The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

Cricket isn't just what happens across 22 yards, and great cricket writers always go beyond the boundary. Vijay Lokapally joins Amit Varma in episode 427 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the joys and heartbreaks of a lifetime of writing about cricket -- and much else. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vijay Lokapally on Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, The Hindu and Sportstar. 2. Pen, Paper and Podcast -- Vijay Lokapally's podcast. 3. The Virender Sehwag Story -- Vijay Lokapally. 4. The Hitman: The Rohit Sharma Story -- Vijay Lokapally. 5. Driven: The Virat Kohli Story -- Vijay Lokapally. 6. Speed Merchants: The Story of Indian Pace Bowling 1886 to 2019 -- Gulu Ezekiel and Vijay Lokapally. 7. Net Flicks: India’s Smashing Affair with the Shuttle -- Akshay Lokapally and Vijay Lokapally. 8. Housefull:The Golden Years Of Hindi Cinema -- Edited by Ziya Us Salam, with writing by Vijay Lokapally. 9. Vijay Lokapally's episodes on 81 All Out: 1, 2. 10. India vs Australia, 3rd Test at Delhi, Nov 28, 1969. 11. Bishan Singh Bedi's letter to Vijay Lokapally. 12. The Evolution of Cricket — Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 13. Hatari -- Howard Hawks. 14. Roger Federer's commencement address at Dartmouth, 2024. 15. Pundits from Pakistan -- Rahul Bhattacharya. 16. The Fire Burns Blue: A History of Women's Cricket in India -- Sidhanta Patnaik and Karunya Keshav. 17. Triumph in Bombay: Travels during the Cricket World Cup -- Vaibhav Vats. 18. Wrist Assured -- Gundappa Vishwanath with R Kaushik. 19. Apradh -- Feroz Khan. 20. Kaagaz Ke Phool -- Guru Dutt. 21. Anand -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 22. Kala Bazar -- Vijay Anand. 23. Mackenna's Gold -- J Lee Thompson. 24. The Magnificent Seven -- Antoine Fuqua. 25. The Ten Commandments -- Cecil B DeMille. 26. Ben Hur -- William Wyler. 27. Safar -- Asit Sen. 28. Teesri Kasam -- Basu Bhattacharya. 29. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -- Satyam Bose. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Boy in the Stands’ by Simahina.

She's straddled the worlds of Hindustani classical and popular music, and is a legend in both spaces. Shubha Mudgal joins Amit Varma in episode 426 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, her music and this changing world. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shubha Mudgal on Spotify, Instagram, Twitter, Wikipedia and her own website. 2. Looking for Miss Sargam: Stories of Music and Misadventure -- Shubha Mudgal. 3. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Lady Doctors : The Untold Stories Of India’s First Women In Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 5. The Heckman Equation — a website based on James Heckman’s work. 6. The Disciple — Chaitanya Tamhane. 7. A Chess Story (previously published as The Royal Game) — Stefan Zweig. 8. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 9. The Köln Concert (YouTube, Spotify) -- Keith Jarrett. 10. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Aneesh Pradhan on Scroll, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter and his own website. 12. Stories in a Song -- Sunil Shanbag, Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan. 13. Nothing Without You/Tery Bina -- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. 14. How Music Works -- David Byrne. 15. Acoustic analysis of two Hindu temples in Southern India -- Shashank Aswathanarayana & Braxton Boren. 16. Begum Akhtar on Spotify and YouTube. 17. Uzr Aane Mein Bhi Hai -- Begum Akhtar. 18. Woh Jo Ham Men Tum Men Qarar Tha -- Begum Akhtar. 19. Siddheshwari Devi on Spotify and YouTube. 20. Shayam Prem Gagariyaa Bhaari -- Siddheshwari Devi. 21. Latcho Drom -- Tony Gatlif. 22. Yeh Kothewaliya -- Amritlal Nagar. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Song' by Simahina.

