Rs 100 mn during the pandemic in cash and kind. Kickstarted the trend of painting electricity boxes around eminent Kolkata personalities. Masterminded and organised Live in Lakes musical event inside Rabindra Sarobar. 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. Helped replant 149 fallen trees in Rabindra/Subhas Sarobar in 2020.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 10 am
Morning with Poets : Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Sumantra Ghoshal and Rakshanda Jalil on the poetry of Kaifi and Jan Nisar. In conversation with Mudar Patherya

Mukulika Banerjee

Mukulika Banerjee was the inaugural Director of the LSE South Asia Centre from 2015-2020 and is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. She studied in Delhi and Oxford universities and taught at Oxford and UCL before joining LSE. Her books include Why India Votes? (2014), The Pathan Unarmed (2001) and The Sari (2003, with Daniel Miller) and edited Muslim Portraits (2007). Her latest monograph is Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India (2021) published by OUP, New York.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Cultivating Democracy : Mukulika Banerjee discusses her study on agrarian life with Ahona Palchoudhuri

January 24, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
The Dawn of Everything : David Wengrow in conversation with Mukulika Banerjee

Nasreen Munni Kabir

Based in London, Nasreen Munni Kabir is documentary filmmaker and the author of 20 books on Hindi films, including Talking Films and Songs with Javed Akhtar,  Lata Mangeshkar in her own voice and A. R. Rahma: The Spirit of Music. She has directed and produced over 100 television programmes for Channel 4 TV, UK on Indian film, including Movie Mahal, In Search of Guru Dutt, and The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan. 

She has served a six-year term as a governor on the board of the British Film Institute (2000-06) and has worked as Channel 4’s Indian cinema Consultant for over 35 years, curating their annual Indian film season.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 4.30 pm
Talking Life : Javed Akhtar on gathering life, making memories with Nasreen Munni Kabir. In conversation with Sangeeta Datta

Oliver Craske

Oliver Craske is the author of Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar, which was named as a Book of the Year by ‘The Times’, ‘Spectator’, ‘Times Literary Supplement’ and ‘BBC Music’ and was described by Ramachandra Guha as ‘one of the two best books on an Indian musician’. During a career in book publishing, he had earlier collaborated with Ravi Shankar on his memoir Raga Mala and he has edited other books on numerous subjects, from Einstein to The Beatles, and from cricket to art collecting. He lives in London.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar : Oliver Craske discusses his biography of Ravi Shankar with Bickram Ghosh

Oscar Guardiola Rivera

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera is the author of such critically acclaimed books as What If Latin America Ruled the World? (Bloomsbury, 2010) winner of the Frantz Fanon Award, and Story of a Death Foretold. The Coup Against Salvador Allende (Bloomsbury, 2013) shortlisted for the 2014 Bread & Roses Award, both selected among the best non-fiction publications of the year. More recently, In Defence of Armed/Art Struggle (Bogota: UTadeo, 2019), “A Future for the Philosophy of Liberation” in Decolonising Ethics (Pennsylvania University Press, 2020), and the poetic novel Night of the World (The 87 Press, 2021). He’s a Fellow of the RSA and teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London. His docu-series “Art & Fire: A Journey in Five Films”, co-produced with Hay Festivals.

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
Garcia Marquez in Colombia, Garcia Marquez in the World : Oscar Guardiola-Rivera in conversation with Kavita Panjabi

January 24, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
A Millennium in Search of a New Political Order : Oscar Guardiola Rivera and Pratik Sinha on whether democracy still has all the answers. In conversation with Swati Bhattacharjee

Paoletta Marrocu

Soprano Paoletta Marrocu possesses an agile voice of distinct colour and timbre. Her vast repertoire includes roles such as Orfeo, Norma, Lucrezia Borgia, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Mefistofele and many others. She is widely admired for both her musical and dramatic talent and she has performed in the most prominent opera houses across the world some of which belong to Barcelona, Milan, venice, Vienna, Tokyo, San Diego, etc.In 1998, Paoletta was named the “Artist for Peace” by UNESCO.

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
Setting Poetic Icons To Music : Opera star Soprano Paoletta Marrocu and Piano virtuoso Luisa Prayer perform compositions based on the poems of Rabindranath Tagore and Gabriele D'Annunzio, and famous Italian Opera arias and piano pieces. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

Paresh Maity

Paresh Maity was born in Tamluk and had a humble beginning like most other painters. He has been a prolific painter in a short career span with a unique place in the Indian art scene and is often referred to as the “William Turner of India”. He was mainly inspired by works of the Western Masters – Rembrandt, Turner, Constable,Winslow Homer, to name a few. He was in awe of Rambrandt’s way of using light. Seeing their work sparked a desire in him to be like them. He traveled all over India, and anywhere he went, he painted nature but felt that his understanding of it was never enough. At the onset of the 90s, figures started to appear in his works as opposed to the traditional landscapes from his early years. Figures of men and women, animals and birds became part of his watercolor, a medium which he had come to master. Paresh despised the harsh side of life which reflected in his paintings which are all soft and soothing.

Paresh is an instinctive master of watercolor, a notoriously difficult medium and has the ability to interpret light in terms of pure colors. It is hard to classify his work within any particular tradition of watercolor painting. He has progressed from an early realism to a more moody expressionistic and atmospheric style.

In 2014, the Government of India conferred upon him its fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri. 

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
Infinite Light : Paresh Maity and Abin Chaudhuri in conversation with Darshan Shah

Paroma Roy Chowdhury

Paroma Roy Chowdhury read Political Science in Presidency College for her undergraduate and graduate studies and completed a Press Fellowship from the University of Cambridge, UK. She is a business journalist-turned-public affairs professional and has held leadership positions in global organizations. She is an ardent champion of free expression and inclusion and a keen observer of politics. She also loves literature, contemporary Indian art, music, films and good conversation.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 6.15 pm
Boi-Shoik : Anindya Chattopadhyay and Sanchari Mookerjee on their latest book. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury (Bengali Session)

January 25, 2023 ● 1.20 pm
Born in 1947 : Laila Tyabji, Subhasini Ali and Chitrita Banerji discuss the peaks and troughs of the midnight generation. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury

Parthiv Dhar

Parthiv Dhar researches on Subhas Chandra Bose when he is not listening to Kishor Kumar, and plans on bringing out the truth about Bose’s real contribution in India’s fight for Independence. His biggest professional achievement is his inspiring leadership in ensuring uninterrupted supply of LPG to households in Assam during the 1st phase of COVID 19. His 1st book – Kishore Kumar – The Ultimate Biography is read widely around India and was written in partnership with his close friend Anirudha Bhattacharjee.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Yeh Shaam Mastani - The Magic of Kishore Kumar : Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar discuss their biography with Pritish Nandy. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

Payal Mohanka

Payal Singh 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 India’s leading broadcast media company, 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 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 detailed article, ‘Religion and Conflict in India: A Sikh perspective,’ published in British think tank magazine, The Round Table, is part of the course work at   the South Asia Institute of Harvard University.

