SSoP Podcast Episode 59 — India: The Continent Masquerading as a Country

SSoP Podcast Episode 59 — India: The Continent Masquerading as a Country

Friday, 21 June, 2024

India seems committed to being over-the-top in the best way possible. It’s colorful, noisy, crowded, vast, deeply historic, spiritual, vibrantly modern, multi-lingual, and stunningly beautiful.

Want to get loud? India is the place for you! Sure, its population of 1.4 billion people might overwhelm you with the sheer crush of humanity, but its cities have an undeniable energy once you’re acclimated. Delhi, the capital, has everything that makes travel great: ancient forts, mosques and temples, leafy parks and botanical gardens, sprawling bazaars, and bustling lanes of street food. And Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is the home of Bollywood movie magic.

Feeling like a quiet retreat? India is the birthplace of yoga and meditation. You could visit Rishikesh, on the bank of the Ganges, to practice asanas in the birthplace of yoga. Or visit the ruins of the Maharishi’s ashram to feel the past vibrations of The Beatles.

India is also a fantastic place to shop for jewelry in a market, eat the best curries in the world, browse epic English-language bookstores, wander through centuries-old forts, and, of course, marvel at the Taj Mahal.

In this episode, we celebrate the poet Kabir Das, talk about dolphin rights, dig into Salvador Dali’s quirks, and explore India’s Golden Triangle. Then we recommend five great books that took us to India on the page, including immersive historical fiction, a travelogue and memoir of life in Delhi, a most unusual cookbook, a coming-of-age story (with dragons!), and a snappy crime novel with an unforgettable heroine.

transcript

Read the full transcript of India: The Continent Masquerading as a Country.

Loot

buy | read review

City of Djinns

buy | read review

Dishoom

buy | read review

The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar

buy | read review

The Bandit Queens

buy | read review

other books we mentioned

rule

other cool stuff we talked about

Perhaps you’d like to listen to some Bollywood music while you dig into these links.

And some photos to set the scene…

building in kolkata, india, under a pink sky
Kolkata, India. Photo courtesy of Martin Jernberg/Unsplash.
salmon colored building in jaipur, india with two white horses in sparkly costumes in front
Jaipur, India. Photo courtesy of Aditya Siva/Unsplash.
golden temple by a reflecting pool of water
Golden Temple, Amritsar, India. Photo courtesy of Ravi N Jha/Unsplash.
cart on a city street holding bags of multicolored snacks
Snacks in New Delhi, India. Photo courtesy of Ibrahim Rifath/Unsplash.
indian man cooking food at a street cart
Street food is the best food. Photo courtesy of Joyanto Joy/Unsplash.

india 101

Food

Bollywood

Yoga

Tigers

Bookshops

 

two truths and a lie

  • Statement 1: Salvador Dali — the great artist, the man of the melting clocks — once designed an ashtray for Air India. He was paid, in part, in peacocks. Take a peek at the ashtrays Dali designed here and here. This post has tons of photos and more of the story.

  • Statement 2: According to the government of India, dolphins are non-human persons, and, as such, have the right to life and liberty. The full story on now India has taken particular care of dolphins over the last decade.

  • Statement 3: The longest regular bus trip in history was from London to Calcutta (now Kolkata). It was approximately 10,000 miles — or 16,000 kilometers — one way. If you’re rough with distances, that’s about four times the mileage from New York to LA. The true story of the London-to-Calcutta bus service and its Wiki page.

 

Loot by Tania James

City of Djinns by William Dalyrmple

Dishoom by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, Naved Nasir

The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

 

Congratulations! You made it to the end. Here are your rewards:

 

finally…

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keep reading

In this episode, we get excited about two books: Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey and How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. Then Dave explains why the Tollywood movie RRR is the best action-adventure movie since Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Stuffed peppers are old-school comfort food, but they're way more fun when you spice 'em up. And thanks to a velvety curry sauce that tastes like cardamon-cumin clouds, these stuffed peppers are a little bit fancy.
Let's build a time machine to visit the bustling bazaar of Hyderabad, circa 1912, with the beloved Indian poet Sarojini Naidu. Can't you just hear the jingling of silver bangles and smell the cardamom in the air?

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