Show motor vehicles their place

The Delhi state government led by Arvind Kejriwal has come up with a plan to reduce traffic congestion and ease the air pollution - it will permit only even or odd numbered license plates on cars on alternate days of the week. I was not sure if they had a plan viz the actual enforcement of such a rule, so I wrote this: 

If the cops cannot - or will not - stop a clearly visible car in a cycle lane or a motorbike riding the pavement, how are they going to stop even-odd numbered cars? And if they do succeed in the latter form of law enforcement but not the former, then what kind of message is the state sending out?

Full piece here: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/delhi-odd-even-car-logic-pollution-arvind-kejriwal-sheila-dikshit-brts-smog-health-respiratory-illness-vehicles-cars-two-wheelers/story/1/7838.html

Pakad, pakdaai, padakwa

A piece in which I'm chewing on the idea of 'jungle raj' or the law of the jungle, how and when it applies depends on what kind of animal you are, I suppose.

Here's an extract that mentions the other kind of kidnapping that used to happen in Bihar:

In Bihar, there was another twist on the kidnapping theme - a tradition called "pakadwa vivaah" whereby men were kidnapped and forced into a wedding. I recall a conversation in Delhi a few years ago where a man spoke of having to travel through Bihar for his job. He wore the cheapest khaddar shirts, never had more than a couple of hundred rupees in his pocket and to anyone who asked, he would say he was already married. He was more worried about a gunpoint wedding than kidnapping for ransom.

This was not Lalu Yadav's doing...

Read the full piece here 

Space

Take this man, crushed cane in the city's slick machinery. Published in the Mint (Oct 24, 2015):

Read the whole comic here: http://mintonsunday.livemint.com/news/space/2.4.1779521176.html

Please go, if you can

Extract from a recent letter to Uddhav Thackeray:

A group of Indians had been invited to participate in a social media summit. Reporters covering the event often asked: “So, how does it feel to be here?”

Uddhav ji, I had to tell the truth. Karachi looked quite like Bombay/Mumbai, except that most of the signs, hoardings and graffiti on walls were in the Urdu script. The air, the smells, the food – there was so little difference that I was a bit put out. All that nail-biting about the visa, that absurdly long flight via Dubai (to think it would be only a few hours on a ferry!) and for what? Their halwa tastes like halwa and their poori tastes like poori. 

Read the full piece here: 

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/uddhav-thackeray-shiv-sena-pakistan-dharavi-orangi-township-karachi-dussehra-moharram-sakshi-maharaj-ml-khattar/story/1/6948.html

अश्लीलता नामक एक चेतवानी

BBCHindi.com पे छपा एक और लेख: 

महाराष्ट्रा में डाँस बार लौटने की संभावना लौट आई है. सुप्रीम कोर्ट का आदेश है की बार (यानी शराब-घर) में नाच प्रदर्शन पे पाबंदी नहीं लगाई जाई सकती. कोर्ट ने माना कि नर्तकी को बार में काम करने का हक़ है, लेकिन साथ में ये चेतावनी भी दी है - नाच में किसी प्रकार की अश्लीलता ना हो.

लेकिन ‘अश्लीलता’ क्या है? इसकी क़ानून में कोई परिभाषा नहीं. जैसे ‘लाज’ या ‘इज़्ज़त’ या ‘सुशीलता’ की कोई क़ानूनी परिभाषा नहीं. किसी को मटकना अश्लील लगता है तो किसी को आँख का इशारा. किसी को स्तन से तकलीफ़ है तो किसी को टाँग से. किसी को लड़कियों का जीन्स पहेनना अश्लील लगता है और किसी को लड़कों का चूमना.