She is a prolific freelance journalist.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 7 pm
Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism : Pritish Nandy, Sharda Ugra, Pratik Sinha, Monideepa Banerjie and Ghazala Wahab on how the digital life has impacted media and journalists. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

January 26, 2023 ● 3.15 pm
Lost Fragrance of Infinity : Moin Mir discusses his novel with Payal Mohanka

Pinaki De

Pinaki De is a multiple award-winning graphic illustrator-designer who regularly works for renowned publishers like Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette, Routledge, Primus, Oxford University Press, Singapore University Press (NUS), Bloomsbury, Orient Blackswan, Worldview, Pan Picador, Simon and Schuster, Permanent Black, Alchemy, Sage, Roli, Sahitya Academy, Rupa and many others. He has designed almost 500 book covers till date. He is the winner of Publishing Next prize for the best book cover design in India twice in 2017 and 2019. His book cover for “Kalkatta” by Kunal Basu won the prestigious Oxford Bookstore prize for the best cover design in India at Jaipur Literary Fest 2017. His layout design on Satyajit Ray’s archival manuscripts has drawn accolades from all across the globe. A Charles Wallace Trust Fellow, his Ph.D. is on comics theory. Pinaki is one of the editors of the prestigious annual magazine “Longform” (Published from Harper Collins, 2018) which is generally regarded as the first global comics magazine from India. He is the Indian comics advisor of Mangasia, the biggest ever exhibition on Asian Comics curated by Paul Gravett for the Barbican, London. His book length comics on Partition is due next year. Pinaki juggles his creative work with academics as he has a day job as an Associate Professor of Raja Peary Mohan College, Uttarpara.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 6 pm
Bindu Thekey Bindutey : Chinmoy Guha discusses his recent book with Pinaki De (Bengali session)

January 25, 2023 ● 2.10 pm
Sketching Ray :   Sarnath Banerjee and Pinaki De on the art and writing of Satyajit Ray

Poonam Saxena

Poonam Saxena is a journalist, writer, and translator. She worked with the Hindustan Times for several years, first as editor of Brunch and then of the weekend section. She has translated Dharamvir Bharati’s Gunahon ka Devta from Hindi to English (Chander & Sudha), Rahi Masoom Raza’s Scene: 75, and co-authored filmmaker Karan Johar’s memoir, An Unsuitable Boy.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Dhwani Aur Goonj Se Resonance Tak : Daisy Rockwell, Poonam Saxena and Baran Farooqi discuss translating from Hindi and Urdu to English. In conversation with Yatish Kumar

January 25, 2023 ● 3 pm
Writer Rebel Soldier Lover : Akshaya Mukul and Yatish Kumar on the challenges of putting Agyeya on paper. In conversation with Poonam Saxena

Poorna Banerjee

Poorna Banerjee is a food writer, restaurant critic, PR consultant and social media strategist. Her blog, Presented by P, was the first significant (and still-running) food blog from Kolkata. She has written for numerous regional and national publications, including NDTV Food and Sananda. A literature graduate, she started her career in food writing from her blog, which features easy recipes, quick meal plans, reviews of restaurants, hotels and products that she finds interesting. Apart from her blog, she is also a successful social media strategist and PR consultant, and is associated with quite a few well-known brands. She is extremely interested in food history, culinary anthropology, and loves books, music, travelling, and a glass of wine, in that order.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Hesheler History : Chitrita Banerji and Jayanta Sengupta discuss the history of Bengal’s culinary platter. In conversation with Poorna Banerjee (Bengali Session)

Pramantha M. Tagore

Pramantha M. Tagore is a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago and is building upon scholarship on nationalist, anti-colonial, and elite music-making in colonial Calcutta. He argues that the intellectual transactions in music gave rise to 2 distinct registers for historicization – a dominant upper-class discursive emphasising the superiority of Sanskrit theoretical doctrine and the counter conversation celebrating evolution, interculturality and social progress. 

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 12 pm
Tagore in Italy, Italy in Tagore : Luisa Prayer, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Pramantha Tagore and Gianluca Rubagotti discuss Tagore in Italy. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

Prasun Roy

Prasun Roy is a bestselling author who writes in different genres of Non-Fiction including Biography, Translations, History and Mythology and in varied genres of Fiction including Young-Adults, Mystery, Paranormal and Thrill and has a lineup of 10 titles to his credit to be released shortly with leading publishers like Fingerprint Publishing, Rupa Publications, Om Books International and others.

His latest book, “A SAMURAI DREAM OF AZAD HIND – RASH BEHARI BOSE” is a gripping biographical bestseller that has taken won thousands of hearts across the country & collected accolades from across the nation with 2 reprints within 2 months. Prasun has delivered lectures on his research at eminent institutions like DRDO & Ministry of Culture, All India Radio and The National Library. The book was launched in Kolkata by the Consul General of Japan, Mr. Koichi Nakagawa.

Prasun Roy lives with his family in Kolkata. He hails from West Bengal. An alum of IIM Lucknow and La Martiniere for Boys, and a diploma in Business Analytics from Indiana University, he is a 2nd generation entrepreneur with his family owned business of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing & Marketing jointly-headquartered in Vadodara and Kolkata.

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
The Samurai Dream Of Azad Hind :   Prasun Roy discusses his Rash Behari Bose biography

Pratik Sinha

Pratik Sinha is the co-founder of Alt news. She is also the author of the book India Misinformed: The True Story.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 7 pm
Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism : Pritish Nandy, Sharda Ugra, Pratik Sinha, Monideepa Banerjie and Ghazala Wahab on how the digital life has impacted media and journalists. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

January 24, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
A Millennium in Search of a New Political Order : Oscar Guardiola Rivera and Pratik Sinha on whether democracy still has all the answers. In conversation with Swati Bhattacharjee

Pratiti Ganatra

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 1.30 pm
The Education of Yuri : Jerry Pinto in conversation with Pratiti Ganatra

Pravin Sawhney

Pravin Sawhney is author of four books: The Last War: How AI Will Shape India’s Final Showdown With China (August 2022); Dragon on Our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power (co-authored with Ghazala Wahab) in 2017; Operation Parakram: The War Unfinished (co-authored with Lt Gen. V.K. Sood) in 2002; and The Defence Makeover: Ten Myths That Shape India’s Image published in 2001.

He has been a visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, London and a visiting scholar at Sandia National Laboratories sponsored Cooperative Monitoring Centre, Albuquerque, United States.

He has been the editor of FORCE newsmagazine from 2003-2022. He was the South Asia correspondent for International Defence Review (of Jane’s Information Group).

He has worked with numerous Indian newspapers: as the Defence Editor with the Asian Age, as special correspondent with the Indian Express; and as the defence correspondent with The Times of India.

He was commissioned officer in the Indian Army (artillery) for 14 years after which he took pre-mature retirement to pursue journalism.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Weaponising AI : Pravin Sawhney and Avik Chanda on artificial intelligence and future confrontations with China. In conversation with Krishnan Srinivasan

Prithwi Bose

Prithwi Bose is a poet and writer. He edits a magazine titled Doshomik. Khoier Bhetore Ore Shok is his collection of poems. Apart from reading and traveling, he loves being part of the process of editing and publishing books.He is a member of Team Daakbangla.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 1 pm
Shera Shakti : Srijato on the poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay. In conversation with Prithwi Bose. Launch of Aamar Rangoon Diary by Shyamal Bandyopadhay (Bengali Session)

Pritish Nandy

A poet, journalist, painter, parliamentarian, animal activist, television personality and maker of films and streaming content, Pritish Nandy is the author of 40 books of poetry in English and has translated poems from Bengali, Punjabi and Urdu  by other writers. He is also the founder of People for Animals, India’s 1st animal rights NGO which is now run by co-founder Meneka Gandhi. 

