China looms large in our modern world — and yes, is misunderstood, or not understood at all. Manoj Kewalramani joins Amit Varma in episode 435 of The Seen and the Unseen to put together a primer on China, from ancient times through all the kingdoms through Mao and Deng to Xi and this present moment.
Episode 434: An Ode to Meanderness
Enough serious talk about economics and geopolitics. As the year draws to an end, it’s time to sit and chill with friends — and let the mind meander. Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 434 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about friendship, horses, second acts — and more!
Episode 433: The Life and Times of the Takshashila Institution
India’s policy ecosystem was once a desolate landscape, stuck in bad ideas of the past. One institution shook it all up. Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane join Amit Varma in episode 433 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their journey building the Takshashila Institution.
Episode 432: Vasant Dhar’s Lifetime in Artificial Intelligence
He’s been working in AI since the late 1970s, and started a pioneering machine learning hedge fund in the 1990s. Now he’s a professor, a podcaster, a Substacker, a yoda — and has just written a cracking book on the subject. Vasant Dhar joins Amit Varma in episode 432 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the life and times of AI through the life and times of Vasant Dhar.
Episode 431: Ghazala Wahab and the Hindi Heartland
Our Hindi Heartland has more people than the USA and Western Europe combined — and is arguably more diverse. Ghazala Wahab joins Amit Varma in episode 431 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her research into those states — and much else, including being an outspoken Muslim woman in India, and the future of warfare.
Episode 430: Aneesh Pradhan: A Life in Hindustani Music
When it comes to Hindustani music, he is both a doer and a thinker. A great tabla player, he has written books about the history and theory of music. Aneesh Pradhan joins Amit Varma in episode 430 of The Seen and the Unseen to chat about his life, his music and this world we inhabit.
Episode 429: Rudraneil Sengupta is Embedded
He wrote the definitive history of Indian wrestling. His longform reportage has taken him into strange territories. He embedded himself with the Delhi police and has now come out with his first crime novel. Rudraneil Sengupta joins Amit Varma in episode 429 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about he throws himself into both his life and his work.
Episode 428: The Solitary Writer Meets the Impossible Man
Writing biographies is solitary and difficult — even when the subject is way more interesting than anything you could make up. Narayani Basu joins Amit Varma in episode 428 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss writing, friendship, hustling, ageing, intentionality and the subject of her latest book, the impossible KM Panikkar.
Episode 427: The Boy Who Loved Cricket — The Vijay Lokapally Story
Cricket isn’t just what happens across 22 yards, and great cricket writers always go beyond the boundary. Vijay Lokapally joins Amit Varma in episode 427 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the joys and heartbreaks of a lifetime of writing about cricket — and much else.
Episode 426: The Life and Music of Shubha Mudgal
She’s straddled the worlds of Hindustani classical and popular music, and is a legend in both spaces. Shubha Mudgal joins Amit Varma in episode 426 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss her life, her music and this changing world.
Episode 425: The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das
He reached the top of the corporate world — and then gave it up to become a writer, with books that probed our deepest questions, and influenced millions of people. Gurcharan Das joins Amit Varma in episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life and learnings.
Episode 424: Gitanjali Babbar and the Didis of GB Road
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.
Episode 423: Minar Pimple’s Life in Social Work
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.
Episode 422: The Past and Present of Cricket
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.
Episode 421: Ira Mukhoty’s Quest for Unseen Histories
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.
Episode 420: Siddhartha Basu Is in the Hot Seat
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.
Episode 419: India’s MSME Landscape — Some Useful Frameworks
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.
Episode 418: What Just Happened Between India & Pakistan?
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.
Episode 417: Caste and the Census
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.
Episode 416: Kavitha Rao Chases Chatto and Roy
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.
Episode 415: Ramki and the Ocean of Stories
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.
Episode 414: The Spectacular Life of Prahlad Kakar
He learnt his craft from Shyam Benegal, became a pioneer & a legend of advertising filmmaking, learnt & taught scuba diving, started the Prithvi Cafe, and lived every moment to the full in a million different ways. Prahlad Kakar joins Amit Varma in episode 414 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his long and wondrous life.
Episode 413: Shaheen Mistri Goes to School
One of India’s tragedies lies in the schooling of our children. We have let our kids down. Can we fix this problem? Shaheen Mistri joins Amit Varma in episode 413 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey — and what she has learnt about education.
Episode 412: Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag
So much in history never made it to the popular imagination — such as the battles of 1967 in which India beat China. Probal DasGupta joins Amit Varma in episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his time in the Indian army — and his fascinating discoveries as a military historian.