संस्कृति और शीलता-अश्लीलता की लाठी का सहारा लिए जाने कितनी बार औरतों पे हमला हुआ है. कुछ लोग, जिन्हे ना जनता ने वोट दिया और ना ही किसी ने हिन्दुस्तानी संस्कृति का ठेका उनके हवाले किया, पिछले कुछ सालों से मंगलोर जैसे शहरों में क्लब और बार में लड़कियों को ढूँढते हैं, मारते हैं. कुछ पोलीस-वाले सारे क़ानून तोड़ते हुए पहुँच जाते हैं, मीडीया समेत, मेरठ के पार्क में और युवक-युवतियों को मारा-पीटा जाता है ‘अश्लीलता’ की अाढ़ में. 

अब महाराष्‍ट्र सरकार ये कहती है, औरतों का बार में नाच संस्कृति के ख़िलाफ़ है, जबकि सब जानते हैं, हमारी संस्कृति में औरतों का नाचना तो शामिल है ही, शराब भी शामिल है, भांग और चरस भी शामिल है. हिन्दुस्तान में हज़ारों तरह की संस्कृतियाँ एक साथ जीवित हैं. 

यहाँ मंदिरों में सम्भोग के दृश्‍य तराशे गये. इसी देश में लड़कियाँ सार्वजनिक नाच में भाग लेती हैं, ख़ुद भी शराब पीती हैं और अपने पसंद का साथी चुनती हैं. अपने ही देश के अंडमान आइलॅंड्स में लोग निर्वस्त्र रहते हैं और ख़ुद को अश्लील नहीं समझते. एक समय था, देश के कई हिस्सों में औरतें ब्लाउज़ नहीं पहनती थी. बल्कि पिछली सदी में कुछ औरतों ने अपनी स्मृति रचनाओं में लिखा भी है कि नानी के ज़माने में कोई युवती ब्लाउज़ पहन ले तो उसको अश्लील कह के डाँटा जाता था! छुप-छुप के ब्लाउज़ पहनती थी, रात को, सिर्फ़ पति को दिखाने के लिए!

सदियों से नाच-गाने का प्रदर्शन हमारी संस्कृति का हिस्सा रहा है. कभी मंदिर में था, महल-हवेली में था, फिर कोठे में मर्यादा-बद्ध किया गया, फिर सभागृह में और फिर सिनेमा के पर्दे पर. क्या महाराष्‍ट्र के मुख्या मंत्री साहिब ये नहीं जानते? क्या संगीत बरी और लावनी संस्कृति का हिस्सा नहीं है? जब दरबार या बैठक में नाच होता था, तो क्या दर्शक शराब नहीं पीते थे? आज भी गाँव के मेले में हज़ारों मर्दों के सामने औरतें नाचती-गाती हैं. घर-घर में टीवी चलता है. उसी तरह का नाच बार में हो, तो नेता संस्कृति और अश्लीलता की दुहाई देने लगते हैं.
शायद सुप्रीम कोर्ट को फ़िक्र इस बात की है, बार में नाच के बहाने औरत का शोषण ना हो. ये फ़िक्र इंसानी तौर पे ठीक है, लेकिन इसका क्या फ़ायदा जब तक ‘शोषण’ और ‘अश्लीलता’ की कोई क़ानूनी परिभाषा ना बनाई जाए?

मसला नाच का नहीं है. मसला ये है कि नाच ख़त्म होने के बाद, बार बंद हो जाने के बाद क्या होता है. बार में नर्तकी को छूना माना है, ये तो पहले भी नियम था. अगर उसपे दबाव डाला जाता है कि किसी ग्राहक के साथ, या स्वयं बार के मालिक के साथ, संबंध बनाए या अपने जिस्म का सौदा करे, तो उस नर्तकी को यक़ीन होना चाहिए कि वो पोलीस के पास जा सकती है. साथ ही बार में नाचने वालों का संगठन मज़बूत होना चाहिए, ताकि अगर कोई बार मालिक क़ानून तोड़ रहा है तो उसके ख़िलाफ़ बुलंद आवाज़ उठा सकें.