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 4.50 pm
Yeh Shaam Mastani - The Magic of Kishore Kumar : Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar discuss their biography with Pritish Nandy. In conversation with Balaji Vittal

January 23, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Readings and Recitations : Pritish Nandy, Divya Dutta, Mritunjay K. Singh, Yatish Kumar, Sudha Arora

January 23, 2023 ● 7 pm
Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism : Pritish Nandy, Sharda Ugra, Pratik Sinha, Monideepa Banerjie and Ghazala Wahab on how the digital life has impacted media and journalists. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

Priyadarshinee Guha

Priyadarshinee Guha is an alumna of Loreto House, La Martiniere for Girls, and Presidency College, and a History gold medallist from Calcutta University. Passionate about teaching, she chose to make this her life force. Born into a family steeped in reading, theatre and cinema, these have enhanced her work enormously over the years. Presently with Indus Valley School, she actively engages in marrying her love for the arts with her teaching and in steering the children to explore and identify creative avenues of expression, through drama, dance, singing, music and literary endeavours.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 5 pm
The Magicians of Mazda :   Ashwin Sanghi in conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha. Launch of Tamal Kumar Majumder’s The Undercover Monk

January 24, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
Krishna Bose’s Netaji : Sumantra Bose, Sugata Bose and Subhasini Ali discuss the new translation of the author’s memoirs. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

Rachana Yadav

Rachana Yadav is a professional Kathak dancer and choreographer. She founded the Rachana Yadav Kathak Studio in Gurgaon, with a performing repertory as well as a training wing with more than 50 students. In 2013, following the passing of her father Rajendra Yadav, celebrated Hindi author and editor, Yadav took over as the Managing Director of Hans – the largest Hindi literary magazine in India, with a wide and diverse readership. As of today, she manages both these professions. She is choreographing and actively performing. With her literary background, she is able to blend contemporary literature into her choreographies, which has helped her carve a special niche for herself in the field of performing arts. Simultaneously, she strives to ensure a continuous publication of Hans, with the objective of heralding its leading position as well as increasing its reader base. For this she and her team have been spearheading new ideas in the conventional field of Hindi literature in India through Hans English, a series of English translations of the best of Hans, and Hans Vani, the audio magazine of Hans and the first of its kind in India. 

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Hindi Sahitya ka Shahar Kalkatta : Rachana Yadav, Sudha Arora, Alka Saraogi and Ved Raman Pandey discuss Hindi classics born and set in Kolkata. In conversation with Mrityunjay K. Singh (Hindi session)

Rakhshanda Jalil

An writer, critic, and literary historian, Rakshanda Jalil is known for her book Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments. She is also the writer of the collection of short stories called Release And Other Stories (2011). She runs an organisation called Hindustani Awaaz which is devoted to popularising Hindi-urdu literature and Culture. 

She has co-authored 2 books, Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia (2006) and Journey to a Holy Land: A Pilgrim’s Diary (2009) and is the co-editor of Third Fame. She has published 9 works of translations, some of which include – Premchand’s short stories entitled The Temple and the Mosque, Lies: Half Told, Through the Closed Doorway, etc. 

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 10 am
Morning with Poets : Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Sumantra Ghoshal and Rakshanda Jalil on the poetry of Kaifi and Jan Nisar. In conversation with Mudar Patherya

RJ Riya

RJ Riya is, currently, the morning show producer of 104.8 Ishq FM, Kolkata and also hosts a weekend show named Ishq Tolly Tales. She has previously headed the Community Radio Department of Jadavpur University and taken regular classes for the Mass Communication department and Radio Production Course. Before that she was associated with Radio Mirchi Kolkata for 11 years starting from 2006 where she hosted the No.1 show in town, Coffee House Classics. She was a preferred voice over the other artiste of the station and in the network, nationally. She also gives voice overs for premium clients for their TVC’s like P.C. Chandra Jewellers, Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, ITC. She also hosts events for corporate reputed clients.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 7.20 pm
Bechey Thakar Gaan - Lockdowney Lekha : Chandril Bhattacharya, Srijato and Anupam Roy in conversation with RJ Riya (Bengali Session)

Rudra Chatterjee

Rudra Chatterjee is the Chairman of Obeetee and Manor and Mews, a century old carpet and furniture brand. He is the Managing Director of Luxmi Tea, one of the world’s major tea producers with estates in India and Africa, that owns Makaibari in Darjeeling, the world’s first organic tea.

Rudra is a Masters student of design history from Oxford University and a MBA with Dean’s List from Columbia University. He was a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton’s New York office.

Rudra sits on the board of Haldia Petrochemicals, West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Limited and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited and Chairs FICCI’s West Bengal Council. 

He is the Honorary Consulate of Rwanda and was the 2022 recipient of Banga Bhushan.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom : Sanjeev Sanyal and Rudra Chatterjee in conversation with Janet Gasper Chowdhury

January 26, 2023 ● 12.40 pm
Future Perfect Museums : Vidya Dehejia, Richard Blurton and Jayanta Sengupta discuss museums of the future. In conversation with Rudra Chatterjee

Rupam Islam

A Kolkata born Bengali singer, songwriter, music composer, and  writer – Rupam Islam is the lead vocalist of the popular Bengali Rock Band Fossils. He has sung for  numerous Bengali films like Chalo Let’s Go, Dwando, Madly Bangalee, Autograph, Baishe Srabon, Hemlock Society, Muktodhara, Mishawr Rawhosshyo and so many more.

He has won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2010 and is a member of the Bangla Sangeet Academy (West Bengal).

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Rupamer Kalam : Rupam Islam on his literary inspirations. In conversation with Arka Das (Bengali Session)

Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond is an award-winning Indian author of British descent, much renowned for his role in promoting children’s literature in India. He has written over 500 short stories, essays and novellas and more than 50 books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, written at 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. He has received the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar. 

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
The Anglo-Indians : Barry O’Brien discusses his new book with Ruskin Bond. In conversation with SV Raman. (Ruskin Bond will be joining the session virtually)

Sabyasachi Sarkar

Sabyasachi Sarkar, a reputed sports journalist by profession is currently the Sports Editor of the reputed Bengali Daily, Ei Samay. A post graduate in English from Jadavpur University, he started his career as a journalist with Anandabazar Patrika in the 90s. Apart from covering cricket all over the world for more than two and half decades, he is also known for his poems and novels. His first novel, Ekmutho Akash, was published in 2007 by Ananda Publishers. He has written more than 14 novels, 3 books of poems, and a few books on cricket too. His teenage thrillers gained popularity after being published in the Anandamela Puja Barshiki. The protagonist , Coco, is still a popular character among thriller lovers. His latest who-dunnit novel Bishakto Baish set in the premise of IPL, was an instant hit among readers. It has been translated into English too. Among many awards, he has won the prestigious Moti Nandy award, Best Sports Journalist of the Year award and others.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Notun Dashaker Goenda : Sabyasachi Sarkar and Anirban Basu discuss their sleuths with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Sanchari Mookherjee

Sanchari Mookherjee has been writing on social issues for more than a decade in the Bengali media space. Her writings combine keen social awareness with great communicative skill. Personal prose is her forte, the strength emanating from her unique way of seeing the world and finding a new meaning of even the mundane things of everyday life. This, along with a sharply critical mind, is what has always given all her pieces, particularly the regular columns in the Sunday supplement of the leading Bengali newspaper of West Bengal, their cutting edge. These columns have been collected in the book Ekta Kashto Lajja Bhoy. She is currently the Managing Editor of Daakbangla.com.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 6.15 pm
Boi-Shoik : Anindya Chattopadhyay and Sanchari Mookerjee on their latest book. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury (Bengali Session)

Sandip Roy

Sandip Roy is a writer, journalist and broadcaster based in Kolkata. He is the host of The Sandip Roy Show on Audio Express and a columnist for Mint Lounge and The Hindu. His work has appeared in various outlets such as The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, the Times of India, and the BBC. He is also the author of the books – Don’t Let Him Know (2015) and Learning Curve (2021).