He reached the top of the corporate world -- and then gave it up to become a writer, with books that probed our deepest questions, and influenced millions of people. Gurcharan Das joins Amit Varma in episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)   Also check out: 1. Gurcharan Das on Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, LinkedIn, Times of India and his own website. 2. Another Sort of Freedom -- Gurcharan Das. 3. India Unbound -- Gurcharan Das. 4. The Difficulty of Being Good -- Gurcharan Das. 5. Kama: The Riddle of Desire -- Gurcharan Das. 6. Three Plays: Larins Sahib, Mira, 9 Jakhoo Hill -- Gurcharan Das. 7. A Fine Family -- Gurcharan Das. 8. The Elephant Paradigm -- Gurcharan Das. 9. India Grows At Night -- Gurcharan Das. 10. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 11. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. 12. Rashomon -- Akira Kurosawa. 13. Toba Tek Singh -- Sadat Hasan Manto. 14. Imagined Communities -- Benedict Anderson. 15. A Treatise of Human Nature -- David Hume. 16. Tales from the Kathasaritsagara -- Soma Deva (translated by Arshia Sattar). 17. What These Labels Mean -- Episode 107 of Everything is Everything. 18. Economic Facts and Fallacies -- Thomas Sowell. 19. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression -- Amity Shlaes. 20. In Search of Lost Time -- Marcel Proust. 21. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 22. War and Peace -- Leo Tolstoy. 23. Pedro Páramo -- Juan Rulfo. 24. Don Quixote -- Miguel De Cervantes. 25. The Great Books of the Western World -- Edited by Mortimer J Adler. 26. The Double 'Thank You' Moment -- John Stossel. 27. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 28. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Nature of the Firm -- Ronald Coase. 30. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 32. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 34. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 35. The 1991 Project. 36. The Future of War -- Episode 112 of Everything is Everything. 37. Perpetual Peace -- Immanuel Kant. 38. The Bhagawad Gita. 39. Four Quartets -- TS Eliot. 40. Walden -- Henry David Thoreau. 41. Essays on the Gita -- Sri Aurobindo. 42. Sri Bhagavadgita Rahasya -- Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 43. Many Threads of Hinduism -- Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya. 44. Bourgeois Dignity -- Deirdre McCloskey. 45. The Makropulos Case -- Karel Capek. 46. The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality -- Bernard Williams. 47. Don't Punish Victimless Crimes -- Episode 73 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Mahabharata. 48. Plato, Aristotle and Karl Marx. 49. Charulata -- Satyajit Ray. 50. The Apu Trilogy -- Satyajit Ray. 51. The Calcutta Trilogy -- Satyajit Ray. 52. Shatranj ke Khiladi -- Satyajit Ray. 53. Duvidha -- Mani Kaul. 54. Cinema Paradiso -- Giuseppe Tornatore. 55. Amarcord -- Federico Fellini. 56. Stolen Kisses -- François Truffaut. 57. Last Year at Marienbad -- Alain Resnais. 58. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis -- Vittorio De Sica. 59. The Prince -- Niccolò Machiavelli. 60. The Leopard -- Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa. 61. The Leopard -- Luchino Visconti. 62. Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Kishori Amonkar and Mallikarjun Mansur on Spotify. 63. The plays of Anton Chekhov. 64. The short stories of Anton Chekhov. 65. Four Major Plays -- Federico García Lorca. 66. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald. 67. Waiting for Godot -- Samuel Beckett. 68. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 69. The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 70. The Stranger -- Albert Camus. 71. The Black Paintings -- Francisco Goya. 72. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything. 73. Virasat-e-Khalsa. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Two Birds’ by Simahina.

Trained as a journalist, but driven by a desire to make a difference, she spent over a decade working with sex workers in Delhi to understand and improve their lives. Gitanjali Babbar joins Amit Varma in episode 424 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her learnings about GB Road -- and our strange and twisted society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Gitanjali Babbar on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. 2. Kat Katha (also on Facebook and Instagram.) 3. Donate to Kat Katha. (Alternate link). 4. Select talks by and interviews of Gitanjali Babbar: 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. The Fat Girl -- Andre Dubus. 6. Aashayein -- song from Iqbal. 7. Talks on the Gita -- Vinobha Bhave. 8. The Forty Rules of Love -- Elif Shafak. 9. Tu Jhoom -- Naseebo Lal and Abida Parveen. 10. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar -- Mansoor Khan. 11. Saathiya -- Shaad Ali. 12. Anurag Garg on Amazon. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Street’ by Simahina.

He founded the iconic organisation Yuva 50 years ago when he was in his early 20s, pioneered social work in India, and went on to drive change for the UN and Amnesty. Minar Pimple joins Amit Varma in episode 423 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his learnings and the ceaseless tumult in our society. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Minar Pimple at Yuva and Instagram. 2. An ISDM case study of Yuva. 3. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. India’s MSME Landscape — Some Useful Frameworks -- Episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy). 5. The Atheism Episode -- Episode 83 of Everything is Everything. 6. Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Friedrich Engels. 7. The Communist Manifesto -- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 8. The Annihilation of Caste -- BR Ambedkar. 9. Paulo Freire and Saul Alinsky. 10. Towards a Philosophy of Social Work in India -- Sugata Dasgupta. 11. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 13. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 14. The Gate of Angels -- Penelope Fitzgerald. 15. The Moral Animal -- Robert Wright. 16. Young India — Episode 83 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Snigdha Poonam). 17. Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World — Snigdha Poonam. 18. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 19. Adolescence — Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 20. The Mayor of Casterbridge -- Thomas Hardy. 21. All My Sons -- Arthur Miller. 22. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Salil Tripathi and the Gujaratis -- Episode 409 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community — Salil Tripathi. 25. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 26. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 27. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 28. Pyaasa -- Guru Dutt. 29. Samna -- Jabbar Patel. 30. Phule -- Anant Mahadevan. 31. Long Walk To Freedom -- Nelson Mandela. 32. Why I am an Atheist -- Bhagat Singh. 33. Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule -- Edited by GP Deshpande. 34. IPTA Mumbai. 35. Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi on Spotify. And here are the episodes mentioned by Amit in the introduction: 1. The Art of Podcasting -- Episode 49 of Everything is Everything. 2. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 3. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us — Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Ajay Shah Brings the Dreams of the 20th Century -- Episode 402 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Praxis’ by Simahina.

Cricket is the most unusual of games with the most unusual of histories -- which can reveal so much about our society and our times. Tim Wigmore joins Amit Varma in episode 422 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the history of Test cricket -- and how the game is changing today. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Tim Wigmore on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Cricinfo and the Daily Telegraph. 2. Test Cricket: A History -- Tim Wigmore. 3. Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution -- Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde. 4. Crickonomics: The Anatomy of Modern Cricket -- Stefan Szymansk and Tim Wigmore. 5. White Hot: The Inside Story of England Cricket’s Double World Champions -- Tim Wigmore and Matt Roller. 6. The Best: How Elite Athletes Are Made -- Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore. 7. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 8. Beyond A Boundary -- CLR James. 9. Pundits from Pakistan -- Rahul Bhattacharya. 10. England: The Biography: The Story of English Cricket -- Simon Wilde. 11. The Unforgiven -- Ashley Gray. 12. How to Think About Cricket (and Life) -- Episode 19 of Everything is Everything. 13. Selected pieces by Amit Varma on T20 cricket and changing cricket strategy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 14. Money in Cricket — Episode 41 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gideon Haigh and Prem Panicker). 15. The Evolution of Cricket — Episode 97 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Harsha Bhogle). 16. Homeland -- Fernando Aramburu. 17. Levels of the Game -- John McPhee. 18. Rear Window -- Alfred Hitchcock. 19. Psycho -- Alfred Hitchcock. 20. State of Happiness -- Petter Næss and Pål Jackman. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Cricket Tragic’ by Simahina.

