Two questions plagued her for five years, living between Delhi, Venice, and Istanbul: how do we lose what we lose, and why do we love whom we love?

Drawing on her collection of essays Place: Intimate Encounters with Cities (2026), written across 25 years and 13 cities, Ananya Vajpeyi will explore what cities hold for us. The memory and meaning held in street corners and corridors of light; the way personal loss and political trouble have of finding each other in the very same spaces.

Architect Prem Chandavarkar brings his own lifelong reckoning with cities to the table. Between them, the conversation promises to move across continents, disciplines, and the question of what it means to love a place.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Ananya Vajpeyi will be in conversation with Prem Chandavarkar. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in Mar 2026.

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Courage is not the beginning of self-knowledge. It is the constant condition of it.

Courage to Be You follows two people asking that question from very different lives. Amit and Najib are a gay couple navigating not only their relationship but the religious and social distance between them. Rajeshwari, Amit's childhood friend, is quietly working to reclaim an identity fractured by early trauma. Their stories run parallel, but their questions are the same: what does it take to choose yourself, and what do you risk when you do?

Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy draws on Jungian psychology and chakra healing, offering the reader a framework for the same inner work her characters undertake. Their guide, in both cases, is a therapist. Their destination is their own.

Yasmeen Premji will introduce the session. Rashna's presentation will be followed by a conversation between her and Malini White.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy will be in conversation with Malini White. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in Mar 2026.

Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app!
BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.

You've received the call. The scam artist trying to get your information. Perhaps you fell for it, perhaps you knew better. In either case, it becomes a story to tell over coffee.

But who are the people on the other end of line?

In her new book, Scamlands, journalist Snidha Poonam explores the vast fraud economies stretching from small-town India to global scam hubs. Nuanced, detailed and above all, personal, Poonam reports on the many lives that run parallel to our own. Tracing the supply chains of fraud, she reveals an economy that's both ruthlessly efficient and heartbreakingly human.

In this talk, she is joined by columnist Aakar Patel to explore the themes of the book. They will examine how scam economies thrive in the gaps of inequality, why trust is collapsing faster than we can rebuild it, and what it means when fraud becomes a viable career path for an entire generation. The session ends with an audience Q&A.

There are no easy answers, but you'll know more when that unknown number calls again.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Snigdha Poonam will be in conversation with Aakar Patel. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in Feb 2025.

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BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.