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© 2025 Ramjee Chandran
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EXPLOCITY PODCASTS presents THE LITERARY CITY With Ramjee Chandran. This literary podcast is devoted to books and authors. It features interviews with a stellar line up of authors, both world famous and also authors who are being discovered—the only criterion being the quality of the prose. Topics are generally literary and include history, biographies, literature and literary fiction. The Literary City podcasts celebrates authors, poets, playwrights, grammar police, literary lounge lizards...and, oh yes, a cunning linguist or ten.
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Send us a textWe Indians often wear our heritage with pride, but how much of it do we truly understand?William Dalrymple’s latest book, The Golden Road, charts the extraordinary journey of Indian ideas, knowledge, art, and religion as they shaped cultures across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. In this episode we explore the Indosphere—where Indian culture thrived beyond its borders—and uncover how these rich exchanges left an indelible mark on world history.William was my guest almost two ...
Send us a textThis special edition of The Literary City is a conversation about the transformative power of the arts—particularly the visual arts. Often misunderstood or overlooked, the arts hold the potential to nourish the mind and soul, offering cultural insights that resonate deeply with our lives today.In this episode, guest host Kamini Sawhney sits in for Ramjee Chandran. She speaks to Dr. Alka Pande, a distinguished art historian, curator, teacher, and writer whose work spans over thre...
Send us a textAs writers, we know that how we say something matters as much as what we say. The right words, arranged with care, can influence thought and stir emotion—or so we hope.The divide between creative prose and academic jargon was once stark. But then came the 1970s and 80s, when scientists like Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking showed us how to bridge that gap. Their books demystified science and made it thrillingly accessible. They kicked the doors down f...
Send us a textMuch of what we understand about global trends is filtered through the lens of the United States. What happens there often shapes thought, culture, and society worldwide. And when it comes to shaping thought, few have had the impact of my guest today: Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell, the bestselling author of *The Tipping Point*, *Blink*, and *Outliers* joins me to discuss his new book, *Revenge of the Tipping Point*. This latest work re-examines the ideas that made him famous—...
Send us a textIn this episode of The Literary City, we embark on a journey with two distinguished guests—each bringing a unique perspective to our exploration of literature and language.Abhay K, a poet-diplomat, and the author of "Celestial," a poetic masterpiece comprising 100 couplets that intricately weave the enchanting tales of the 88 constellations in our galaxy. Abhay's journey into the realm of poetry was sparked by a mesmerising night beneath the southern skies during his tenure as t...
Send us a textMy guest today is a titan of Indian history, Ramachandra Guha.He is known for his monumental works on Gandhi and Indian history, but today we're taking a detour into the realm of literature.We'll be diving into his latest book, "The Cooking Of Books," a slice-of-life memoir that offers a poignant glimpse into his relationship with his first editor, Rukun Advani. It also offers us a look into Ram's literary side and the bonds that have shaped his writing journey.My first encounte...
Send us a textMy guest today, is an author from Turkiye, Firat Sunel. He is a career diplomat. He is currently the Turkish Ambassador to India.Firat is a demonstrably fascinating novelist. His latest novel, “The Lighthouse Family”, is a wonderful example of storytelling, of craft and of everything literary. I venture to say without qualification that it is one of the best novels I have read in recent years.Because this novel embraces a universally-resonant human sentiment, it makes it relatab...
Send us a textYou know how some people just seem to have that star quality? Winston Churchill, he was one of those. No matter how many books, documentaries you may have imbibed—or, speaking of imbibed, tales you may have heard of his brandy-infused mornings, there's always an insatiable appetite for more and more Churchill.His wit, his wisdom, and yes, even his lack of a filter in his shock-jock pronouncements—all adds up to a mystique, often a respect, that even the former colonies do not de...
Send us a textIn what is meant to be his quiet and reflective corridor of retirement, my guest today, Abhijit Sengupta grapples with a disquiet that lingers. A former senior IAS officer and therefore, you might say, a custodian of order and democracy, a lifetime of service to the nation has clearly left him with a profound sense of duty that refuses to retire with him.Abhijit’s expression of angst—a visceral response to the erosion of the democratic foundations that he cherished—has resulted ...