Too much of our history is looked at through either a colonial lens or a patriarchal one. Ira Mukhoty joins Amit Varma in episode 421 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her gaze on India's history, and all that it has taught her. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)   Also check out: 1. Ira Mukhoty on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads and Amazon. 2. Women in Indian History -- Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 3. The Lion and The Lily: The Rise and Fall of Awadh -- Ira Mukhoty. 4. Akbar: The Great Mughal -- Ira Mukhoty. 5. Song of Draupadi -- Ira Mukhoty. 6. Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire -- Ira Mukhoty. 7. Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History -- Ira Mukhoty. 8. Jahangir the Curious — Episode 147 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parvati Sharma). 9. The Many Cities of Delhi — Episode 172 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rana Safvi). 10. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Manu Pillai: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 11. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life -- Anna Funder. 12. Invisible Women -- Caroline Criado Perez. 13. An Immense World -- Ed Yong. 14. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel. 15. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 16. The Expanding Circle — Peter Singer. 17. Yuganta -- Irawati Karve. 18. The Great Indian Kitchen -- Jeo Baby. 19. Heart Lamp -- Banu Mushtaq. 20. Misogyny is the Oldest Indian Tradition -- Amit Varma. 21. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 22. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Mughal History as a window to Modern India -- Ira Mukhoty on The India Briefing. 24. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. In defence of suit, boot — Chandra Bhan Prasad. 28. The Indianness of Indian Food — Episode 95 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Doctor). 29. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Real Birds in Imagined Gardens -- Kavita Singh. 31. The Light in Winter -- Episode 97 of Everything is Everything, on Spanish art. 32. Tawaif — Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 33. Swapna Liddle and the Many Shades of Delhi — Episode 367 of The Seen and the Unseen. 34. The Broken Script — Swapna Liddle. 35. Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court -- Audrey Truschke. 36. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. 37. The Year of Magical Thinking -- Joan Didion. 38. Blue Nights -- Joan Didion. 39. H is for Hawk -- Helen Macdonald. 40. The Procrastination Matrix -- Tim Urban. 41. The Age of the Partial Outsider -- Janan Ganesh. 42. Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light -- Hilary Mantel. 43. The Silence of the Girls -- Pat Barker. 44. The Hindus: An Alternative History -- Wendy Doniger. 45. Daily Rituals -- Mason Currey. 46. Daily Rituals: Women at Work -- Mason Currey. 47. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 48. Tawaifnama — Saba Dewan. 49. The Other Song -- Saba Dewan. 50. Sex and the Family in Colonial India -- Durba Ghosh. 51. Blueprint for Armageddon — Episode 50-55 of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. 52. Roam Research. 53. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia. 54. The History Thieves: Secrets, Lies and the Shaping of a Modern Nation -- Ian Cobain. 55. Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan -- Ruby Lal. 56. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jehan -- Ruby Lal. 57. Coming of Age in Nineteenth-Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness -- Ruby Lal. 58. What is Islam? -- Shahab Ahmad. 59. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity -- Manu Pillai. 60. The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East -- Barnaby Rogerson. 61. Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh -- ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni. 62. Sarkai Lo Khatiya Jada Lage -- Song from Raja Babu. 63. Edge of Empire -- Maya Jasonoff. 64. Shatranj Ke Khiladi -- Satyajit Ray. 65. That Obscure Object of Desire -- Luis Buñuel. 66. This House of Grief -- Helen Garner. 67. Joe Cinque's Consolation -- Helen Garner. 68. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers -- Max Porter. 69. Burial Rites -- Hannah Kent. 70. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. 71. The Wonder -- Emma Donahue. 72. When Montezuma Met Cortés -- Matthew Restall. 73. Stolen -- Karan Tejpal. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Unseen Histories’ by Simahina.

