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Books and Authors

Books and Authors

By: Hindustan Times - HT Smartcast
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 In this podcast, National Books Editor Manjula Narayan tells you about books, authors and their journeys. This is a Hindustan Times production, brought to you by HT Smartcast Art Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences
Episodes
  • The original mother of many tongues

    The original mother of many tongues
    Jun 21 2025
    "One thing that's become abundantly clear from the ancient DNA revolution of the last 10 years is how important migration has been in the history of our species. So, of course, there has been hybridisation, cultural, genetic, linguistic. There is no such thing as a pure people, pure culture, pure language. Genes, culture and language do not map neatly onto each other. This book was a huge amount of work because the only way you can tell the story of Proto Indo European [the ancestor of Latin and Sanskrit and their daughter languages including English, German, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and many, many others] is by combing the fields of linguistics, archeology and genetics. It's very fast moving and the point of writing the story now is that it's had this huge impetus from genetics" - Laura Spinney, author, Proto; How One Ancient Language Went Global talks to Manjula Narayan about the ancestor of the Indo European family of languages, the Yamnayas, the birth and death of languages, the great migrations out of the Steppes, the Harappan script, multiethnolects and why AI might be great for predicting language change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 mins
  • Of raab, kadhi and more

    Of raab, kadhi and more
    Jun 13 2025
    "Food is not just for nutrition but also for the soul" - @neelakaushik and Shibani Sethi, editors, 'Flavours of India talk to @utterflea abt the 40k strong Gurgaon Moms community that's contributed the family memories and recipes in this book Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 mins
  • Of unforgettable soundtracks and an emotional core

    Of unforgettable soundtracks and an emotional core
    Jun 5 2025
    "In Raj Khosla's films, songs were storytelling devices. They didn't just push the narrative forward; they were also narratives by themselves. They had a beginning, a middle and an end, and the way they were shot, the way relationships were portrayed, and the way situations were brought in... It is an art that Guru Dutt taught Raj Khosla and which he then brought out in a way that really connected with the crowd." - Amborish Roychoudhury, author, 'Raj Khosla; The Authorized Biography' talks to Manjula Narayan about the life and art of the maker of such commercially successful and vastly different popular Hindi films as CID (1956), Do Raaste (1969), Main Tulsi Teri Aangan Ki (1978) and Dostana (1980). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
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