उसे दुतकारा-फटकारा नहीं जाएगा, इस भरोसे कोई नर्तकी पोलीस के पास जाए तो क्या उसके साथ ऐसा बर्ताव होगा कि जैसे पोलीस-वाले की बेटी थाने में आई हो शिकायत दर्ज कराने कि उसके दफ़्तर में उस पर जिस्म का सौदा करने का दबाव डाला जा रहा है? क्या ये हो पाएगा?

इसका जवाब मेरे पास नहीं है. जवाब सिर्फ़ पोलीस दे सकती है और सरकार चलाने वाले नेता. लेकिन जब तक वे अपना दिल टटोल कर जवाब ढूँढते हैं, हमारे वकीलों और न्यायधीशों को भी अपना दिल टटोलना होगा और एक शब्द की परिभाषा सोचनी होगी. ‘अश्लीलता’ क्या है, क़ानून साफ़ बयान करे और इस शब्द की आढ़ में देश की जनता पे हमला करने वालों को कड़ी सज़ा दे.

  

What Moharram is really about - refusing to forget

An extract from a short piece on what Karbala stands for (in my mind) and how the observance of Moharram remains relevant (that is, if we allow it to):

What does a tragedy mean, after all, if we give it a single word - massacre? How do we honour those who are killed even though they do not want bloodshed? They who die must not be reduced to a statistic. They must not be remembered as mere contenders for power. Therefore, the poetry is in the voice of a beloved who must witness a tragedy.


Read the full piece here: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/moharram-prophet-muhammad-caliph-mecca-medina-karbala-islam-muslim-hasan/story/1/6846.html

हिंदी में दूसरा लेख छपा bbchindi.com पे

 हिंदुस्तानी महिला, काम और काम की मज़दूरी पे लिखा ये लेख ज़रूर पढ़िए। टिप्पणी करना ज़रूरी नहीं :

http://www.bbc.com/hindi/india/2015/10/151009_women_empowerment_india_figures_ac


मकिन्ज़ी रिपोर्ट के आँकड़े महिलाओं का योगदान नहीं बताते, ये बतलाते हैं जीडीपी के ज़रिए आर्थिक इंसाफ़ या हक़ नहीं नापा जा सकता. मुश्किल ये है कि महिलाओं के श्रम का बाज़ारीकरण नहीं हुआ है. काम तो कर रही हैं. वेतन दे दो, बराबरी भी हो जाएगी.

पर अपने ही घर-परिवार से आर्थिक हक़ माँगना आसान नहीं. क़ीमत मकान की होती है, घर की नहीं. सबसे बड़ी बात, काम से इनकार नहीं कर सकती वो. बच्चे, बूढ़े, जानवर– यह सिर्फ़ आर्थिक नाते नहीं हैं, उसकी ज़िंदगी हैं. इन्हें छोड़ भी नहीं सकती. इसी तरह औरत अक्सर मोहताज रही.

Why Writers Return Awards

So, this is the second question to ask - why care what a writer says or does?

We care because writers give to a people their voice, their memory, and multiple layers of truth. Even if we do not see our exact selves mirrored in a book or a poem, we still find a part of our collective self. Writers show us a secret tunnel into the lives and minds of people we do not agree with. They incite passion and compassion, debates and dreams, and all the warnings we need. They consider fresh possibilities. They help us confront our fears, failures, shame, pleasure, and the ways in which we have been damaged. They are a nation's conversation with itself.