Circumstance made him a legend of the quizzing world, but Siddhartha Basu is a man of many parts. He joins Amit Varma in episode 420 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about life, India, the art of asking questions and the answers he has found. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Siddhartha Basu on Wikipedia, Twitter, Instagram and IMDb. 2. Tree of Knowledge, DigiTok. 3. Quizzitok on YouTube. 4. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 5. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 6. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 7. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen featuring Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 9. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 12. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism — Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 13. How to Become a Tyrant -- Narrated by Peter Dinklage. 14. What Is Populism? -- Jan-Werner Müller. 15. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 16. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- Richard Fleischer. 17. The Hedgehog And The Fox — Isaiah Berlin. 18. Trees of Delhi : A Field Guide -- Pradip Krishen. 19. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. Stage.in. 22. Dance Like a Man -- Mahesh Dattani. 23. How Old Are You? -- Rosshan Andrrews. 24. The Mehta Boys -- Boman Irani. 25. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- James Joyce. 26. Massey Sahib -- Pradip Krishen. 27. Derek O'Brien talks to Siddhartha Basu -- Episode 6 of the Quizzitok Podcast. 28. Kwizzing with Kumar Varun. 29. Ivanhoe, Treasure Island and Black Beauty. 30. Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, James Joyce, TS Eliot and Vivekananda. 31. Ramayana and Mahabharata -- C Rajagopalachari. 32. Paradise Lost -- John Milton. 33. Morte d'Arthur -- Alfred Tennyson. 34. Death of a Salesman -- Arthur Miller. 35. Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Mukul Kesavan, Rukun Advani, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Jhumpa Lahiri, I Allan Sealy, Arundhati Roy and William Dalrymple. 36. The Trotter-nama -- I Allan Sealy. 37. The Everest Hotel -- I Allan Sealy. 38. The Life and Times of Altu-Faltu -- Ranjit Lal. 39. Mr Beast on YouTube. 40. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar — Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Ramki and the Ocean of Stories -- Episode 415 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Adolescence -- Created by Stephen Graham & Jack Thorne. 43. Anora -- Sean Baker. 44. Jerry Seinfeld on the results of the Seinfeld pilot. 45. Scam 1992 -- Hansal Mehta. 46. Dahaad -- Created by Reema Kagti & Zoya Akhtar. 47. The Delhi Walla -- Mayank Austen Soofi. 48. Flood of Fire -- Amitav Ghosh. 49. The Shadow Lines -- Amitav Ghosh. 50. The God of Small Things -- Arundhati Roy. 51. Shillong Chamber Choir. 52. The Waste Land -- TS Eliot. 53. Omkara, Maqbool and Haider -- Vishal Bhardwaj. 54. A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens. 55. William Shakespeare and Henry James. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Your Time Starts Now’ by Simahina.

Firms are the means of economic progress. India's micro, small and medium enterprises have been hobbled for decades, and flounder even today. Sudhir Sarnobat and Narendra Shenoy join Amit Varma in episode 419 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss this landscape -- and Sudhir's brilliant new venture that aims to tackle this. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Sudhir Sarnobat on Twitter and LinkedIn. 2. Naren Shenoy on Twitter, Instagram and Blogspot. 3. How Frameworks — Sudhir Sarnobat’s new venture. 4. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World -- Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. We Are All Amits From Africa — Episode 343 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 7. You’re Ugly and You’re Hairy and You’re Covered in Shit but You’re Mine and I Love You -- Episode 362 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok and Naren Shenoy). 8. The Teaching Learning Community. 9. Ascent Foundation. 10. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 11. Other episodes of Everything is Everything on firms: 1, 2, 3, 4. 12. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran -- Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Restaurant Regulations in India — Episode 18 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhu Menon). 14. Restart -- Mihir Sharma. 15. Backstage — Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 16. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Devil's Dictionary -- Ambrose Bierce. 18. The Bad and Complex Tax -- Episode 74 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 19. They Stole a Bridge. They Stole a Pond -- Amit Varma. 20. Bihar real estate brokers build illegal bridge on river. 21. The Globalisation Episode -- Episode 95 of Everything is Everything. 22. Is Globalization Doomed? -- Episode 96 of Everything is Everything 23. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 24. The Case for Nuclear Electricity -- Episode 78 of Everything is Everything. 25. अंतू बरवा -- Pu La Deshpande. 26. Testaments Betrayed -- Milan Kundera. 27. The Double ‘Thank You’ Moment — John Stossel. 28. Marginal Revolution University. 29. The Bankable Wisdom of Harsh Vardhan — Episode 352 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown -- Denis Diderot. 31. Good to Great -- Jim Collins. 32. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 33. The Goal -- Eliyahu Goldratt. 34. The Toyota Way -- Jeffrey Liker. 35. Start With Why -- Simon Sinek. 36. The Lean Startup -- Eric Reis. 37. The Hard Thing About Hard Things -- Ben Horowitz. 38. Romancing the Balance Sheet -- Anil Lamba. 39. Connect the Dots -- Rashmi Bansal. 40. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 41. Acquired, Lenny's Podcast, EconTalk, Work Life, Rethinking, The Knowledge Project, How I Built This, Everything is Everything, HBR Podcast, Ideacast, Deep Questions. 42. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 43. Can We Build Switzerland in India? -- Episode 58 of Everything is Everything. 44. Dwarkesh Patel and Hannah Fry. 45. Habuild. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Battleground’ by Simahina.

Why did the attacks in Pahalgam happen? What took place in the skirmishes after that? What have we learnt about geopolitics and our military preparedness? Pranay Kotasthane and Aditya Ramanathan join Amit Varma in episode 418 of The Seen and the Unseen to try to clear some of the fog of war. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Aditya Ramanathan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and the Takshashila Institution. 3. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane’s podcast (with Saurabh Chandra & Khyati Pathak). 4. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s newsletter. 5. All Things Policy -- The Takshashila Institution's podcast. 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. The India-Pakistan Conflict -- Episode 111 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 8. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Hamsini Hariharan). 9. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 10. All previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 11. Aditya Ramanathan's piece on how India's air defence system performed. 12. Aditya Ramanathan's analysis of Operation Sindoor. 13. 9/11 and Pakistan’s Economy (2006) -- Amit Varma's post on 'Al Faeda'. 14. Action Produces Information -- Brian Armstrong at Startup Archive. 15. Khushi Mukherjee on India, Pakistan and PoK. 16. The Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition, 1969-1970 -- Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov. 17. Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks -- Barry R Posen. 18. The People Next Door: The Curious History of India-Pakistan Relations -- TCA Raghavan. 19. The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan: Post-Partition Statehood in South Asia -- Atul Mishra. 20. Husain Haqqani on Amazon. 21. Empires of the Indus -- Alice Albinia. 22. Network for Advanced Study of Pakistan (NASP) Fellowship. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Fog of War’ by Simahina.