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 3.50 pm
Less is Lost : Andrew Sean Greer discusses the sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In conversation with Sandip Roy

January 26, 2023 ● 11 am
No Laughing Matter : Has dark humour edged the droll and delightful out of literature? Ben Schott, Sandip Roy and Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 26, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
A New Dawn For South Asian Literature : Geetanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell and Shehan Karunatilaka on ways in which South Asian literature can reach a wider readership. In conversation with Sandip Roy

January 26, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
Queersapien : Sharif Rangnekar discusses his book alongside Andrew Sean Greer, Saurabh Kirpal and Sumita. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Sangeeta Datta

Sangeeta Dutta’s most critically acclaimed work is the award winning feature film adaptation of King Lear – Life Goes On (2009). She is known for her documentary on Rituparno Ghosh – Bird of Dusk (2018).  Datta has been a research fellow at the University of Sussex and SOAS, UK. She is also the co-author of Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Gender and Art (2015). Her other significant works are The Dying Song (2008) and Gitanjali 100 (2013-2014). 

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 4.30 pm
Talking Life : Javed Akhtar on gathering life, making memories with Nasreen Munni Kabir. In conversation with Sangeeta Datta

Sanjeev Sanyal

Sanjeev Sanyal is currently a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). He was the Principal Economic Adviser to the Finance Minister for five years till February 2022 and the Co-Chair of the G20’s Framework Working Group. Prior to joining the government, he spent over two decades in financial markets and was Global Strategist and Managing Director at Deutsche Bank.

An alumni of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, Mr. Sanyal later attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship in 2007 for his work on urban dynamics. In 2010 he was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Mr. Sanyal is the author of a number of best-selling books including Land of the Seven Rivers, The Ocean of Churn, India in the Age of Ideas, and the Indian Renaissance. He has also published over two hundred articles and columns in leading national and international publications. 

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 5.40 pm
The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom : Sanjeev Sanyal and Rudra Chatterjee in conversation with Janet Gasper Chowdhury

Sarnath Banerjee

Sarnath Banerjee (born 1972) is an Indian graphic novelist, artist, filmmaker and co-founder of the comics publishing house, Phantomville, a comics publishing firm.His first novel, Corridor (2004), published by Penguin Books, India, was commissioned as a part of a fellowship awarded by the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago and marketed as India’s first graphic novel.His second novel, The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers, was published in 2007.

Sarnath has also provided illustrations for novels by other authors. He designed the cover for Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel, Weight Loss. His billboard series, Gallery of Losers, commissioned by Frieze Projects East, for the 2012 London Olympics, was widely displayed in East London. In 2016, he was commissioned over 80 murals by Deutsche Bank, for their new office in Canary Wharf 2008.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 2.10 pm
Sketching Ray :   Sarnath Banerjee and Pinaki De on the art and writing of Satyajit Ray

Saurabh Kirpal

After studying physics at St Stephens College in Delhi, Saurabh Kirpal read law at the University of Oxford and did his Masters in law at the University of Cambridge. He did a brief stint working with the United Nations in Geneva before returning to Delhi. There he has been practicing at the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court and was designated as a Senior Advocatein 2020 by a unanimous Court. He has appeared in a range of matters covering a diverse range of subjects from commercial to constitutional law. This is reflected in the variety of clients he has appeared for – from Anil Ambani in his legal battle with his brother to being the counsel for Navtej Johar, Ritu Dalmia and others in the case that led to the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. He is presently fighting the case seeking recognition of same sex marriage before the Delhi High Court. A self-described ‘accidental activist’ he also is the managing trustee of the Naz Foundation Trust, the NGO that first fought for decriminalization of homosexuality in India. He is the  is editor of ‘Sex and the Supreme Court’, an anthology about issues relating to law, gender and sexuality as well as the recent book ‘Fifteen judgments: Cases that shaped India’s financial landscape.’

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 5 pm
Fifteen Judgments : Saurabh Kirpal on the cases that changed the financial landscape of free India. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

January 26, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
Queersapien : Sharif Rangnekar discusses his book alongside Andrew Sean Greer, Saurabh Kirpal and Sumita. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Semanti Ghosh

An Associate Editor and the Head of the Editorial Department at Anandabazar Patrika, Semanti Ghosh is currently working on a political biography of Deshbandhu C.R. Das. she has published a few books, Namely – Different Nationalisms: Bengal 1905-1947 (2017), Swajati Swadesher Khonje (2012), Deshbhag: Smriti ar Stabdhata (2008). She has published a number of articles in both Bengali and English and writes regular columns on National and International political and social issues. 

Attending Session

January 21, 2023 ● 3 pm
47er Shei August : Sankar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Semanti Ghosh revisit the first moments of freedom. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali Session)

Shabana Azmi

Shabana Azmi is known for her portrayal of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several genres of Hindi film, television and theatre. She has won five National Film Awards for Best Actress in addition to five Filmfare Awards and numerous international honours and accolades. Azmi debuted in 1974 and became the leading actress of Parallel Cinema. She has since appeared in over 160 Hindi films in both – mainstream and independent cinema. Since 1988, she has worked on several foreign projects. 

In 1998, she was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri and in 2012, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan. Apart from acting, Shabana Azmi is a social and women’s rights activist. 

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 10 am
Morning with Poets : Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Sumantra Ghoshal and Rakshanda Jalil on the poetry of Kaifi and Jan Nisar. In conversation with Mudar Patherya

Shankar Mahadevan

He is an Indian born singer and composer, and his name sky-rocketed to fame with his 1998 non-film album Breathless which topped the Indian Music Charts. He has been the composer to many noted–worthy Hindi films like Chandni Chowk to China, Johnny Gaddar, Wake Up Sid, Karthik Calling Karthik, Houseful, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, 2 States and so many more. He received the Padma Shri Award in 2019 for his contributions to Film Music. He was also awarded the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007 for his song Maa (Taare Zameen Par).