From a piece published here.

http://www.dailyo.in/arts/sahitya-kala-akademi-nayantara-sahgal-ashok-vajpeyi-sarah-joseph-dadri-lynching-mm-kalburgi-murder-george-orwell-mahasweta-devi/story/1/6715.html

bbchindi में छपा लेख

 पहली बार हिंदी में कुछ लिखा। किसी और ने अनुवाद नहीं किया, ख़ुद लिखा, तो अपनी ही पीठ थपथपाने का जी चाहता है।  पहले हिम्मत नहीं पड़ती थी।  आख़िर मेरी हिंदी हिंदुस्तानी है, न कि सरकारी दफ़्तरों की नई हिंदी जो सर पे संस्कृत का भारी बोझ लिए घूमती है, जिसे समझने के लिए आम जनता को किसी अनुवादक की ज़रुरत पड़ती है। लेकिन अब शुरुआत की है तो सोचा है कि हिंदी को फिर से अपनी ज़ुबान पे रखूँ, थोड़े और प्यार के साथ, बिना किसी संकोच के।  संकोच को झिझक कह दूँ। झिझक को हिचकिचाहट। कौन रोकेगा?

फ़िलहाल, bbchindi में छपा ये लेख:

http://www.bbc.com/hindi/india/2015/09/150919_women_writers_anie_zaidi_sr  

Port-Able?

Another graphic piece on what it means that state transport buses don't come right up to the departure gates at airports and even railway stations. Publihsed in the Mint (Sept 20, 2015):

http://mintonsunday.livemint.com/news/port-able/2.4.948020578.html

What reading Indian women's memoirs taught me

I have never seen a jail from inside, except in movies. In movies that did feature female protagonists in jail, they either silently submit to their incarceration or got tortured, often at the behest of men, or sexually exploited by men. If they were rescued or reformed, it was because some man came to their help.

Joya Mitra showed me a very different truth. She, along with a few other young women, saw themselves as political prisoners and they demanded that they be treated as such. They demanded better food. They clamoured for the right to read books... what happened to them was not the result of a sexual or emotional relationship with a man. If they suffered at the hands of men, they suffered at the hands of women too. They were subject to a brutal system (as were the men) and they lived to tell a tale that is not often told.

Read the rest of this short essay here: http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/indian-women-in-history-memoirs-sarojini-naidu-rani-lakshmibai-cornelia-sorabji-purdah-struggles-achievement/story/1/6207.html

In a 'New Asia'

I'm very pleased to be included in the latest issue of Griffith Review.

'Griffith Review 49: New Asia Now showcases outstanding young writers from the countries at the centre of Asia's ongoing transformation... co-edited by Julianne Schultz and Jane Camens, takes a journey through the region’s diversity, featuring a new generation of literary stars who will shape the way we understand the complexities of culture, politics and modernisation.' 

This issue is now available on sale in Australia. For readers and writers, I would urge you to subscribe either in print or online, or both, as I have, to this great literary magazine. There are fantastic pieces of writing each time, and I often find my head and heart opening up in new ways through something published in Griffith Review.

Here is a brief extract from the beginning of my memoir essay, titled 'Embodying Venus'.

Some reviews and interviews of Unbound: 2,000 years of Indian Women's Writing

Here are some reviews of the anthology I have edited: 'Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women's Writing' (Aleph, 2015)

"Zaidi's project is sound without being pretentious, a welcome diving-board for the uninitiated who, hopefully, would want to test the waters further" - From a review in the Hindustan Times

More review links:

A review in Business Standard

A review in The Hindu Businessline

A review in DNA  

A review in The Indian Express

A review in the The Kathmandu Post

Snippets from interviews:

I wanted to keep it wide open, to be as inclusive as possible while also being selective from a literary viewpoint. I was not commissioning fresh work but choosing from what’s already out there. So I had to think not only about which particular writer to represent, but also which poem, what passage from which story should be included. I wanted readers to experience the whole spectrum of literature produced by women writers in India. - An interview with The Hindu

