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In episode four of season four, host Anjali Alappat sits down with writer, academic and documentary producer, Sami Ahmad Khan. 

He is the author of Red Jihad: Battle for South Asia (2012), Aliens in Delhi (2017), and the monograph Star Warriors of the Modern Raj: Materiality, Mythology and Technology of Indian Science Fiction (2021). 

Sami was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar and his fiction has been the subject of formal academic research and a part of university syllabi in India and the US. His overview of Indian SF has been translated into Czech and his short story has been translated into Marathi. His creative and critical writings have appeared in leading academic journals (Science Fiction Studies, The Journal of Popular Culture, Foundation), university presses (MIT Press, University of Wales Press), and trade imprints (Gollancz, Hachette, Bloomsbury, Routledge, Rupa, Juggernaut, Niyogi). 

Sami is also the recipient of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship (University of Oslo, Norway), a Fulbright FLTA grant (University of Iowa, USA), and a UGC-MANF Senior Research Fellowship (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India). He currently discusses life and Science Fiction at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, where he teaches MA and PhD-level courses on SF, as well as supervises PhD research on Indian SF.

In this episode, we discuss our love for pulpy science fiction, the importance of translated fiction, T-rexes, Black holes, and the Bermuda triangle, thought experiments, being a fan, genre conventions, and the future of Indian science fiction.

You can follow Sami on X @SamiAhmadKhan

 

Read Sami’s Work:

Books

1. Aliens in Delhi. Niyogi Books (2017)

2. Red Jihad: Battle for South Asia. Rupa & Co. (2012)

3. Star Warriors of the Modern Raj: Materiality, Mythology and Technology of Indian Science Fiction. University of Wales Press (2021)

Edited Collection:

1. The Speculative Route: Futures from South and Southwest Asia and North Africa. Routledge (2025, co-edited with Merve Tabur)

Short fiction:  

1. “Ancient Zombies: Six Indian Narratives of the Undead”. Sahitya Akademi’s Indian Literature. Jan-Feb. 2024.

2. “Biryani Bagh”, The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction II. Hachette (2021)

3. “15004”, The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction. Gollancz (2019)

4. “PT Period”, Muse India (2016)  

Podcast:

1. The NeoMONSTERS Podcast

Academic articles:

1. “Zombies and India: The neoMONSTERS Epidemiology”. The Journal of Popular Culture, 56(2). 341-355. (2023)

2. “Dom(e)inating India’s Tomorrow(s)? Global Climate Change in Select Anglophonic Narratives”. Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research. 6(2). 25-37 (2019)

3. “The Others in India’s Other Futures,” Science Fiction Studies. 43(3), Indian SF. 479-495 (2016) 

4. “Gods of War Toke While Riding a Vimana: Hindu Gods in Three Indian Science Fiction Novels.” Journal of Science Fiction. 1(1) 17-31 (2016)

5. “Control+Alt+Delete Humanity” Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction. Ed. By Yoshinaga, Guynes and Canavan. MIT Press (2022)

In episode three, we chat with Rashmi Devadasan, Rakesh Khanna, and R.T. Samuel, the brilliant minds behind The Blaft Book of Anti-caste SF, which has been making waves in the Indian speculative fiction scene.  

Rashmi Devadasan is a writer with over twenty-five years of experience in indie publishing, Tamil feature films, and Indian English theatre. At Blaft, she has been part of the selection, editing, design and production of the company’s fiction in translation, comic book anthologies, original fiction, and zines. She is the author of Kumari Loves a Monster, a picture book created with the artist Shyam. Her short stories were part of an anthology titled Strange Worlds! Strange Times! Amazing Sci-Fi Stories, published by Speaking Tiger. She is a fan of fungi, moss, lichen, cephalopods, and jellyfish. Rashmi also draws gentle, mostly cuboidal-shaped sample collector robots that do research on a cacti-covered asteroid. You can find Rashmi Devadasan on Instagram @kaimaurundai.