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 12.15 pm
Shakti@50 - Celebrating Love and Harmony :   John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan discuss 50 years of the iconic band. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Sharda Ugra

Sharda Ugra has been a sports journalist for over three decades, reporting sport for tabloid MidDay, broadsheet The Hindu, newsmagazine India and the ESPNcricinfo/ ESPN India websites. In between, worked with India coach John Wright and cricketer Yuvraj Singh on their memoirs and on research projects focussing on ethnic minorities in cricket in the UK and Australia.  She now lives in Bangalore and writes to suit herself.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 3.15 pm
Iran’s Zan, Zendagi, Azadi Revolution : Ghazala Wahab, Sharda Ugra, Anuradha Kapoor in conversation with Sumona Chakravarty

January 23, 2023 ● 6 pm
Gods of Willow - A Coming of Age Innings : Amrish Kumar and Sharda Ugra in conversation with Jeet Banerjee

January 23, 2023 ● 7 pm
Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism : Pritish Nandy, Sharda Ugra, Pratik Sinha, Monideepa Banerjie and Ghazala Wahab on how the digital life has impacted media and journalists. In conversation with Payal Mohanka

Sharif D. Rangnekar

Sharif is an author, a curator focused on diversity, communications consultant and a singer-songwriter. He uses talks, writing, event curation and music to advocate change and provide support for the LGBTQIA+ community. He is the Director of the Festival – Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer and Inclusive. He is also the curator of Embrace: Music Justice Arts. He has a book entitled straight to Normal – My Life As a Gay Man which was published in 2019 and it is amongst the few queer memoirs in India. He also edited and conceptualised Realizing Brand India (2004).

Previously the CEO of Integral PR, Sharif is now the Chairman of the company. He was named the PR Professional of the Year 2013 bt IPRCCA and was in the Global Power List of PR Week in 2015. 

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
Queersapien : Sharif Rangnekar discusses his book alongside Andrew Sean Greer, Saurabh Kirpal and Sumita. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Shehan Karunatilaka

A Sri Lanka born writer, Shehan Karunatilaka, won the Commonwealth Book Prize, the DSC Prize and the Gratiaen Prize for his debut book in 2010 named Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. This book was adjudged as the 2nd greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden.

His 3rd novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida was announced the 2022 Booker Prize winner.He has also tested his hand on children’s books and named it Please Don’t Put That In Your Mouth (2019) which he intended as a cautionary tale but silliness took over. He also played guitar for a band called Independent Square.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
The Many Lives of Maali Almeida : Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 26, 2023 ● 11 am
No Laughing Matter : Has dark humour edged the droll and delightful out of literature? Ben Schott, Sandip Roy and Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Malavika Banerjee

January 26, 2023 ● 4.10 pm
A New Dawn For South Asian Literature : Geetanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell and Shehan Karunatilaka on ways in which South Asian literature can reach a wider readership. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

Born in Dhaka, now Bangladesh, Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay is one of the finest writers of modern Bengali literature for children and adults. He began writing during West Bengal’s turbulent 1960s and startled everyone with his charming characters and introspectiveness. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989 for his novel Manabajamina. His contribution to children’s literature was recognised by the West Bengal government in 1975 with Vidyasagar Puraskar and he is a 3 time winner of the Ananda Puraskar. His novels and short stories reveal an undercurrent of love and faith in humanity over human violence and aggression. 

Attending Sessions

January 21, 2023 ● 3 pm
47er Shei August : Sankar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Semanti Ghosh revisit the first moments of freedom. In conversation with Aparajita Dasgupta (Bengali Session)

January 21, 2023 ● 6.45 pm
Mosha : A dramatic reading of Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay’s short story by Anirban Bhattacharya

Sibashish Mukhopadhyay

Sibasish Mukhopadhyay began his writing career with the poem ‘Boy Meets Girl’ which was published in the renowned Bengali periodical Desh in 1992. He is one of the notable Bengali poets of the 90s. He won the Krittibas Puroskar in 2000. His other published works include – Rupor Kolom Sonar Meye, Kale Megha Kale Megha and few others.

Besides poetry, Mukhopadhyay is also engaged in different cultural activities like script writing for TV serials and anchoring for Radio Channels. 

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 3.20 pm
Uddam Rajanir Kabya : Subodh Sarkar discusses his new book with Binayak Bandyopadhyay, Moumita and Sibashish Mukhopadhyay (Bengali Session)

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, and The Laws of Medicine. He is the editor of Best Science Writing 2013.

Siddhartha Mukherjee’s THE GENE: An Intimate History  is his latest work – the story of the quest to decipher the master-code of instructions that makes and defines humans, that governs our form, function, and fate and determines the future of our children.

Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and Cell. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters.

Attending Session

January 13, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
2020s VISION : Amitav Ghosh and Siddhartha Mukherjee in conversation

Sneha Singhi

Sneha Singhi is a well-known name in the pastry world. The owner of Paris Cafe has been awarded the BBC Pastry Chef of the Year and Young Restaurateur of the Year for Le Studio. Even though she was a student of Journalism from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, she deliberately got herself suspended from college to pursue her dream in cooking. She has interned with the French pastry chef, Pierre Herme, and now her Paris Cafe has 3 branches across Kolkata.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
India in a Kitchen : Chitrita Banerji, Mita Kapur and Vikas Khanna and on food as an unsung unifier of India. In conversation with Sneha Singhi

Sonam Kalra

Multiple award winning singer and composer Sonam Kalra is a rare breed of musician who is trained in both Indian and Western traditions of music. Sonam’s unique brainchild, ‘Sonam Kalra and The Sufi Gospel Project’ which blends the many voices of faith, through poetry, prayer and music, to create one universal voice of faith and it has earned her international critical acclaim. 

She has performed at the very Prestigious SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, at the Pyramids in Egypt and for MTV’s Coke Studio. She has performed in over 30 countries across the world including London, Australia, Sri Lanka, Canada, Rome, USA, Thailand and has even performed at the very prestigious Women in the World Summit, The world Sufi Peace festivals, The Jaipur Literature Festival and so many more.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 6.45 pm
The Sufi Gospel Project : Sonam Kalra and Troupe  

Soumya Bhattacharya

Soumya Bhattacharya is an author, journalist, columnist, and literary critic. He is the author of six acclaimed books of fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. His fiction, essays and reviews have been published in the New York Times, the Guardian, the New Statesman, Granta, Wisden, The London Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and The National, among other venues. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies published in India and overseas. He hosts the books podcast, Page Turner.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 1.10 pm
Carry On Jeeves : Ben Schott and Atri Bhattacharya discuss the enduring magic of Jeeves and other PG Wodehouse characters. In conversation with Soumya Bhattacharya

January 25, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
Straight From The Heart : Anindita Ghose and Soumya Bhattacharya discuss their debut novels. In conversation with Debanjan Chakrabarti

Sounak Chattopadhyay

Sounak Chattopadhyay is one of the leading vocalists of the present generation with an exceptional training base and almost 25 years of experience. He has a unique trend setting blend of classical music and other forms of Bengali art music without forgetting his roots that are planted in the Guru Gharanas. Sounak has performed across India and abroad like USA, Canada, Singapore, UK and Indonesia.   

He has worked with eminent personalities like Dhritiman Chaterji, Raima Sen, Rituparna Sengupta, Parambrata Chatterjee, Pramita Mallick and many more. As a young artist, Sounak is going beyond the stereotypical and challenging the conventional but is never in denial of his traditional roots.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 7 pm
Kalam Finale: India in Words, India in Song : Sounak Chattopadhyay sings  songs of patriotism from across India. Followed by Readings.