Data is apolitical and always useful, right? Then why is the caste census so controversial? Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley join Amit Varma in episode 417 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss its history, context and implications. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane on Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon and the Takshashila Institution. 2. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter. 3. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley. 4. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane’s podcast (with Saurabh Chandra & Khyati Pathak). 5. The Long Road From Neeyat to Neeti — Episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Raghu S Jaitley). 6. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy — Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter — Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. All episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 9. Some Slopes Are Slippery For Real -- RSJ and Pranay's last debate (Sep 2024) on the caste census. 10. जातीय जनगणना होनी चाहिए या नहीं? -- The Puliyabaazi episode (May 2023) on the caste census. 11. Other posts of Pranay and RSJ's newsletter that touch on this subject: 1, 2, 3. 12. Look Beyond Quotas for Equality -- Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai. 13. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 15. Tony Joseph’s episode on The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 17. Alice Evans Studies the Great Gender Divergence — Episode 297 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 19. How the BJP wins: Inside India’s Greatest Election Machine — Prashant Jha. 20. The BJP’s Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 21. Badri Narayan on Wikipedia and Amazon. 22. Terms of Trade: Mandal wins, por ahora -- Roshan Kishore. 23. Caste questions for Rahul Gandhi -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 24. The mirage of social justice -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta. 25. Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study -- Thomas Sowell. 26. The Grammar of Anarchy -- Babasaheb Ambedkar. 27. Policy Paradox -- Deborah Stone. 28. Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed? — Devesh Kapur. 29. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 31. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 32. An Area of Darkness -- VS Naipaul. 33. India: A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 34. Upstream -- Zheng Xu. 35. The Sea Hawk -- Manohar Malgonkar. 36. Ideas of India -- Shruti Rajagopalan's podcast. 37. The Great Power Show -- Manoj Kewalramani's podcast. 38. May December -- Todd Haynes. 40. Hard Truths -- Mike Leigh. 41. Secrets and Lies -- Mike Leigh. 42. A Real Pain -- Jesse Eisenberg. 43. Orbital -- Samnatha Harvey. 44. How Music Works -- David Byrne. 45. Visual Arts in the 20th Century -- Edward Lucie-Smith. Applications are open for the Takshashila Institution's Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy, where Pranay will be one of your teachers! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Count’ by Simahina.

The most astonishing men lie in the far, forgotten corners of history. Kavitha Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 416 of The Seen and the Unseen to shed light on the life and times of two magnificent failures, Chatto and Roy. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Kavitha Rao on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon and her own website. 2. Spies, Lies and Allies: The Extraordinary Lives of Chatto and Roy -- Kavitha Rao. 3. Lady Doctors : The Untold Stories Of India's First Women In Medicine -- Kavitha Rao. 4. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors -- Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Chatto: The Life and Times of an Anti-Imperialist in Europe -- Nirode K Barooah. 6. In Freedom's Quest : A Study of the Life and Works of MN Roy -- Sibnarayan Ray. 7. The collected works of MN Roy. 8. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 9. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 10. Ira Mukhoty on Instagram. 11. The Difficulty In Dating Good Men -- Aella. 12. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus -- John Gray. 13. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 14. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 15. The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj -- Anita Anand. 16. Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka -- Srikar Raghavan. 17. Lady Doctors on Goodreads. 18. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar -- Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. Vinayak Calling Vinayak — Episode 385 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinayak Chaturvedi). 20. Daughter of Earth -- Agnes Smedley. 21. The Gilded Age and The White Lotus. 22. Rumours -- Fleetwood Mac. 23. The Day I Became a Runner -- Sohini Chattopadhyay. 24, Brotherless Night -- VV Ganeshananthan. 25. Miss Austen, Wolf Hall and The Traitors. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Lenin Speaks Bengali’ by Simahina.

He observed our society from up close as an advertising man -- and then became an iconic storyteller on Twitter. Ramakrishna Desiraju aka Ramki joins Amit Varma in episode 415 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his journey, and all that it taught him. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Ramakrishna Desiraju aka Ramki on LinkedIn and Twitter. 2. Cartwheel Creative Consultancy. 3. Selected legendary threads by Ramki. 4. Ramki's commercial for Kotak Mahindra Bank featuring Ranveer Singh. 5. Celluloid Man -- Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. 6. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty -- James Thurber. 7. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne -- Prakash Jha. 8. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 9. Heere Ko Kya Pata -- SBI Life Insurance commercial by Prasoon Pandey. 10. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Dead Poet's Society -- Peter Weir. 12. The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar -- Episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Rumble Fish -- Francis Ford Coppola. 14. John Collison's tweet on the world being a museum of passion projects. 15. The Fisher King -- Terry Gilliam. 16. The Grand Central Station scene from The Fisher KIng. 17. The Wheel commercial with Govinda. 18. Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense -- Rory Sutherland. 19. Hausla Hai Toh Ho Jayega -- Kotak commercial. 20. Anora -- Sean Baker. 21. Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl and John le Carre on Amazon. 22. The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck. 23. Perfect Days -- Wim Wenders. 24. Dance Dance For the Halva Waala — Episode 294 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jai Arjun Singh and Subrat Mohanty). 25. Chhannulal Mishra on Spotify and YouTube. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Waves' by Simahina.

