Host Mallika Kapur sits down with some of the world’s most celebrated storytellers to revisit the works that define them. They return to abandoned drafts, imagine alternate endings, and explore one enduring question:

If you could do it again, what would the next edition hold?

Because a story is never truly done.

Author and poet Jeet Thayil’s work moves fluidly between fiction, poetry and memoir. He reflects on the Booker-prize shortlisted Narcopolis years after its release, the emotional intensity of writing it, and how his latest book The Elsewhereans marks a shift—from stories of addiction and survival to deeply personal explorations of family, memory and loss.

Epigraph:

More than a decade after ‘Narcopolis’ first released, Jeet Thayil reflects on his relationship with the book today. He describes the process of writing the book as the opposite of catharsis, exploring how it made him reconcile with the city’s and his own traumatic past.

Poet in Prose:

Jeet takes us into his creative process—how poetry shapes his sentences, why writing fiction demands a different discipline, and how he crafted one of literature’s most unforgettable long sentences.

Elegy:
In The Elsewhereans, Jeet Thayil turns the conversation inward – writing about family, grief, and the passage of time. He opens up about the delicate balance of writing about loved ones, the responsibility that comes with it, and how the book has become a quiet memorial to his parents.

Epilogue:

For Jeet, the role of the artist is simple yet profound: to connect. Whether through the troubled worlds of Narcopolis or the intimate reflections of The Elsewhereans, his work reaches readers in different ways — offering recognition, resonance, and a sense of shared humanity.

Credits:

Host: Mallika Kapur

Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producer: Rachna Sukuru

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta

When Deepa Mehta began filming Water in Varanasi, India, protesters burned the sets and forced production to a halt. The film, the final chapter in her trilogy exploring fire, earth, and water as metaphors for social realities across the Indian subcontinent, was eventually made in Sri Lanka. Twenty years later, Mehta and actor Lisa Ray look back on what they built, what it cost, and why the story still matters.

Critics’ Choice

Deepa Mehta and Lisa Ray reflect on what it meant to commit fully to a story about women on the margins and why the film continues to move audiences around the world. As Lisa Ray puts it, it was made with such sincerity that people could feel it — “it was the little indie film that could.”

Close-Up:

Deepa described making Water without an agenda; Lisa described surrendering to the role rather than performing it. Here, they focus on the process — how the film was made, the close-knit community that formed around it, and what it felt like to work in a simpler time, when no one retreated to their trailer between takes.

The Edit

This conversation moves across memory, politics, identity, and time with two of the most influential women in Indian cinema thinking aloud together.

Epilogue

Twenty years on, Water is no longer met with outrage or political defence. As Deepa puts it, it feels like a truth that never dies, it’s still finding new audiences, still landing where it needs to.

Featured Clips in this episode:

79th Academy Award Nominations

Credits:

Host: Mallika Kapur

Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producer: Rachna Sukuru

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta

Lara Love Hardin lost everything. Writing helped her find her way back. In this conversation, the author of the New York Times bestseller and Oprah’s book club pick reflects on The Many Lives of Mama Love, a memoir of addiction, incarceration, motherhood, and recovery. She talks about reading as her first addiction, writing as a survival tool within prison walls, and what it takes to tell the truth without softening it for the page.

Author’s Note:

Lara traces her earliest attachment to books, long before prescription drugs or heroin, framing literature as both refuge and obsession.

Margins

Lara reflects on what it means to carry a past without being defined by it. Addiction, prison, motherhood, and authorship are all layers that make her who she is.

The Spine

Lara speaks about prison as a place where every woman had a “superpower”. Hers

was writing. By helping other inmates with their correspondence, writing got her through her darkest days.

Footnotes:

The conversation goes beyond the book. Lara speaks about re-entering the workforce after incarceration, the barriers women face, and her work today as a ghostwriter, literary agent, and co-founder of the Gemma Project. She considers what Mama Love could not yet include — a quieter chapter defined by steadiness, work, and rest.

Featured Clips in this episode:

Oprah selects "The Many Lives of Mama Love" as newest book club selection

Message from Lara Love’s sons for Oprah

Credits:

Host: Mallika Kapur

Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producer: Rachna Sukuru

Editorial Assistance: Devanshi Chandak

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta

Indian journalist, historian and bestselling author Shrabani Basu has spent her career rescuing stories that history forgot. She talks about uncovering the extraordinary bond between Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim, bringing spy and SOE agent Noor Inayat Khan into the light, and why these stories matter more than ever.

Preface: From researching the story of curry, to writing about Abdul Karim’s extraordinary relationship with Queen Victoria, and bringing Noor Inayat Khan’s story to light, Shrabani Basu has dedicated her career to uncovering stories that history has overlooked.