Srijato

Srijato is one of Bengal’s most popular new generation poets and lyricists, and is the author of several books of modern poetry, including Uronto Sob Joker: All Those Flying Jokers, which won the Ananda Puroskar and Krittibas Puroshkar, Sesh Chithi, The Story of Katiusha, Andhakar Lekhaguchchha and Premer Kobita. His novels include 4043, Shalimare Shonghat. His latest poetic composition Dhongso was published in 2018 along with two other works — Lymeric and Facebook, a collection of his Facebook posts. Other than poetry he has also penned the lyrics of popular movies like Autograph, Iti Mrinalini, and Charuulata. He also does anchoring and public speaking. He debuted in Srijit Mukherjee’s Zulfiqar and is currently directly his first film.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 1 pm
Shera Shakti : Srijato on the poetry of Shakti Chattopadhyay. In conversation with Prithwi Bose. Launch of Aamar Rangoon Diary by Shyamal Bandyopadhay (Bengali Session)

January 22, 2023 ● 7.20 pm
Bechey Thakar Gaan - Lockdowney Lekha : Chandril Bhattacharya, Srijato and Anupam Roy in conversation with RJ Riya (Bengali Session)

Subhashini Ali

Subhashini Ali is an Indian politician and a member of the Communist Party of India. She is a trade Unionist and  leader of the all Democratic Women’s Association. She is currently a member of the Central committee of the Communist Party of India and was inducted to the polit bureau (PB) of Communist Party of India in 20015, becoming the 2nd women member in the PB after Brinda Karat. She has dabbled in the AIDWA.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
Krishna Bose’s Netaji : Sumantra Bose, Sugata Bose and Subhasini Ali discuss the new translation of the author’s memoirs. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

January 25, 2023 ● 1.20 pm
Born in 1947 : Laila Tyabji, Subhasini Ali and Chitrita Banerji discuss the peaks and troughs of the midnight generation. In conversation with Paroma Roy Chowdhury

Subodh Sarkar

He is a very note-worthy Bengali poet, editor, translator and is the Associate professor in English at City College, Calcutta University. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 2013 for Dwaipayan Hrader Dhare. He has also received the West Bengal Bangla Academy Award in 2000 and was the chairman of the Kobita Academy in 2016. His first book of poems was published in the late 70s.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 3.20 pm
Uddam Rajanir Kabya : Subodh Sarkar discusses his new book with Binayak Bandyopadhyay, Moumita and Sibashish Mukhopadhyay (Bengali Session)

January 23, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
Mir Jafar O Onanyo Natak : Bratya Basu in conversation with Subodh Sarkar (Bengali Session)

January 24, 2023 ● 3 pm
Blank Verse : Damodar Mauzo, Subodh Sarkar, and Jerry Pinto discuss whether poetry is being translated enough. In conversation with Labonita Ghosh

Sudha Arora

Sudha Arora, a feminist fiction writer, poet, activist and journalist, is a gold medallist from Calcutta University.

A lecturer in Jogmaya Devi college, and Shikshayatan College, Calcutta from 1968-1971, she has been associated with women counselling centers after moving to Mumbai in 1992.

Best known for her book Ek Aurat Ki Notebook and Kam Se Kam Ek Darwaza, she is the author of fourteen short-stories collections, two poetry collections, a novel and three books of articles on women’s issues. Her work has been translated into other languages and adapted for television, stage and films.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Readings and Recitations : Pritish Nandy, Divya Dutta, Mritunjay K. Singh, Yatish Kumar, Sudha Arora

January 23, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Hindi Sahitya ka Shahar Kalkatta : Rachana Yadav, Sudha Arora, Alka Saraogi and Ved Raman Pandey discuss Hindi classics born and set in Kolkata. In conversation with Mrityunjay K. Singh (Hindi session)

Sugata Bose

Sugata Bose is the director of the Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata, a research centre dedicated to the life and works of his great uncle and the Indian nationalist, Subhash Chandra Bose. Sugata Bose is an Indian historian and politician who served as a Member of India’s Parliament from 2014 to 2016. He is the author of the books – His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhash Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire (2011), and A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006).

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
Krishna Bose’s Netaji : Sumantra Bose, Sugata Bose and Subhasini Ali discuss the new translation of the author’s memoirs. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

Sujaan Mukherjee

Sujaan Mukherjee is part of DAG’s museums initiative, heading the Research and Development team. He has submitted his PhD thesis at the Department of English, Jadavpur University, on history and memory in public spaces in Kolkata. Sujaan writes for the Books page of The Telegraph, India, and is a regular contributor at Scroll. He has been associated with different museums and archives in various capacities, such as Victoria Memorial Hall, the Save Gurusasday Museum campaign, the Jewish Calcutta archive, and the Humphry House archive at the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University. His areas of interest include the physical cultures, urban histories, and Modernism.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 12 pm
Tagore in Italy, Italy in Tagore : Luisa Prayer, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Pramantha Tagore and Gianluca Rubagotti discuss Tagore in Italy. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

Sukanta Chaudhuri

Born in 1950, Sukanta Chaudhuri is a literary scholar and now a professor Emeritus at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has taught in Presidency College, Kolkata, from 1973 to 1991 and then at Jadavpur University until his retirement in 2010. His chief fields of study are English and European Renaissance, translation, textual studies and digital humanities. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Shakespeare Association and in 2021, he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. 

Chaudhuri has translated extensively from Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Sukumar Ray, Rajshekhar Bose and other classic Bengali writers, and many modern Bengali poets. His Select Nonsense of Sukumar Ray (1998) is an acclaimed recreation in English of Sukumar Ray’s whimsical nonsense poems. He was General Editor of the Oxford Tagore Translations. He has also translated the complete limericks of Edward Lear into Bengali, and selections from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci from Italian into Bengali. He is the author of Translation and Understanding (1999).

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 12 pm
Tagore in Italy, Italy in Tagore : Luisa Prayer, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Pramantha Tagore and Gianluca Rubagotti discuss Tagore in Italy. In conversation with Sujaan Mukherjee. In association with 'Consulate General of Italy in Kolkata'

Suman Mukhopadhyay

Suman Mukhopadhyay is an Indian film director. His first directorial debut film was Herbert which was released in 2005. Herbert won the National Award for Best Bengali film. He is in the post-production of his latest Hindi feature film Nazarband. His last film Asamapta premiered in IFFLA, USA and is on Netflix. His Shesher Kabita (The Last Poem) with Rahul Bose and Konkona Sen Sharma premiered in Dubai International Film festival and was released in 2015. Kangal Malsat (The War Cry of the Beggars) is his 4th feature film and was released in 2013. His film Mahanagar@Kolkata was screened in Munich, Kerala and New York film festivals. Chaturanga, based on Tagore’s novel, premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival. It was screened in 36 national and international festivals. The film received a Gran Prix award at Bridgefest, Sarajevo; the Best Director award at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and the Golden Palm at Mexico International Film Festival.
Recently Mukhopadhyay has done a Zee5 original feature film Posham Pa and directed five episodes of Parchhayee based on Ruskin Bond stories.
Mukhopadhyay has done theatre productions ranging from European drama to major adaptations of Bengali works. He used to be a part of Bengali theatre Group Chetana. Among his many works are Raja Lear, Sunyo Sudhu Sunyo Noy, Bisarjan, Teesta Paarer Brittanto and Samay Asamayer Brittanto.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 6.45 pm
Shikhandi : Shikhandi-Performed by Sudipta Majumdar, written by Sudipta Bhowmik and designed, directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay. Presented by ECTA, New Jersey and Chetana, Kolkata

January 24, 2023 ● 4 pm
Mancher Itihas, Mancher Bhobishyot : Suman Mukhopadhyay, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu on a new era in Bangla theatre. In conversation with Agnijit Sen (Bengali Session)

Sumantra Bose

Grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose and younger brother of Sugata Bose, Sumantra Bose is an Indian political scientist and professor of International and Comparative politics at the London School of Economics. His published works include  Contested Lands: War and Peace in Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus and Sri Lanka. (2006), Kashmir:Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace (2003) and his most recent work is Kashmir at the CCrossroads: Inside a 21st Century Conflict (2021).

