Dispatches from Kolkata

When we go on vacation we visit the sights, try the local cuisine, and buy a few souvenirs. But on a trip to Dhenkanal in the eastern Indian state of Odisha recently Sandip Roy saw the hands that make the craft. His friend Milena led them into the home of a weaver.

The 2024 Presidential Election has marked an irreversible cultural change in the U.S. Sandip Roy sees the connection in an unlikely symbol, the Postage Stamp.

Royal past meets the tourist future at India’s Palace Hotels. Sandip had a nostalgic visit to Dhenkanal in the Eastern state of Odisha.

Durga Puja, Kolkata's biggest festival comes face to face with the biggest protests the city has seen in recent years.

In a city chaotic with light and noise, the Goddess has come home and is calling out to us. Now if we could just cut through the static and be on the same wavelength.

Mahatma Gandhi is revered as the Father of the Nation in India. But how was he as Father of his own family? His grandson Gopal talks about the legacy of the Mahatma with Sandip.

This summer I went to Istanbul looking for melancholy. Or as they call it there hüzün.

Food is the way we often break down barriers between people AND food is also the way we “other” the other, as the recent presidential debate shows.

Durga Puja is a season of homecoming, but this year artists turned protesters in Kolkata cannot shake off the image of the Durga who did not get to go home.

We are trained from the beginning on how to win but no one teaches us how to lose even though life often comes with more losses than wins. To lose with grace is also the mark of true champions.

Sandip Roy attends a raucous protest about the recent rape and murder of a junior doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College that brought out thousands of women who are tired of excuses.

As India celebrates it’s 77th Independence Day people are telling the stories of the freedom fighters who didn’t make the history books.

What used to be a wondrous event every year in India, has this year taken on a darker hue. Sandip Roy looks to the skies and considers this seasons monsoons.

The US presidential election is playing out in India as a big fight between the two southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

In an age where everyone can be a social media influencer, the recent attempt on former President Trump’s life shows that experience still matters.

A five-month countdown to India's most expensive wedding ever ended last week with the big bash that saw celebrities from all over the world descend on Mumbai. Sandip did not have an invite but sends us a postcard nonetheless.

Almost 100 years after Gandhi, the British Prime Minister seems to calling for a ‘British’ Swadeshi movement. But as Sandip Roy points out, Sunak’s call for a nationalist rebellion has only ignited a meme war.

June has become Pride Month all over the world. In Kolkata this month groups are celebrating 25 years of Sappho for Equality, the city's oldest support group for lesbian. bisexual women and transman rights as well as 25 years of the first Pride Walk in India.

Polar ice caps are melting. Huge swathes of the world are sweltering under record high temperatures. But how do you talk about climate change to children, the ones who will inherit this changing world of ours?