Valentine’s Day: A personal history of how a celebration of love became the target of hate in India

The nation’s women are never reassured that, for all its thorns, life can also bring roses.

Annie Zaidi

· Feb 14, 2021 · 07:30 am

Why do the rich and the powerful sponsor literature festivals, prizes, and art in today’s world?

Annie Zaidi, whose novel ‘Prelude To A Riot’ won the Tata Lit Live award for ‘Book of the Year – Fiction’, offers some answers.

Annie Zaidi

· Nov 24, 2020 · 08:30 am

Annie Zaidi’s new novel takes us to a south Indian town where trouble is being brewed, deliberately

An excerpt from ‘Prelude to a Riot’, in which Annie Zaidi shows us how communal violence is instigated.

Annie Zaidi

· Sep 04, 2019 · 08:30 am

How far to Auschwitz? Why we need to read Lidia Ostalowska’s ‘Watercolours’ to look for an answer

A book that details Nazi ambitions in general and concentration camps in particular, ‘Watercolours’ is a constant reminder and a warning.

Annie Zaidi

· Jan 05, 2019 · 08:30 am

‘Untitled-1’: Read a scene from the play that won Annie Zaidi The Hindu Playwright Award 2018

‘Set in a dystopian future, it examines the metaphors in the stories we relate about ourselves...’

Annie Zaidi

· Aug 17, 2018 · 05:30 pm

Neeraj (1925-2018): ‘I grew so infamous in my time, it will take centuries for me to be forgotten’

Remembering the poet and lyricist who died on July 19.

Annie Zaidi

· Jul 22, 2018 · 07:00 am

Two novellas reacquaint us with the finest Urdu writer of our time, Intizar Husain

With ‘Day’ and ‘Dastan’ Intizar Husain rewrites the Partition without violence, gauging its impact on people.

Annie Zaidi

· Jun 09, 2018 · 12:30 pm

This novel reveals things about contemporary India that cannot be proved (or we prefer not to see)

The stories of being Muslim in today’s India are beginning to emerge in fiction.

Annie Zaidi

· May 26, 2018 · 12:30 pm

Reading the poetry of Kedarnath Singh (1934-2018) is to be reminded of his love for everything

The acclaimed Hindi poet, who was also a critic and essayist, died on March 19, 2018.

Annie Zaidi

· Mar 21, 2018 · 08:30 am

'Lifer giving advice to new convict in female ward': A poem by Annie Zaidi

'Men! The things they make us do! Do you really want to go back?'

Annie Zaidi

· Jan 01, 2017 · 10:00 am

Do young girls willingly join the Islamic State to be terrorists?

A new novel looks for answers, and find resentful teenagers willing to trust strangers.

Annie Zaidi

· Jul 16, 2016 · 12:30 pm

If you don’t believe in the paranormal, can you explain these?

Paranormal experiences feel real. But do they correspond to an equally real ‘existence’ somewhere out there?

Annie Zaidi

· Dec 05, 2014 · 03:30 am