He learnt his craft from Shyam Benegal, became a pioneer & a legend of advertising filmmaking, learnt & taught scuba diving, started the Prithvi Cafe, and lived every moment to the full in a million different ways. Prahlad Kakar joins Amit Varma in episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his long and wondrous life. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Prahlad Kakar on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, IMDb and his own website. 2. Adman Madman: Unapologetically Prahlad -- Prahlad Kakar. 3. Genesis Film Production. 4. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag -- Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China — Probal DasGupta. 6. Sahil Bloom's tweet on preparation vs planning. 7. Big City Blues -- Mervyn LeRoy. 8. Does India take its national symbols too seriously? — Jan 2008 episode of We the People. 9. Au Hasard Balthazar -- Robert Bresson. 10. The Bicycle Thief -- Vittorio De Sica. 11. Blade Runner -- Ridley Scott. 12. 2001: A Space Odyssey -- Stanley Kubrick 13. Straw Dogs -- Sam Peckinpah. 14. Prahlad Kakar's Bombay Dyeing commercial from 1983. 15. Ankur -- Shyam Benegal. 16. Bhumika -- Shyam Benegal. 17. Manthan -- Shyam Benegal. 18. Dekho Dekho, Duniya Dekho -- Prahlad Kakar's commercial for Air India. 19. Modesty Blaise, The Saint, Harry Potter and the work of Tom Clancy, Wilbur Smith and Louis L'Amour. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Shoot’ by Simahina.

One of India's tragedies lies in the schooling of our children. We have let our kids down. Can we fix this problem? Shaheen Mistri joins Amit Varma in episode 413 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey -- and what she has learnt about education. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shaheen Mistri on Instagram, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Facebook. 2. Redrawing India: The Teach For India Story -- Kovid Gupta and Shaheen Mistri. 3. Teach For India. 4. Akanksha Foundation. 5. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 6. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Teach For America. 8. Indicorps. 9. Sahil Bloom's tweet on planning and preparation. 10. Lighthouse Studios. 11. Third Space. 12. The Conference of the Birds by Teach For India. 13. Slam Out Loud. 14. Kahani Tree. 15. What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking -- Tina Oziewicz and Aleksandra Zajac. 16. Charlotte's Web -- EB White. 17. Oh, The Places You'll Go! -- Dr Seuss. 18. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 19. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Learn’ by Simahina.

So much in history never made it to the popular imagination -- such as the battles of 1967 in which India beat China. Probal DasGupta joins Amit Varma in episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his time in the Indian army -- and his fascinating discoveries as a military historian. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Probal DasGupta on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China -- Probal DasGupta. 3. Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields -- Probal DasGupta. 4. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 5. The Killing Fields -- Roland Joffé. 6. Shame -- Salman Rushdie. 7. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 8. The Satanic Verses -- Salman Rushdie. 9. India's War -- Srinath Raghavan. 10. A Deep Dive Into Ukraine vs Russia — Episode 335 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 11. The State of the Ukraine War — Episode 14 of Everything is Everything. 12. A Deep Dive Into the Indian Military -- Episode 31 of Everything is Everything. 13. Indian Defence Strategy: Forces, Potential and Procurement Disasters -- Perun. 14. Biju Rao Won’t Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 16. The Absent Dialogue -- Anit Mukherjee. 17. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 18. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 19. Love Story -- Rahul Rawail. 20. Grave of the Fireflies -- Isao Takahata. 21. The Nutty Putty cave picture. 22. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War — Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 23. 1971: A Global History Of The Creation Of Bangladesh -- Srinath Raghavan. 24. The chair-raising scene between Adenoid Hynkel and Benzino Napaloni in The Great Dictator. 25. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 26. One Hundred Years of Solitude, the web series. 27. Until August -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 28. Chronicle of a Death Foretold -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 29. No One Writes to the Colonel -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 30. Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 31. Feast of the Goat -- Mario Vargas Llosa. 32. Indian Summer -- Alex von Tunzelmann. 33. The Last Emperor -- Bernardo Bertolucci. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Rare Air’ by Simahina.

Business and life can sometimes be seen more as a search for values than a quest for profit. Private equity pioneer Vishal Nevatia joins Amit Varma in episode 411 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey towards finding his true north. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vishal Nevatia at True North. 2. Ingredients for high growth firms -- Vishal Nevatia in 2015. 3. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Biju Rao Won’t Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Sowmya Dhanaraj Is Making a Difference — Episode 380 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. The Beauty of Finance -- Ep 21 of Everything is Everything. 7. How Family Firms Evolve -- Ep 34 of Everything is Everything. 8. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Ep 37 of Everything is Everything. 9. Graduating to Globalisation -- Epi 48 of Everything is Everything. 10. The Horrors of KYC -- Episode 74 of Everything is Everything. 11. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Mohit Satyanand: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 12. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. How We Do the Small Things — Amit Varma. 14. How the Trump Whale Correctly Called the Election -- Alexander Osipovich. 15. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 16. Devangshu Datta Traded His Corduroy Pants — Episode 348 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Polls get elections wrong. So use Google -- Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘True North’ by Simahina.

