Keen On, Literary Hub: Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.
Grand Tamasha, Carnegie Endowment: The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India is a moving account of love in contemporary India. The book’s author, Mansi Choksi, follows three couples across the heartland of India as they navigate boundaries—of caste, class, religion, and traditional gender norms. What follows is a tale of romance, endurance, violence, and occasionally heartbreak. The Newlyweds does what most social science texts simply cannot—it brings us into the private lives of young people in love in India. Mansi’s writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times, the New Yorker, National Geographic, Slate and the Atlantic. This week, she joins Milan on the podcast to talk about modern love in a changing India, how love and politics intersect, and what her book tells us about India’s social fault lines. Plus, Milan and Mansi discuss life in “Tier Two” India.
New Books Network The Asian Review of Books: Two neighbors from the same village fall in love and elope to a shelter for couples that break caste norms. A Hindu woman falls in love with a Muslim man, drawing the ire of Hindu nationalists. Two women start a lesbian relationship. These three couples are the protagonists of Mansi Choksi’s The Newlyweds. This work charts the lives of Dawinder and Neetu, Monika and Arif, Reshma and Preethi, who all break social norms in their relationships, and are forced to endure the sometimes-violent consequences—not always successfully. In this interview, Mansi and I talk about the three couples in her book—and what their struggles tell us about love, relationships and social pressure in today’s India.
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NewsLine Magazine: “I have a line in my book where I say marriage is the only intended outcome of growing up in India,” Mansi Choksi tells New Lines magazine’s Surbhi Gupta. “Like, that’s how it feels for a lot of us.” Choksi, author of the “The Newlyweds” and co-host of the latest season of NPR’s Rough Translation podcast, has spent many years untangling the fraught politics of marriage in the country. “On a family level, it’s almost as if it’s seen as a marker of success. Finding the right match for your son or daughter is like your ultimate duty towards your child,” she says. “And disobeying your parents’ choice for marriage? Possibly the ultimate disrespect that you can have towards your parents.” But in a nation where over 90% of marriages are arranged and seldom cross lines of class, caste and confession, a new generation of young people are questioning the traditional boundaries. “And love marriage is one of those fault lines,” says Choksi.
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The Desi Condition: “Where the bollywood story ends, my book begins.” We chat with Mansi Choksi: Dubai and Mumbai-based journalist, author of "The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India" and one of the brilliant minds behind NPR's new season of Rough Translation, titled "The Love Commandos."
Feminist Book Club: In this episode Niba interviews Mansi Choksi about her debut book, The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India. The Newlyweds is a literary investigation into India as a society in transition through the lens of forbidden love, as three young couples reject arranged marriages and risk everything for love in the midst of social and political upheaval.
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I Heart Women: The I heart Women Podcast is a video series of insightful, engaging interviews with women who are thought leaders and change makers!
Slow Art Walk with Mansi Choksi at Alserkal Avenue, Dubai: Embark on a stroll down the avenue with writer Mansi Choksi, where memories come to life through the canvas of art.
The Mark Twain House and Museum X Harper’s Magazine: Harper’s Magazine and The Mark Twain House & Museum partner to present an intriguing new work that explores the gender, sexual and religious dynamics of marriage in modern-day India with author Mansi Choksi and Harper’s Senior Editor Joe Kloc.
Creative Mornings Mumbai: Mansi Choksi on writing The Newlyweds