The only sections that can be said to be particularly associated with women are ‘Children’ and ‘Food’. Most of the other themes – spirituality, love, sex, marriage, work, politics, war, death – are as much the stereotypical domain of men and male writers as of women. In fact, some of these themes are often not associated with women at all (in a stereotypical sense)...  I wanted to showcase the complex – the human! – relationships women have to food. It is not just that women purchase or cook food. They help to grow it. They can be seduced through food as much as through flowers and candles. They think about the politics of it, as Nilanjana Roy does in her essay on meat-eating (we’ve included a short extract). One of my favourite extracts is from Nayantara Sahgal’s novel Mistaken Identity, wherein she describes a group of prisoners going on hunger strike. It is one of the most evocative passages I have ever read about food or eating.”
From an interview with Verve

Each book that I've picked extracts from (and many others read for research) taught me something new about a different part of the country, a new culture and the troubles of people (both men and women) at a particular moment in history. It has given me a new lens with which to look at India, especially women's history. It has also taught me the significance of writing not only as self-expression but also as a form of unsilencing, as a tool of engagement with our past and future. Irawati Karve's essays in Yuganta do all of the above. Reading the memoir of the ruler of Bhopal, Sultan Shahjahan Begum and Gulbadan Begum, author of Humayun-nama (not represented in the anthology) taught me how important it is for women to not just do all kinds of work but to be seen to be doing all kinds of work, including power play and governance.
From an interview with Scroll

On shutting doors, safety and the citizenry

I, coming from Mumbai, was marveling at something else. We could get into trains in a civil fashion! There were announcements asking passengers to stay away from the edge of the platform and to let passengers alight first. By and large, they did.

In Mumbai, although railways would make halfhearted announcements to this effect, everyone knew that it was a question settled by whether the crowd waiting to get off the train was a mightier force than the crowd waiting to board. For years, I had braced myself twice a day, trying not to get killed by a stampeding crowd that was not just impatient but often hostile.

In the Delhi Metro, there was no hostility. There was a tentativeness at first, but people were obviously at ease; they didn't hurl themselves into the compartment as if their lives depended on it. There were good reasons for this - they knew the train would not leave without them. They could afford to wait until the passengers disembarked. There was no need to elbow someone in the ribs or dig your nails into someone's forearm. The train would not move until the doors had closed completely, and the doors would not close as long as people were still trying to board.

Read the full piece here: http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/annie-zaidi-infrastructure-public-transport-mumbai-local-delhi-metro-rush-hour-ladies-special-crowd/story/1/4789.html

There's more than just one kind of Indian

On marital norms in India, and what the mainstream will not acknowledge:

Is it a "good" custom? A bad one? I cannot say. What I can say is that my own view of Indian marriage changed forever at 17. My Sociology textbook informed me that there are eight types of marriage mentioned even in that problematic text, Manusmriti. Among them was "gandharva vivah" - what we call "love marriage".  

This was a revelation. Personal choice in matters of matrimony had always been presented - by most grown-ups, friends, Hindi films, television - as something alien. Love, premarital sex and divorce were talked of as "modern" or "Western" ideas. To hear a lot of right wing religious and political leaders, it would appear not much has changed in two decades. (Witness the moment in the documentary film Morality TV Aur Loving Jehad, when a man declares that in Indian culture, there is no space for conjugal love). 

It was through Sociology textbooks (particularly MN Srinivas' India: Social Structure) that I woke up to the fact that love marriage is very much part of our culture. That book taught me the basics of marital norms in different Indian communities.  

Some encourage marrying cousins or uncles. Some encourage marrying a brother's widow. Some tribes mandate a courtship period. Others have a provision for the bride or the groom to live with the other's family, to test the waters and experience the family environment before the marriage is solemnised. Some tribes pick out a mate after just one glance during a community fair or at a dance. 

Have your say. You can comment here.

Read the full article here: http://www.dailyo.in/politics/child-marraige-natha-pratha-divorce-dowry-women-consent-inheritence/story/1/4683.html

And what if you could fly?

Haven't you wished you could escape the road traffic jams and commute in the sky instead? Do you anticipate being stuck in a 'sky jam'?