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
Krishna Bose’s Netaji : Sumantra Bose, Sugata Bose and Subhasini Ali discuss the new translation of the author’s memoirs. In conversation with Priyadarshinee Guha

Sumita Beethi

Sumita Beethi aka BubaiBose is a queer feminist activist and an active member of Sappho for Equality, an LBTQ rights organisation in Kolkata. Sumita is a traveller, adventure enthusiast and queer story teller who queers tales and tells queer tales.

Sumita writes in Bangla – fiction, non fiction, poetry and play. As an activist, Sumita engages politically in the process of documenting first person narratives of voices seldom heard. 

Some of Sumita’s published works are : Japonjatra – zare koy…, Mona Das Birochito…, Daak Naame Daak, Tantalus Jaane and more.

First person narratives edited and co-edited by Sumita – Chih! Tumi naki…, Sei Je Baro, Of Horizons and Beyond, Saptaparnee, Monologue: lesbian narratives of Bangladesh and West Bengal.

Sumita is a person of undecided gender with female marked body, Sumita’s preferred pronoun is ‘my name’.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 5.50 pm
Queersapien : Sharif Rangnekar discusses his book alongside Andrew Sean Greer, Saurabh Kirpal and Sumita. In conversation with Sandip Roy

Sumona Chakravarty

Sumona Chakravarty is the founder of Hamdasti, a Kolkata-based arts platform for socially engaged arts practices. Her work is participatory in nature, engaging diverse communities to collaboratively intervene in public spaces. 

Sumona is a graduate of the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, with a Masters degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She has been a Fellow in the ArtThink South Asia Program at Khoj, Delhi and at the Global Cultural Leaders Program, hosted by the European Union. She is currently the Vice President of DAG’s Museums Programme, leading arts engagement and education initiatives that make DAG’s collection of Indian art accessible to a wider audience.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 3.15 pm
Iran’s Zan, Zendagi, Azadi Revolution : Ghazala Wahab, Sharda Ugra, Anuradha Kapoor in conversation with Sumona Chakravarty

Supriya Chaudhuri

Supriya Chaudhuri is Professor of English (Emerita) at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She was educated at Presidency College and the University of Oxford. She works on Renaissance literature and culture, translation, cultural history, and modernism, and has published widely in these fields. She also reviews new fiction and has judged fiction and translation awards.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 12.10 pm
Unseen City :   Ankhi Mukherjee discusses her book on mental health of the urban poor with Jai R. Ram. In conversation with Supriya Chaudhuri

SV Raman

SV Raman, popularly known as Raju Raman, retired as Programme Director of Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata, in April 2010. He is presently Programme Consultant to Victoria Memorial Hall, teaches public speaking/communication/journalism/film/German at various institutions, and is a freelance journalist, translator, and interpreter. He is actively connected with several social and cultural organizations in various capacities.

Attending Sessions

January 22, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Boier Sansar : Aparajita Dasgupta and Jayanta Sengupta on their literary journeys. In conversation with SV Raman (Bengali session)  

January 23, 2023 ● 6.40 pm
The Anglo-Indians : Barry O’Brien discusses his new book with Ruskin Bond. In conversation with SV Raman. (Ruskin Bond will be joining the session virtually)

Swati Bhattacharya

Swati Bhattacharya is the creative chairperson at FCB India and has been appointed to represent India on the International Board of Directors of The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost nonprofit organisation whose mission is to  support the global creative community. Bhattacharya is among a diverse group of 21 creative leaders from around the world who will begin three-year terms on the International Board.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
A Millennium in Search of a New Political Order : Oscar Guardiola Rivera and Pratik Sinha on whether democracy still has all the answers. In conversation with Swati Bhattacharjee

Swati Ganguly

Swati Ganguly is Professor of English at the Department of English, Visva-Bharati. Her interests include Rabindranath Tagore and his times, European Renaissance, feminist studies, translation and theatre. She has attended several international conferences, published in reputed international and Indian journals.

Swati received the Charles Wallace Fellowship for translation studies in 1996 at the or UEA, Norwich and the New India Foundation Fellowship ( 2011) for writing a history of the university set up by Rabindranath Tagore. This work. Titled Tagore’s University: A History of Visva-Bharati( 1921-1961) is published by Permanent Black( 2022) in collaboration with New India Foundation and Ashoka University.

 Her other publications include The Stream Within( 1947-1997) translation of Bengali women’s short stories ( Stree, 1999) two anthologies of essays on Rabindranath Tagore:  Rabindranath Tagore and the Nation: Essays in Politics, Society and Culture ( Punascha, 2011) and Towards Tagore(  Visva-Bharati,  2014).

Swati writes fiction and essays in Bengali and is an occasional painter. Her Bengali novella Jiyankathi( The Wand of Life) is an experiment in genres and writing styles. She lives in Santiniketan.

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 11.50 am
Tagore’s University : Swati Ganguly and Biswajit Ray discuss the history of Visva-Bharati. In conversation with Achyut Chetan

Richard Blurton

Richard Blurton first visited India in 1970, later training as an archaeologist.  In the mid-1980s he was part of a fieldwork team in Karnataka, before joining the British Museum in 1986; he retired in 2018.  At the Museum he presented many exhibitions, as well as bringing one to India in 1997, The Enduring Image. Amongst other projects within the Museum, he was particularly linked to the programme to ensure that the 19th and 20th centuries were as well represented in the collections as earlier periods.  Amongst his published books are Hindu Art (1992), Bengali Myths (2006),  Krishna in the Garden of Assam (2016) – and most recently, India: a History in Objects (2022).  He continues to visit India, consulting with colleagues and carrying out research.

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 4.40 pm
Discovering India Through The Arts : Richard Blurton discusses his new book with Jayanta Sengupta

January 26, 2023 ● 12.40 pm
Future Perfect Museums : Vidya Dehejia, Richard Blurton and Jayanta Sengupta discuss museums of the future. In conversation with Rudra Chatterjee

Tapati Guha-Thakurta

Tapati Guha-Thakurta is an Indian historian who has written about the cultural history and art of India. She is a director and professor in history at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, and was previously a professor at Presidency College, Kolkata. Her extensive research work on Kolkata’s Durga Puja led to its inclusion in UNESCOs Intangible Cultural Heritage list. 

