21. Khushwant Singh Lit Fest: Indian, Pakistani & Bangladeshi authors - In this special We'd Like A Word India episode at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival, co-hosts Paul Waters & Jonathan Kennedy (standing in for Stevyn Colgan) hear ideas from top authors of fiction, non-fiction, memoir & poetry & other experts. WARNING - one of our interviewees (Farrukh Dhondy) gets a bit sweary. WHO IS JONATHAN KENNEDY? WHY IS HE HERE? AND WHERE IS STEVYN COLGAN? Jonathan was Director of Arts in India for 5 years for the British Council. He's been everywhere in India and knows everyone there involved in culture. He was also for 12 years the Executive Director of Tara Arts, looking at the world through a South Asian lens. Jonathan is doing some India & South Asian episodes of We'd Like A Word with us. We'll drop them in every now & then. Normal service will be resumed with Steve & Paul shortly. Our guests on this WLAW KSLF episode include Harinder Singh, who with The Singh Twins & Gopinder Kaur has created the book Jewels of Sikh Wisdom; Pinky Lilani, cook, networker extraordinaire, founder of Asian Women of Achievement, & author of Some Kind of Wonderful; Nadia Kabir Barb of The Whole Kahani south Asian women's writers' collective & author of the short story collection, Truth or Dare; Farrukh Dhondy, author, playwright, media executive & activist - who writes about his bookish relationship with the notorious serial killer Charles Sobraj; Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi & her debut novel, The Centre; sisters Shirin & Marina Wheeler who write separately about their parents - Shirin on her father, the iconic journalist Charles Wheeler - Witness to the Twentieth Century, & Marina on her mother, Dip - The Lost Homestead - My Mother, Partition and the Punjab; poet Imtiaz Dharker on her latest collection, Shadow Reader; Aneysha Minocha, founder & CEO of Quantaco, the green tech, clean tech carbon-reducing start-up that grabbing attention; & Akshat rathi, author of Climate Capitalism, also senior reporter for Bloomberg news & host of the Zero podcast on climate change. Phew - that's loads! What is the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival? The Indian version happens in breathtakingly spectacular surroundings inside the military cantonment in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Paul's been there. This recording is at the London spin-off at the Brunei Gallery at SOAS - the School of Oriental and African Studies. Khushwant Singh was one of India's most prolific authors, a scholar, journalist, iconoclast & dubbed "the most honest man in India." The festival is keen to promote closer ties between India & Pakistan; equal opportunities for women worldwide; & disseminating the values of democracy, tolerance, compassion in a world that is increasingly more polarised. We'd Like A Word is a podcast & radio show from authors Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, & audiobook creators about books - fiction & non-fiction. We go out on various radio & podcast platforms. Our website is http://www.wedlikeaword.com for information on Paul, Steve & our guests. We're on Twitter @wedlikeaword & Facebook @wedlikeaword & our email is [email protected] Yes, we're embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word to chat, review or read out passages from books. Paul is writing a new cosy mystery series set in contemporary Delhi - more on that anon. And if you're still stuck for something to read now, may we recommend Blackwatertown, the thriller by Paul Waters or Cockerings, the comic classic by Stevyn Colgan.