She's an economist, an institution-builder, an ecosystem-nurturer and one of our finest thinkers. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life & times -- and her remarkable work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Emergent Ventures India. 3. The 1991 Project. 4. Life Lessons That Are Priceless -- Episodes 400 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 6. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma's newsletter post explaining Shruti Rajagopalan's swimming pool analogy for social science research. 7. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 8. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 9. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 10. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 11. Where Has All the Education Gone? -- Lant Pritchett. 12. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith. 14. The Wealth of Nations — Adam Smith. 15. Commanding Heights -- Daniel Yergin. 16. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 17. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 18. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 19. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 20. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 21. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 22. Individualism and Economic Order -- Friedrich Hayek. 23. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything.  24. Richard E Wagner at Mercatus and Amazon. 25. Larry White and the First Principles of Money -- Episode 397 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 27. Marginal Revolution. 28. Paul Graham's essays. 29. Commands and controls: Planning for indian industrial development, 1951–1990 -- Rakesh Mohan and Vandana Aggarwal. 30. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. India: Planning for Industrialization -- Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai. 32. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration -- Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith. 33. Cows on India Uncut. 34. Abdul Karim Khan on Spotify and YouTube. 35. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 36. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 37. Sriya Iyer on the Economics of Religion -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 39. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pratap Bhanu Mehta: 1, 2. 40. Rohit Lamba Reimagines India’s Economic Policy Emphasis -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 41. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan — Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Constitutional Law and Philosophy blog. 43. Cost and Choice -- James Buchanan. 44. Philip Wicksteed. 45. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 46. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 47. The Common Sense of Political Economy -- Philip Wicksteed. 48. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Manmohan Singh: India's Finest Talent Scout -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 51. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 52. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. India’s Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 55. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Breaking Through — Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 57. Breaking Out — Padma Desai. 58. Perestroika in Perspective -- Padma Desai. 59. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Pics from the Seen-Unseen party. 61. Pramod Varma on India’s Digital Empowerment -- Episode 50 of Brave New World. 59. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 61. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 62. The Overton Window. 63. When Ideas Have Sex -- Matt Ridley. 64. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 65. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66. The Double ‘Thank You’ Moment — John Stossel. 67. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 68. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 69. What Does It Mean to Be Libertarian? — Episode 64 of The Seen and the Unseen. 70. The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom -- David Boaz. 71. Publish and Perish — Agnes Callard. 72. Classical Liberal Institute. 73. Shruti Rajagopalan’s YouTube talk on constitutional amendments. 74. What I, as a development economist, have been actively “for” -- Lant Pritchett. 75. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 76. Premature Imitation and India’s Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 77. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 78. Invisible Infrastructure -- Episode 82 of Everything is Everything. 79. The Sundara Kanda. 80. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us -- Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. Y Combinator. 82. Space Fields. 83. Apoorwa Masuk, Onkar Singh Batra, Naman Pushp, Angad Daryani, Deepak VS and Srijon Sarkar. 84. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 85. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away -- The Beatles. 86. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 87. Data For India -- Rukmini S's startup. 88. Whole Numbers And Half Truths — Rukmini S. 89. The Moving Curve — Rukmini S’s Covid podcast, also on all podcast apps. 90. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 91. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 92. Prosperiti. 93. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 94. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 95. Zakir: 1951-2024 -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 96. Dazzling Blue -- Paul Simon, featuring Karaikudi R Mani. 97. John Coltrane, Shakti, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan, Bismillah Khan, Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Esperanza Spalding, MS Subbulakshmi, Lalgudi Jayaraman, TN Krishnan, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Ranjani-Gayatri and TM Krishna on Spotify. 98. James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Israel Kirzner, Mario Rizzo, Vernon Smith, Thomas Schelling and Ronald Coase. 99. The Calculus of Consent -- James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. 100. Tim Harford and Martin Wolf. 101. The Shawshank Redemption -- Frank Darabont. 102. The Marriage of Figaro in The Shawshank Redemption. 103. An Equal Music -- Vikram Seth. 104. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 - Zubin Mehta and the Belgrade Philharmonic. 105. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's violin concertos. 106. Animal Farm -- George Orwell. 107. Down and Out in Paris and London -- George Orwell. 108. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift. 109. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass -- Lewis Carroll. 110. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 111. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 112. Khosla Ka Ghosla -- Dibakar Banerjee. 113. Mr India -- Shekhar Kapur. 114. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -- Satyen Bose. 114. Finding Nemo -- Andrew Stanton. 115. Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. 116. Michael Madana Kama Rajan -- Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. 117. The Music Box, with Laurel and Hardy. 118. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 119. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 120. Dwarkesh Patel on YouTube. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Learn' by Simahina.