Send us a textThe essence of historical fiction is telling stories set in a particular period of time. They transport us to a different place, offering insights into the past while exploring themes that are relatable across generations.In the craft of historical fiction, authors take creative liberties with places, events, and characters, using them as foundations for their stories. Here are some noteworthy examples: "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, "...
Send us a textMy guest today is the remarkable Mani Shankar Aiyar. If you haven’t heard of him, let’s simply admit that you’ve been living under a rock.If you've been anywhere near the worlds of diplomacy, politics, or literature, you will know of him in detail but let me sum up his remarkable journey as succinctly as I can.Mani Shankar Aiyar joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1963. He then went on to become the Consul General in Karachi, Pakistan in 1978 through 1982. His path took a signi...
Send us a textIn an essay, published in a 1964 edition of The Times Literary Supplement, V S Naipaul wrote:"The language was ours, to use as we pleased. The literature that came with it was therefore of peculiar authority, but this literature was like an alien mythology. There was, for instance, Wordsworth’s notorious poem about the daffodil. A pretty little flower, no doubt; but we had never seen it. Could the poem have any meaning for us?"He was talking about the irrelevance of English lang...
Send us a textMost of us do not colour code our threat levels. But nations do.Following 9/11, the Homeland Security Advisory System in America in 2002 came up with the warning system that we all know and love today in our TV shows—green, blue, yellow, orange and red, depending, obviously, on the severity of the threat.Government officials plan and practice their responses to each threat level—war games for the bureaucrats.What if the threat was not a threat in the conventional sense of some a...
Send us a textGood literature can help us navigate our own emotions and motivations, and it helps us see the world through the eyes of the writer. The best literature touches our hearts and our minds. It triggers our emotions, and makes us think critically about the world around us, by challenging our assumptions and consequently, expanding our understanding of what it means to be human.Some writers write from the heart, some from the head. The truly literary among them speak from the junctio...
Send us a textAs a curious and casual reader of linguistics, one of the first things I learned is that there is no monolithic object called a single language. Languages are like a living organism, they grow and sometimes they are said to die, and sometimes, like humans, they disappear into a bureaucracy. Age and origins of language are not straightforward because languages evolve gradually over time, their origins, often, shrouded in prehistory. So, to determine that a particular languag...
Send us a textAs part of Siddhartha’s awakening, he became aware of a spiritual energy in nature where trees had souls, birds had wisdom, and flowers bloomed no matter what the season. And snakes had the power of protection. And then there was all manner of mythical and hybrid creature contributing to the magical art and literature of Buddhism.Of the many symbols and icons of Buddhism, there are two that are easily identifiable—the tree, everyone knows the most remembered thing is that the Bu...
Send us a textToday I‘m excited to be speaking with Ahmed Naji, a writer who spent two years in prison in Egypt for writing what the authorities judged to be objectionable material.But while Ahmed Naji was in prison, he discovered literature and through that, himself. It’s an amazing story of a person who finds magic and hope in the unlikely environs of the library of a stereotypical prison—a pestilential and dank hovel, one biscuit short of hell.But before I talk to him, I thought it might b...
Send us a textWhy were the 1980s pivotal in so many respects? Think the giddy days of glasnost and perestroika, the end of the cold war—of the whole Soviet Union in fact, liberalisation and globalisation, GATT and open borders, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the rise of Rajiv Gandhi—who stepped on the gas and pushed the country towards a more open economy.I became a lobbyist in Delhi in the 80s. I was barely twenty when I joined as a fresher, in 1980. When I quit my job and returned home...
Send us a textA few weeks ago, I was reading LitHub, one of the many literary magazines I enjoy greatly, and I found an essay that caught my immediate fancy. It is titled, “Literature in the Bardo: Tenzin Dickie on the Past, Present, and Future of the Tibetan Essay”. Not only was I captivated by her prose but importantly, it opened a window to the world of Tibetan literature.Growing up in India, Tibet exists by default, if nothing else. We know a smattering of things about that country and it...
Send us a textThis is the incredible but true story of an Englishman—a dockworker in Bombay in the 1940s, who became a smuggler around the time of Independence.Not far offshore from the Ferry Wharf in Mumbai is a small island. It’s only some 100 metres out by boat, and you can see it from Ferry Wharf. It’s called Cross Island. You can see Cross Island on Google Maps. But even people who have lived in Mumbai all their lives are not aware that this island even exists.Mystery has always shrouded...
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