Episode 411: Vishal Nevatia Finds His True North
Business and life can sometimes be seen more as a search for values than a quest for profit. Private equity pioneer Vishal Nevatia joins Amit Varma in episode 411 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe his journey towards finding his true north.
Episode 410: Shruti Rajagopalan Remembers the Angle of the Light
She’s an economist, an institution-builder, an ecosystem-nurturer and one of our finest thinkers. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life & times — and her remarkable work.
Episode 409: Salil Tripathi and the Gujaratis
He’s lived a rich life as a journalist, a human rights activist, an author, a columnist — and now he’s written a great book on Gujaratis. Salil Tripathi joins Amit Varma in episode 409 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his learnings, these times we live in — and the times that came before.
Episode 408: Amitava Kumar Finds His Gulmohar Tree
His earlier episodes on this show have been huge hits, and as he completes a trilogy of books, he returns to complete a trilogy of episodes. Amitava Kumar joins Amit Varma in episode 408 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about writing, noticing, painting, travelling, trees and unfulfilled train journeys.
Episode 407: Sarbpreet Singh Finds His Sikhism
He was born in Sikkim and lives in the USA, and in the course of engaging with his identity, has written powerful books of Sikh history, and revived its music. Sarbpreet Singh joins Amit Varma in episode 407 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his writing, his music and the lessons of Sikhism.
Episode 406: Sathya Saran and the Shaping of the Indian Woman
She worked with Femina for 26 years, 12 of them as editor. And she wrote numerous biographies after that. Sathya Saran joins Amit Varma in episode 406 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss Indian society, feminism, femininity, her life as a journalist and the art of the biography.
Episode 405: The Forces That Shaped Hinduism
Every simple story about it is wrong: Hinduism contains multitudes. And it went into the directions it did for specific reasons. Manu Pillai joins Amit Varma in episode 405 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe the role of history in the shaping of Hinduism — and Hindu nationalism.
Episode 404: Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us
Our societies, our norms, our values are all shaped by stories from the past. Devdutt Pattanaik joins Amit Varma in episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, our society and why we should take mythology seriously.
Episode 403: Shikha Dalmia Is the Unpopulist
Populism is on the rise everywhere, and the long arc of history has bent away from freedom. Shikha Dalmia joins Amit Varma in episode 403 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss the derangements of our modern times — and the threat that Donald Trump poses.
Episode 402: Ajay Shah Brings the Dreams of the 20th Century
He’s a polymath who cares deeply about the world, tries to understand it, and straddles many fields. He’s played a key role over the last few decades in India’s journey towards development. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 402 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and times.
Episode 401: Finding Love in Modern India
Bloody hell. The world has changed, society looks different, and men and women have to find new ways of relating to each other. We’re not equipped for this. Sanjana Ramachandran and Samarth Bansal join Amit Varma in episode 401 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how meeting and mating are both easier and, well, harder.
Episode 400: Life Lessons That Are Priceless
It’s episode 400, and on this special and unlikely occasion, Shruti Rajagopalan gets Amit Varma to chat about all the life lessons he has learnt during these eight years — and favourite books, films, music and poetry.
Episode 399: Divya Prakash Dubey: Ek Jeevani
He’s a bestselling writer who’s brought Hindi literature into a modern age — and he also writes films and tells stories. Divya Prakash Dubey joins Amit Varma in episode 399 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his life, his language, his society and his art.
Episode 398: Eve Fairbanks Examines a Fractured Society
She learnt journalism in America and spent many years in South Africa writing a portrait of their troubled society, where everything is complicated and nothing is settled — much like anywhere else. Eve Fairbanks joins Amit Varma in episode 398 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life, her work, her craft and the world around her.
Episode 397: Larry White and the First Principles of Money
We take money and banking and finance for granted — but the way they exist in the world is not the only way they could exist. Lawrence H White joins Amit Varma in episode 397 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss ideas, ideologies, money, crypto and the field he pioneered, free banking.
Episode 396: Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha Are Fighting for Us
They started out busting misinformation. Then, as fake news became weaponized at an industrial scale, they become warriors not just for truth, but for a better society. Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha join Amit Varma in episode 396 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about their life, their work and their country.
Episode 395: Tanvi Madan Is the Kid Who Asked Why
She’s an authority in the field of foreign policy — and what makes her such a force is her deep curiosity about, well, everything. Tanvi Madan joins Amit Varma in episode 395 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life, her learnings and this changing world.