BIC TALKS

India has a brilliant constitution with nuanced laws on preventive detention, manual scavenging, military justice, free speech. Reality, as we well know, isn't always so perfectly packaged. Discovery of New India (Conditions Apply) is a graphic novel by Aakar Patel and political cartoonist PenPencilDraw that moves through courtrooms, prisons, police stations, and the quiet machinery of bureaucracy to show how rights in contemporary India often exist with conditions attached. What makes it unusual is its form: stark, unsparing illustration that makes legal and constitutional realities, the kind that would otherwise stay buried in fine print, feel visceral and immediate. This is reportage you can't look away from. Aakar Patel joins journalist Priya Ramani for a conversation about how the book was made: the rigorous research, the visual language it demanded, and the particular courage it takes to illustrate how power actually behaves. The session then opens to audience questions. In this episode of BIC Talks, Aakar Patel  will be in conversation with Priya Ramani. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in May 2026. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

1948, Paris in winter. The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, against the backdrop of two bloody wars. The first time nations across the world agreed, in writing, on the fundamental rights owed to every human being. Eighty years later, we have forgotten why the declaration was made in the first place. The rights enshrined in that document are no longer treated as fundamental. In a world shaped by profit-driven economies, human value is increasingly measured by productivity and utility alone. The violation of human rights has become unremarkable, treated as a practical feature of modern existence. This panel brings together advocates across law, academia and activism to examine the historical, economic, and psychological conditions that determine whether people experience human rights as inalienable and foundational. The conversation is as much diagnostic as it is restorative: an attempt to re-anchor rights in human dignity. After the discussion, there will be an open Q&A. In collaboration with: Lawyering For Change In this episode of BIC Talks, Matthias Mahlmann, Aditya Sondhi, Arvind Narrain and Maitreyi Krishnan will be in conversation with Mrudula Vanangamudi . This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in May 2026. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

She was stubborn, fearless before teachers and gods alike, and completely convinced she was right about everything. She usually was. Vasudhendra wrote these essays after losing his mother. What started as an expression of grief turned out to carry so much more: a son slowly realising that the woman he'd spent years misreading was, all along, just a person. Flawed, fierce, and holding everything together anyway. I Love My Amma was originally written in Kannada, the language of his home. It found readers in Tamil and Telugu. To mark the release of the English edition, author Vasudhendra joins translator Narayan Shankaran in conversation with Harini Nagendra. They discuss the essays, the North Karnataka childhood that shaped them, and what it means to carry something this personal from one language into another. After the conversation, they will take audience questions. In this episode of BIC Talks, Vasudhendra and Narayan Shankaran will be in conversation with Harini Nagendra. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in May 2026. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

If he wasn't feted in his time, Ritwik Ghatak most certainly is today. Since his death in 1976, at just past fifty, Ghatak's stature has only grown. His humanist cinema, his uncompromising vision, his deep engagement with the history and culture of the land, have made him one of the most indelible figures in Indian film history. With Meghe Dhaka Tara, Subarnarekha, Komal Gandhar, Ajantrik, and Titas Ekti Nodir Naam, Ghatak changed the very nature of Indian cinema. As a teacher at the Film and Television Institute of India, he shaped the next generation: Kumar Shahani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Kaul, Saeed Mirza, Ketan Mehta, Jahnu Barua. Shamya Dasgupta, editor of Unmechanical: Ritwik Ghatak in 50 Fragments (Westland Books, 2026), joins writer and publisher Karthik Venkatesh to sit with the full contradiction of the man. Unflinching and even ruthless. Alcoholic and irresponsible. An irrepressible genius and a relentless innovator. In this episode of BIC Talks, Shamya Dasgupta will be in conversation with Karthik Venkatesh. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in March 2026. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

Idolised, worshipped, immortalised. A mother is asked to be everything while making it look effortless. Alas, a mother is also a daughter. In the face of her humanity, we know not what to do. Meyeder Mayera is a Bangla anthology of mothers written by their daughters. Not the idea of a mother, but the women themselves. Arundhati Ghosh joins four contributors to the book in a conversation about the legacies it carries, the relationships that shaped them, and what it means to truly see the person who raised you. In this episode of BIC Talks, Margaret Rosie, Nisha Abdulla, Sarbari Gomes and Spandana Bhowmik will be in conversation with Arundhati Ghosh. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in April 2026. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.