Pandit Chitresh Das is credited with bringing the Indian classical dance of kathak to America. Now the Chitresh Das Institute takes it back on tour in India but this time with live piano in accompaniment.

Kolkata has India's only Chinatown. The Chinese community is dwindling but they still put up a good show for the Chinese New Year. Sandip got a taste.

It’s wonderful that lit fests are coming out of their English cocoons. At this years Kolkata Literary Meet I noticed so many other Indian dialects on stage, often with an interpreter doing live translation.Finally it seems we are no longer lost in translation. Instead we are finding ourselves.

Kolkata has a reputation as a city that loves books. One evening, at least, it came through, making for our winter of content.

Sukumar Ray is sometimes called the Edward Lear of Bengal. Abol Tabol his book of nonsense rhymes was part of my growing up. And I dare say every Bengalis. That book turned 100 this year. Now we understand why his nonsense still makes so much sense.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's images of the Indian islands of Lakshadweep triggered a social media spat with the Maldives.

Though the plea to recognize same-sex marriage was quashed by the Indian Supreme Court, queer life continues to bloom in India in many different colors making December a veritable Pride Month.

When artist Benigna Chilla got a frayed sari, more than six decades old, from Sandip's mother it set the stage for an artistic conversation that spanned generations and continents. Last month Sandip got to see his mother's sari's new avatar.The show Absolutist Approaches runs through January 14 2024 at Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (https://naturemorte.com/exhibitions/absolutistapproaches/)

Sandip Roy’s search for the Christmas experience has taken him from old markets in Kolkata to resorts in the Russian River wine country in California...

Sanjay Patel was the first South Asian to make a Pixar film, Sanjay’s Super Team, but after 20 years with the studio he was ready for a new adventure.You can visit Sanjay Patel’s colorful world of Gods and Goddesses on the Ghee Happy YouTube channel.(https://www.youtube.com/@gheehappystudio)

Sandip Roy tries to call his mother, but it proves to be more challenging than one would expect.

For 16 years Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey could not get married, but now they have the most important piece of paper in Nepal.

“Looking like a wow" is the hot new viral craze in India. Sandip brings us the story and what it means for a boutique owner from New Delhi to suddenly become a star.

It was admittedly a moment of sheer American holiday nostalgia. Cooking a turkey in India. I thought it could be a fun adventure. I just didn’t realize that finding a turkey was the least of it.

While the festival of Diwali is well known across the world as the festival of light another festival at the same time, the festival of the Goddess Kali will probably never be celebrated in the White House. Sandip explains why.

Kolkata's biggest festival Durga Puja has earned a UNESCO tag for intangible cultural heritage. This has led to a lot of interest among art fans in what is a religious and cultural festival in Kolkata. This year a group of Vassar students and alumni and faculty got a preview of the festival thanks to a tour organized by Vassar Club South Asia. Sandip tagged along to find out what they made of it.

Friends might have been about a group of close-knit white New Yorkers but somehow it resonated in many corners of the world including India. Sandip talks about why many in India are mourning the death of Matthew Perry who played the wisecracking Chandler Bing on the series.

Like all big festivals, Kolkata's biggest festival Durga Puja is big big business. Now a Durga Puja organizer wants the actual art installation to reflect the economy of DUrga Puja so visitors understand it's more than a carnival.

Wes Anderson's new adaptations of Roald Dahl short stories have won a lot of critical praise. Sandip notices that two of them neatly sum up two colonial attitudes towards India - one sugary and one more poisonous.

Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary was celebrated on October 2. While he is revered in India, his charisma drew some Americans to him, Americans who gave up their lives in the West to follow his ideals.

Khalistan - a word that used to be on the front pages of Indian newspapers in the 1980s has resurfaced in headlines thanks to the diplomatic row between India and Canada. As Indian and Canadian relations go into free fall over a killing in Canada, Sandip explains how the two countries find themselves butting heads over the idea of Khalistan, the dream homeland for Sikh separatists.

India’s famous “toilet man,” Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, died last month at the age of 80.

Joe Biden and other world leaders landed in Delhi to a grand multicolored G-20 welcome. But the beautification of the city left some of its residents seeing red.

This week's 'Teacher's Day' celebration in India was marred by reports of a teacher telling her class to beat a student for not knowing his multiplication tables.

On August 23, 2023 India became the first nation in the world to pull off a soft landing on the moon's south pole.

The death of a Kolkata teen allegedly because of ragging, or hazing, has re focused attention on bullying in schools and colleges.

India celebrated its 77th Independence Day this week. Sandip talks with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni about the turbulent and traumatic years of Independence.

Barbie has made the color pink a"thing," but in India a Bollywood film is even more pink and it celebrates a shade of pink called Rani Pink.

Our fascination with the Bhagavad Gita.

The release of Barbie the movie seems the perfect excuse to look for the origins of patriarchy with science writer Angela D Saini.

With social media app Threads trying to trip up Twitter, Sandip Roy wonders about why we have the itch to be on these platforms at all.

Sandip takes a ride back in time on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, an UNESCO World Heritage train.

The inclusion of Millets as the main grain of the White House dinner with Narendra Modi signals a sea change in the perception of ancient grains.

The iconic Tupperware made a huge impression in India and still does.

At a time when June is celebrated as Pride month both in Kolkata and San Francisco, Sandip reflects on a what it took to reconcile both parts of one's identity. Queer and South Asian, and all those who helped make it happen.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has always featured women in her writing and her new book Independence is no different.

In the wake of the terrible train accident in eastern India Sandip remembers a gentler kind of train travel in India.

Sandip Roy remembers Tina Turner as the only rockstar whose poster he put up in his bedroom as a boy in Kolkata.

River towns in India are often temple towns and come with their own rituals. But Sandip Roy visits Jabalpur which comes with boatmen who talk in rhyme.

Harry Belafonte's death provoked an outpouring of mourning in India.

The coronation of King Charles came with its own special dish - a coronation quiche.

April was Dalit History Month in India. But even though caste-ism is officially outlawed in India, some of the old biases remain.

Kolkata’s streets continue to clog with cars. The fate of an already established, cleaner transit option, teeters in the balance.