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Amit Varma

The Seen and the Unseen, hosted by Amit Varma, features longform conversations that aim to give deep insights into the subjects being discussed. Timeless and bingeworthy.

The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

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.

Ep 424: Gitanjali Babbar and the Didis of GB Road

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.

Ep 423: Minar Pimple's Life in Social Work

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.

Ep 422: The Past and Present of Cricket

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.

Ep 421: Ira Mukhoty's Quest for Unseen Histories

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.

Ep 420: Siddhartha Basu Is in the Hot Seat

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.

Ep 419: India's MSME Landscape -- Some Useful Frameworks

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.

Ep 418: What Just Happened Between India & Pakistan?

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.

Ep 417: Caste and the Census

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.

Ep 416: Kavitha Rao Chases Chatto and Roy

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.

Ep 424: Gitanjali Babbar and the Didis of GB Road

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