He's lived a rich life as a journalist, a human rights activist, an author, a columnist -- and now he's written a great book on Gujaratis. Salil Tripathi joins Amit Varma in episode 409 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his learnings, these times we live in -- and the times that came before. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Salil Tripathi on Twitter, Instagram, Wikipedia, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. The Gujaratis: A Portrait of a Community -- Salil Tripathi. 3. The Colonel Who Would Not Repent -- Salil Tripathi. 4. Offence – The Hindu Case -- Salil Tripathi. 5. Detours: Songs of the Open Road -- Salil Tripathi. 6. For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit -- Edited by Shilpa Gupta and Salil Tripathi. 7. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 8. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 9. Saraswatichandra (Gujarati) (English) -- Govardhanram Tripathi. 10. Gujarat Ni Asmita -- KM Munshi. 11. I Follow the Mahatma -- KM Munshi. 12. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us — Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. Ahimsa: 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization — Devdutt Pattanaik. 14. Until the Lions -- Karthika Nair. 15. Gods, Guns and Missionaries: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity — Manu Pillai. 16. The Forces That Shaped Hinduism -- Episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 17. Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain -- Fintan O'Toole. 18. Understanding Gandhi: Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 19. Understanding Gandhi: Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 20. Gandhi Before India -- Ramachandra Guha. 21. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 22. The Diary of Manu Gandhi (Part 1) (Part 2) -- Edited and Translated by Tridip Suhrud. 23. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 24. Lessons from an Ankhon Dekhi Prime Minister — Amit Varma. 25. Akhil Katyal's poem on caste. 26. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 27. Bare Feet – a Poem about MF Husain -- Salil Tripathi. 28. My Mother’s Fault -- Salil Tripathi. 29. Jejuri -- Arun Kolatkar. 30. Yashwant Rao -- Arun Kolatkar. 31. The Patriot -- Nissim Ezekiel. 32. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne -- Satyajit Ray. 33. You're Missing -- Bruce Springsteen. 34. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera, Ved Mehta and John McPhee on Amazon. 35. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 36. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. On Tyranny -- Timothy Snyder. 38. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 39. Saving Capitalism From The Capitalists -- Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales. 40. Check out Johan Norberg's great work. 41. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy — Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 42. India’s Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 43. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs — Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 44. On Inequality — Harry Frankfurt. 45. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 46. Sample SSR conspiracy theory: He’s alive! 47. Amit Varma's 2022 piece on the mess-up at The Wire. 48. Television Price Controls — Episode 27 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashok Malik). 49. The Selfish Altruist -- Tony Vaux. 50. Sadanand Dhume's tweet on the hypocrisy around The Satanic Verses. 51. Bad Elements -- Ian Buruma. 52. Biju Rao Won’t Bow to Conventional Wisdom — Episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 54. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad — Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. The Wal-Mart Effect -- Charles Fishman. 57. Modern South India -- Rajmohan Gandhi. 58. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 59. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander. 60. Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat -- Narmad. 61. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 62. Where the Green Ants Dream -- Werner Herzog. 63. People's Linguistic Survey of India -- GN Devy and others. 64. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 65. Stage.in. 66. Reading Lolita in Tehran -- Azar Nafisi. 67. Two Concepts of Liberty — Isaiah Berlin. 68. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 69. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 70. Shruti Rajagopalan’s talk on the many amendments in our constitution. 71. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 72. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 73. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 74. Goodbye Solo — Ramin Bahrani. 75. The desire to help, and the desire not to be helped — Roger Ebert’s review of Goodbye Solo. 76. Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada -- Shahu Patole. 77. Firaaq -- Nandita Das. 78. How the BJP Wins — Prashant Jha. 79. The BJP’s Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 80. The Year of Living Dangerously -- Peter Weir. 81. Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Francois Truffaut and Aparna Sen. 82. The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and London Review of Books. 83. Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain and Vilayat Khan on Spotify. 84. Nadine Gordiner, Fintan O'Toole, Ilya Kaminsky, Karthika Nair, Ruchir Joshi, Kiran Desai, Nilanjana Roy, Sunil Gavaskar and Mike Brearley. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Asmita’ by Simahina.

His earlier episodes on this show have been huge hits, and as he completes a trilogy of books, he returns to complete a trilogy of episodes. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 408 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about writing, noticing, painting, travelling, trees, and unfulfilled train journeys. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Amitava Kumar on Instagram, Substack, Twitter, Amazon, Vassar, Granta and his own website. 2. The Green Book: An Observer's Notebook -- Amitava Kumar. 3. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Amitava Kumar Finds His Kashmiri Rain -- Episode 364 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal — Amitava Kumar. 6. The Yellow Book: A Traveller’s Diary — Amitava Kumar. 7. My Beloved Life: A Novel -- Amitava Kumar. 8. A Million Mutinies Now -- VS Naipaul. 9. The Trees — Philip Larkin. 10. Before the Storm -- Amitava Kumar. 11. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 12. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 13. A Suitable Boy -- Vikram Seth. 14. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. ‘Indian languages carry the legacy of caste’ — Chandra Bhan Prasad interviewed by Sheela Bhatt. 16. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Stage.in. 18. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 19. Kanthapura -- Raja Rao. 20. All About H Hatterr -- GV Desani. 21. From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada -- Sudha Bharadwaj. 22. India is Broken -- Ashoka Mody. 23. Being Mortal -- Atul Gawande. 24. Earwitness to Place -- Bernie Krause interviewed by Erin Robinsong. 25. All That Breathes -- Shaunak Sen. 26. Frog: 1 Poetry: 0 -- Amitava Kumar. 27. The Heat Will Kill You First -- Jeff Goodell. 28. Danish Husain and the Multiverse of Culture — Episode 359 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Artist's Way -- Julia Cameron. 30. An excerpt from Wittgenstein’s diary — Parul Sehgal on Twitter. 31. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Ludwig Wittgenstein. 32. Burdock -- Janet Malcolm. 33. Hermit in Paris — Italo Calvino. 34. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) — Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 36. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 37. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 38. The Ferment of Our Founders — Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 39. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 40. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Bhavni Bhavai -- Ketan Mehta. 42. All We Imagine as Light -- Payal Kapadia. 43. Secondhand Time -- Svetlana Alexievich. 44. Amitava Kumar's post with Danish Husain's postcard. 45. Fire Weather -- John Vaillant. 46. Ill Nature -- Joy Williams. 47. Hawk -- Joy Williams. This episode is sponsored by Rang De, a platform that enables individuals to invest in farmers, rural entrepreneurs and artisans. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit’s newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It’s free! Also check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Gulmohar’ by Simahina.