Rakesh Khanna grew up in Berkeley, California, of mixed Punjabi and Anglo-American heritage. He co-founded Blaft Publications in Chennai with Rashmi Ruth Devadasan, who is also his wife, in 2008. The company publishes translations of Indian fiction, folklore, weird fiction, and graphic novels. Rakesh is the co-author of Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, the editor of Blaft’s Tamil Pulp Fiction and Gujarati Pulp Fiction anthologies, and co-editor of The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF. Sometimes he edits mathematics textbooks. He is interested in marine invertebrates, demonology, topological graph theory, and banging on things to see what they sound like. You can find Rakesh Khanna on Instagram @blaftpublications. 

R.T. Samuel is an editor and independent cultural producer working between London and New Delhi. R is the co-editor of the collection, The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF, helmed by a viral fundraiser that made it the second-most successful Indian publishing campaign in Kickstarter history. The book involved working with nearly 30 authors, translators and artists for close to two years, and features stories from more than six different languages and diverse mediums. From 2021-23, R was also the writer and broadcaster behind the hugely popular (20k plays and counting) underground political and cultural education podcast Clear Blue Skies S1. A lapsed investigative and culture journalist, R is currently pursuing an MSc in Anthropology and Professional Practice at University College London and is always happy to talk about 80s SFF, public radio, futures literacy and Indian hip-hop. You can find R.T. Samuel on Instagram @mithran.rt.

In this episode, we discuss the lack of understanding around caste, what’s missing from the Indian SFF scene, the challenges and thrills of putting together an expansive anthology, the importance of translated fiction, and more. 

Links to Rakesh Khanna’s work:

• Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India – Blaft Publications
• The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF – Blaft Publications
• The Blaft Anthology of Gujarati Pulp Fiction – Blaft Publications

Links to Rashmi Devadasan’s work:

• Kumari Loves A Monster

Links to R.T. Samuel’s work:

• I Know My Own Animal Heart on Third Eye (Essay)
• As Long As The Image Lasts: Shaping Memory & Making Imprints At Peers ’23 (Essay)

In episode two of season four, lawyer, author, and editor Gautam Bhatia returns! 

When we last spoke to Gautam, he had just published The Horizon, the much-anticipated sequel to The Wall. Since then, he’s published a variety of non-fiction books, helped curate and edit a new anthology, Between Worlds, for Westland Books, and published a new sci-fi novel: The Sentence.

The Sentence is genre crossing, with elements of political thrillers, murder mysteries, and old school science fiction. In it, the protagonist, Nila, is faced with an ethical, legal and political conundrum which will change the world as she knows it. 

In this episode, we discuss the Indian science fiction landscape, Japanese-style murder mysteries, being fallible humans, the death penalty and carceral justice, and the big fat desi space opera. 

You can follow Gautam on X @gautambhatia88

Read Gautam’s Work:

• The Sentence (2024)
• The Wall (2020)
• The Horizon (2022)
• Between Worlds (2025)

In the first episode of season four, host Anjali Alappat sits down with Gigi Ganguly, to discuss her debut collection of short stories, Biopeculiar: Stories of an Uncertain World (Westland Books, 2024).

Gigi began her career as a journalist and, after some years of writing for newspapers, she decided to study creative writing at the University of Limerick. Her first novella, One Arm Shorter than the Other, published in 2022, got her nominated for the Subjective Chaos Kind of Award in 2023.

Biopeculiar: Stories of an Uncertain World focuses on the relationship between the human and more-than-human in a fascinating, speculative way. A man herds clouds, a powerhouse singer conjures rain, a scientist piggybacks on an otter’s consciousness, and much more. 

In this episode, we discuss the beauty of Steinbeck’s writing, the peculiar case of Elon Musk, K-dramas, rain songs, dinosaurs and robots. 

You can follow Gigi on X @gigiganguly

Read Gigi’s Work:

• Biopeculiar: Stories of an Uncertain World
• One Arm Shorter than the Other