From the Archives: Shrabani takes us through her process. Her books often begin with a chance discovery, followed by years of research, poring over archives untouched for over a hundred years.

Legacy: Shrabani shares the pride she feels in reviving buried stories and the impact they’ve had. From reconnecting Abdul Karim's descendants with his story to campaigning for the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial in London, the first plaque dedicated to a woman of Indian origin.

Keeper of History: Shrabani continues her journey to bring untold stories to life, giving trailblazers their rightful place in history.

Featured Clips in this episode:

Victoria & Abdul (2017) Official Trailer

Victoria & Abdul (2017) Movie clip

Noor Inayat Khan: The Unveiling of the Memorial

Credits:

Host: Mallika Kapur

Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producers: Rachna Sukuru , Meghna Gulati

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta

Pulitzer winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario has spent her career documenting war and covering conflict. She discusses her commitment to capturing hard truths and opens up about what happens when she puts the camera down and steps back into life as a wife and mother.

Aperture: She captured images of the moon as a child.That sense of wonder and beauty guides Lynsey as she travels the world, documenting pivotal moments in modern history with grace and grit.

Focus: Lynsey talks about the boundaries she sets for herself as a photojournalist: being respectful of her subjects, knowing when to intervene, and stepping back when the situation calls for it.

The Raw image: Lynsey opens up about what it’s like to be behind the lens – the grief that comes with witnessing lives lost, the constant threat to her own wellbeing, and processing the trauma of being held hostage twice.

Exposure: Lynsey talks about photographing a subject to becoming the subject in the recently released National Geographic documentary, Love+War.

Featured Clips in this episode:

Love + War Official Trailer

Credits:

Host: Mallika Kapur

Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producers: Rachna Sukuru , Meghna Gulati

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta

Award-winning British-Turkish novelist, political scientist and activist Elif Shafak discusses her bestselling novel The Island of Missing Trees, her multicultural upbringing and the fragile bond between humans and nature.

Prologue:
Elif opens with a daring narrative choice: choosing a fig tree as storyteller.

Roots:
Moving between countries, cultures, and languages, Elif grew up feeling like an outsider. She speaks candidly about displacement, belonging, and finding her literary voice in a language that is not her mother tongue.

Trunk:
Elif confronts the realities of being a woman novelist in Turkey, where writing about ‘taboo’ subjects brought public scrutiny and an investigation. She reflects on the responsibility that comes with storytelling and her resolve to do so with honesty and purpose.

Ecosystem:
In an age of speed and instant gratification, Elif makes the case to slow down and appreciate literature and nature. She champions the power of curiosity as a way to keep creativity alive.

Credits:

Host:
Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producer: Rachna Sukuru

Editorial Assistance: Devanshi Chandak

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta

Indian journalist Barkha Dutt is one of the most fearless reporters of her generation. Not just for the conflicts she's covered, but for her unflinching commitment to the stories others simply won't tell.

Breaking: From the peaks of Kargil to covering India’s COVID crisis, Barkha Dutt has had a front row seat to India’s defining moments – bearing witness to war, terror, and tragedy while navigating the personal cost of the stories she tells.

Inside Story: Barkha shares the stories that have stayed with her - – the soldiers she’s met on the frontlines, the world leaders she’s interviewed, and the moments that forced her to question the meaning of life.

Exclusive: She opens up about trauma, grief, and loss, including the heartbreak of losing her father during the pandemic, and reflects on what it truly means to bear witness with empathy and humanity.

Feature: Today, as founder of Mojo Story, Barkha is clear-eyed about technology. It can sharpen your tools, but it can't identify a story. That, she says, will always be the job of a human reporter.

Featured Clips in this episode:

NDTV Music
NDTV We The People
Mojo Story - Pahalgam Attack - Barkha Dutt
NDTV Kashmir Terror Attack
NDTV Pahalgam Attack
NCC Girls Marching Contingent
Barkha Dutt Kargil Reportage
Capt. Viram Batra “Yeh Dil Maange More”
Pepsi Yeh Dil Maange More Jingle
Vishal Batra & Barkha Dutt Interview

Credits:

Host:
Mallika Kapur is an award-winning journalist and seasoned interviewer with over two decades of experience in television and live journalism. Across three countries and various impactful roles at CNN and Bloomberg, she has reported on major global events, including the London train bombings, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Mumbai terror attacks. She also moderates news making panels at global forums, leading insightful conversations with the world’s top figures in business and culture.

Reach out on Instagram and LinkedIn

This is a Maed In India Production

Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas

Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome

Sound Designer & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni

Producers: Rachna Sukuru, Meghna Gulati

Sound Engineer: Nihar Temkar

Artwork: Alika Gupta