In 1995, she was awarded the Charles Wallace Visiting Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge. In 2011, she was a visiting fellow at the Yale Center for British Art. In 2018, she was a visiting professor at Brown University. She has written exhibition monographs and curated many art exhibitions. In 2019, she was assigned by the Indian Ministry of Culture to prepare a dossier proposing the inclusion of Durga Puja in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

Attending Session

January 26, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
India in a 100 Objects : Vidya Dehejia discusses the treasures of India. In conversation with Tapati Guha Thakurta

V. Selvaganesh

Born to the Grammy winner T.H. Vinayakram, V. Selvaganesh was a child prodigy with his concert career beginning at the tender age of 10.  He is an Indian percussionist and one of the leading kanjira players of his generation. He has dabbled with all kinds of music – Fusion, Jazz, Blues, Symphony Orchestra, Celtic Music, Latin Music, DJ Music and Jugalbandi concerts along with being a part of numerous International Music Festivals. He joined Shakti (band) to play alongside John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain and catapulted Shakti to fame. 

He released his debut International solo album – Soukha – in 2006 which featured all the regular members of Remember Shakti. He formed a group called JSM and released their 1st Indo-Celtic album, titled Turn on the Dreams, in the UK in 2005. 

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 12.15 pm
Shakti@50 - Celebrating Love and Harmony :   John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan discuss 50 years of the iconic band. In conversation with Arunabha Deb

Ved Raman Pandey

Ved Raman Pandey is a faculty member at the Presidency University, Kolkata. He has worked with the High Commission of India in Mauritius and is a former ICCR Chair at MGI, Mauritius. He is also the Resource person at World Hindi Secretariat in mauritius.

He has published Essays on Criticism.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 5.10 pm
Hindi Sahitya ka Shahar Kalkatta : Rachana Yadav, Sudha Arora, Alka Saraogi and Ved Raman Pandey discuss Hindi classics born and set in Kolkata. In conversation with Mrityunjay K. Singh (Hindi session)

Vibha Mitra

A diversity of experiences,  a passion for doing things well and a woman with an original point of view, airing her views both profound and profane.  An itinerant trying to find her place of sunshine.

She tries not to look back and do everything with zeal and a desire to learn. Films, plays, crosswords, Scrabble, Sudoku, Netflix  are all jostling for space in her world. With it is an abiding love for heritage / history, the handmade artisana, scribbling.

A rank holding Chartered Accountant and Lawyer but did not pursue it due to personal reasons. Started Opus, a test prep and  Qissaa, a textile store. Now Qissaa Buddy, a shopping companion. Own The Past (www.ownthepast) is a group formed by her to create awareness for History and our Legacy.

Her Book Odds and Ends recently published, is a journal and her reflections on the world, Calcutta in large bits. She works and lives with passion in her wanderings, unknown, undetermined. Maybe. Surely.

Attending Session

January 22, 2023 ● 11 am
Nanak and the Sikhs in Eastern India : Himadri Banerjee and Jagmohan Singh Gill discuss the history of the community in East and Northeast India. In conversation with Vibha Mitra from Own The Past initiative

Vidya Dehijia

VidyaDehejia is Barbara Stoler Miller Professor Emerita of Indian Art at Columbia University in New York, and author of a wide range of books on the history of Indian art. As a museum professional between 1994-2002, she served as Chief Curator, Deputy Director, and Acting Director of the Smithsonian’s Freer & Sackler Galleries in Washington DC. Her most recent books are The Thief Who Stole my Heart: The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes from Chola India, 855-1280 (Princeton University Press, 2021) and India: A Story through 100 Objects (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2021). In 2012, the President of India awarded her a Padma Bhushan for “Outstanding Contribution to Art & Education.”

Attending Sessions

January 26, 2023 ● 12.40 pm
Future Perfect Museums : Vidya Dehejia, Richard Blurton and Jayanta Sengupta discuss museums of the future. In conversation with Rudra Chatterjee

January 26, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
India in a 100 Objects : Vidya Dehejia discusses the treasures of India. In conversation with Tapati Guha Thakurta

Vikas Khanna

Vikas Khanna is an Indian chef, restaurateur, cookbook writer and a humanitarian who appears as a judge in Masterchef India. He has worked with the top chefs of the world which include Gordon Ramsay and Bobby Flay. He joined Junoon – an upscale Indian restaurant in Manhattan and was awarded a Michelin Star for six consecutive years since 2011. In 2019 he opened a restaurant named Kinara in Dubai and another in 2020 named Ellora.

His documentary Kitchens of Gratitude was featured at Marche du Film at the 69th Cannes Film Festival. His directorial debut The Last Color is a film about the daily struggles for survival on the streets of the ancient city of Banaras, India. The teaser of the film featuring veteran Indian actress Neena Gupta was released at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.  The film made it to the final list of Oscar 2020 Eligibility for Best Film.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 11.15 am
Imaginary Rain : Vikas Khanna in conversation with Anindita Ghose. Launch of Vikas Khanna’s Imaginary Rain by Mallika Sarabhai

January 23, 2023 ● 2.20 pm
India in a Kitchen : Chitrita Banerji, Mita Kapur and Vikas Khanna and on food as an unsung unifier of India. In conversation with Sneha Singhi

Vikram Iyengar

Vikram Iyengar is an arts leader and connector based in Calcutta, India and working internationally. A dancer-choreographer, arts writer, and curator-presenter, he heads the performance company Ranan and the Pickle Factory Dance Foundation. An ARThink South Asia Arts Management Fellow, Global Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts, and alumnus of the Australian International Arts Leaders programme, Vikram was awarded the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Government of India for his work in contemporary dance in 2015.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 6.30 pm
Indian Traditional Martial Arts : Ileana Citaristi in conversation with Vikram Iyengar

Yatish Kumar

An Administrative Officer of the Indian Railway Service, Yatish Kumar has the distinction of becoming the youngest Chairman and Managing Director of Central ‘Public Sector Undertakings’. He has made a special creative presence in the literary world in the last few years. His poetic reviews on popular novels, stories and travelogues have particularly attracted the attention of readers. His poems and memoirs have been published in most of the reputed magazines such as Naya Gyanodaya, Hans, Aha! Zindagi, Sanmarg, Prabhat Khabar and Vagarth. His works are also published on famous literary blogs like Samalochan, Janaki Pul, Pahleebar, Kavita Kosh etc. He is also actively associated with various literary-social organizations.

Kumar’s first Hindi poetry book Antas Ki Khurchan has been published  in 2021 and gained appreciation from the readers and litterateurs. He is currently holding the charge of Braithwaite & Company Limited. Shri Kumar was honoured with the National Award in 2006 for outstanding contribution in Indian Railways.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 3.10 pm
Dhwani Aur Goonj Se Resonance Tak : Daisy Rockwell, Poonam Saxena and Baran Farooqi discuss translating from Hindi and Urdu to English. In conversation with Yatish Kumar

January 23, 2023 ● 4.20 pm
Readings and Recitations : Pritish Nandy, Divya Dutta, Mritunjay K. Singh, Yatish Kumar, Sudha Arora

January 25, 2023 ● 3 pm
Writer Rebel Soldier Lover : Akshaya Mukul and Yatish Kumar on the challenges of putting Agyeya on paper. In conversation with Poonam Saxena

Zakir Hussain

Awarded the Padma Shri in 1988 and Padma Bhushan in 2002, Ustad Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla player, composer and music producer. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Academy in 1990 and was presented with the United States National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship in 1999 – the highest award that can be awarded to traditional artists and musicians. In 2009, Ustad Zakir Hussain won the Grammy in the Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album “Global Drum Project”. 

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 12.15 pm
Shakti@50 - Celebrating Love and Harmony :   John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan discuss 50 years of the iconic band. In conversation with Arunabha Deb