441. Mother Is No God

1948, Paris in winter. The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, against the backdrop of two bloody wars. The first time nations across the world agreed, in writing, on the fundamental rights owed to every human being. Eighty years later, we have forgotten why the declaration was made in the first place. The rights enshrined in that document are no longer treated as fundamental. In a world shaped by profit-driven economies, human value is increasingly measured by productivity and utility alone. The violation of human rights has become unremarkable, treated as a practical feature of modern existence. This panel brings together advocates across law, academia and activism to examine the historical, economic, and psychological conditions that determine whether people experience human rights as inalienable and foundational. The conversation is as much diagnostic as it is restorative: an attempt to re-anchor rights in human dignity. After the discussion, there will be an open Q&A. In collaboration with: Lawyering For Change In this episode of BIC Talks, Matthias Mahlmann, Aditya Sondhi, Arvind Narrain and Maitreyi Krishnan will be in conversation with Mrudula Vanangamudi . This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in May 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.

She was stubborn, fearless before teachers and gods alike, and completely convinced she was right about everything. She usually was. Vasudhendra wrote these essays after losing his mother. What started as an expression of grief turned out to carry so much more: a son slowly realising that the woman he'd spent years misreading was, all along, just a person. Flawed, fierce, and holding everything together anyway. I Love My Amma was originally written in Kannada, the language of his home. It found readers in Tamil and Telugu. To mark the release of the English edition, author Vasudhendra joins translator Narayan Shankaran in conversation with Harini Nagendra. They discuss the essays, the North Karnataka childhood that shaped them, and what it means to carry something this personal from one language into another. After the conversation, they will take audience questions. In this episode of BIC Talks, Vasudhendra and Narayan Shankaran will be in conversation with Harini Nagendra. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in May 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.

If he wasn't feted in his time, Ritwik Ghatak most certainly is today. Since his death in 1976, at just past fifty, Ghatak's stature has only grown. His humanist cinema, his uncompromising vision, his deep engagement with the history and culture of the land, have made him one of the most indelible figures in Indian film history. With Meghe Dhaka Tara, Subarnarekha, Komal Gandhar, Ajantrik, and Titas Ekti Nodir Naam, Ghatak changed the very nature of Indian cinema. As a teacher at the Film and Television Institute of India, he shaped the next generation: Kumar Shahani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Kaul, Saeed Mirza, Ketan Mehta, Jahnu Barua. Shamya Dasgupta, editor of Unmechanical: Ritwik Ghatak in 50 Fragments (Westland Books, 2026), joins writer and publisher Karthik Venkatesh to sit with the full contradiction of the man. Unflinching and even ruthless. Alcoholic and irresponsible. An irrepressible genius and a relentless innovator. In this episode of BIC Talks, Shamya Dasgupta will be in conversation with Karthik Venkatesh. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in March 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.

Idolised, worshipped, immortalised. A mother is asked to be everything while making it look effortless. Alas, a mother is also a daughter. In the face of her humanity, we know not what to do. Meyeder Mayera is a Bangla anthology of mothers written by their daughters. Not the idea of a mother, but the women themselves. Arundhati Ghosh joins four contributors to the book in a conversation about the legacies it carries, the relationships that shaped them, and what it means to truly see the person who raised you. In this episode of BIC Talks, Margaret Rosie, Nisha Abdulla, Sarbari Gomes and Spandana Bhowmik will be in conversation with Arundhati Ghosh. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in April 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.

Memory and identity. Personal and political. Mothers and daughters. Mother Mary Comes to Me is Arundhati Roy's most personal work yet. At its centre is Mary Roy, her mother: abusive, brilliant, impossible to understand, and impossible to forget. A woman who challenged the Travancore Christian Succession Act before the Supreme Court and won. A woman who was, as Roy writes, both shelter and storm. In conversation with Arundhati Ghosh, Roy reflects on the writing of this memoir, her journey from a rocky childhood to literary stardom, and what it means to reckon with a person you have spent a lifetime trying to fathom. A signing with the author will follow. Disclaimer: Any depiction of smoking in this book is for representational purposes only. Penguin Random House India and Bangalore International Centre do not promote or endorse tobacco use. In collaboration with: Bangalore Literature Festival In this episode of BIC Talks, Arundhati Roy with Arundhati Ghosh. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in March 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.  

Geopolitical realignments. Technological disruptions. The mounting urgency of the climate crisis. As the world undergoes multiple, simultaneous transformations, India is faced with charting its own course. Rajiv Kumar, Kamal Bali, Manish Sabharwal, Nitin Pai, and Mohandas Pai bring together perspectives from policy, industry, and innovation to examine what it will take to navigate this era of uncertainty. As India navigates frontier technologies like AI, strengthening strategic autonomy, addressing climate imperatives and fostering inclusive growth, the choices are critical. How can we become a developed nation in the coming decades? In collaboration with: Pahle India Foundation In this episode of BIC Talks, Rajiv Kumar, Kamal Bali, Manish Sabharwal and Nitin Pai will be in conversation with Mohandas Pai. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in March 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.

The world changes, life is hard. That's not news. But are millennials uniquely misunderstood, or simply the first generation to document their own confusion so thoroughly? Deepika Arwind, author of Good Arguments, and AM Gautam, author of Indian Millennials, write from opposite ends of the same experience. One through fiction, the other through reportage. Both millennial. Both wrestling with power dynamics, divided loyalties, and what courage looks like when you have one foot in the old world and one inching towards the future. This conversation, moderated by Arundhati Sridhar, is not about generational angst. It is about the structures we inherit and the space we carve out anyway. Readings. Insights. The occasional uncomfortable truth. In this episode of BIC Talks, Deepika Arwind and A.M Gautam will be in conversation with Arundhati Sridhar. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in March 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.

This session is in English and Kannada. Domestic work keeps the country running. But the women who make it possible, often after tending to their own homes first, have no contracts, no fixed hours, and no legal protection. The proposed Domestic Workers Bill in Karnataka aims to regulate the industry, bringing in protections enjoyed by employees in the formal sector. This panel examines what the Bill actually means: for the women it seeks to protect, for the households that depend on them, and for a labour movement that has long treated domestic work as an afterthought. A Q&A with the audience will follow. This event is a part of our programming to celebrate International Women's Day. Music, theatre, and conversation: by women, for everyone. In this episode of BIC Talks, Geetha Menon,Gayatri and Pushpa will be in conversation with Vinay K Sreenivasa. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in March 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.

Opportunity is abundant. Outcomes, however, are strategic. The three women on this panel have navigated all of it. Venture capital and enterprise strategy. Global talent transformation. The slow, necessary work of making the technology industry legible to the women coming up behind them. Startups built from scratch and careers that kept becoming something new. They have done this inside institutions that weren't built for them, in markets that moved before they were ready, in moments that required a decision before the picture was clear. Together they examine how signals and opportunities are recognised, and sometimes missed. How excellence is sustained over decades, not just built in a moment. How to navigate boards, capital, and institutions. How and when to seek help from the mentors, sponsors, and allies who make the difference. The answers come from lived experience. The lessons, hard-won as they are, turn out to be universal. This event is a part of our programming to celebrate International Women's Day. Music, theatre, and conversation: by women, for everyone. In this episode of BIC Talks, Nidhi Shanbhag, Veena Satish, Shreya Krishnan will be in conversation with Srinivas Gorur. 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.

Good design is invisible. Bad design is something women navigate every day. In public spaces, designers have rarely looked closely enough at how women actually move through streets, neighbourhoods, and informal gathering spaces. In digital infrastructure, women's needs and safety are an afterthought, if considered at all. In healthcare, the gap is starker still. A space meant for healing leaves too many women negotiating their right to be there, be it fair inclusion in clinical trials or access to safe examinations. This panel examines what it would take to change these systems to include those left off the original blueprints. This event is part of our programming to celebrate International Women's Day. Music, theatre, and conversation: by women, for everyone. In this episode of BIC Talks, Rajani Surendar Bhat, Kiran Keswani and Sarayu Natarajan will be in conversation with Nia Thandapani. 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.