Here's a new comic I wrote for The Big Picture in Mint  ('Sky Jam', 27th June 2015): 

and what if plants had the power of speech?

I've often thought about what everyday life might be like if plants could talk to us? This comic with some beautiful art by Vartika is the result of that pondering:
http://mintonsunday.livemint.com/news/speaking-trees/2.3.3057681950.html

A review of 'Sleeping on Jupiter'

At the heart of the story is an ashram that was led by a powerful, politically linked guru, and the abuse and torture of orphaned or war-affected children who were being brought up there as his wards. The connivance of many other adults who are not merely mute witnesses but active participants to this torture, puts a gruesome, frightening edge to the story. There is an excruciating feeling that the reader knows where this is heading and yet, with every page turned, dreads the revelation. There is little trace of theashram when the adult Nomi returns to Jarmuli but she finds a hint of the old dangers still lurking about in the town in the garb of monks, who are still a threat to vulnerable young boys like Raghu.

Each character brings her (or his) own baggage to Jarmuli. 

Read the full review here: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/VzxI6i5b8JUccDdTJe1kLJ/Book-Review-Sleeping-on-Jupiter-by-Anuradha-Roy.html

An excerpt from the Introduction to Unbound

Editors and writers, male and female, have equated domestic themes with dullness, or the lack of imaginative daring. In fact, there was a time when I (and I’m squirming as I write this) used to say that I didn’t care much for ‘kitchenized’ fiction. It took me over a year of exclusively reading women writers to realize how deep and strong the roots of my own bias were and how foolish our undermining of ‘domestic’ fiction.

Of course it’s domestic! Patriarchy is nothing if not domestic. Besides, there is more sex, violence, politics and overall drama in the average household than, say, the average office. Why are we surprised if domestic settings are chosen for fiction? From such settings emerge stories of great rebellion, and poetry that directly challenges the myths fed to us over thousands of years.

Hindi writer Krishna Sobti had once said in an interview that she wants to have fun, to live and not just write. She also said that families and marriages were anti-art, anti-writing. Yet, it is marriage and family that form the basis of her own writing. Her delicately crafted, aurally delicious novel Dil-o-Danish (translated as ‘The Heart has its Reasons’) is firmly domestic. It tells of endless manoeuvring by women as they struggle for economic security and personal dignity. And while the bold reclamation of a woman’s sexuality was one aspect of her novel Mitro Marjani (To Hell With You, Mitro), it was also the story of a joint family.

A longer excerpt from my introduction to Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women's Writing can be found here: Editors and writers, male and female, have equated domestic themes with dullness, or the lack of imaginative daring. In fact, there was a time when I (and I’m squirming as I write this) used to say that I didn’t care much for ‘kitchenized’ fiction. It took me over a year of exclusively reading women writers to realize how deep and strong the roots of my own bias were and how foolish our undermining of ‘domestic’ fiction.

Of course it’s domestic! Patriarchy is nothing if not domestic. Besides, there is more sex, violence, politics and overall drama in the average household than, say, the average office. Why are we surprised if domestic settings are chosen for fiction? From such settings emerge stories of great rebellion, and poetry that directly challenges the myths fed to us over thousands of years.

Hindi writer Krishna Sobti had once said in an interview that she wants to have fun, to live and not just write. She also said that families and marriages were anti-art, anti-writing. Yet, it is marriage and family that form the basis of her own writing. Her delicately crafted, aurally delicious novel Dil-o-Danish (translated as ‘The Heart has its Reasons’) is firmly domestic. It tells of endless manoeuvring by women as they struggle for economic security and personal dignity. And while the bold reclamation of a woman’s sexuality was one aspect of her novel Mitro Marjani (To Hell With You, Mitro), it was also the story of a joint family.

More of the Introduction excerpted here: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/RFTsUHoRDcxJroUmmFXJsJ/Excerpt--Unbound-Edited-by-Annie-Zaidi.html

Honestly speaking

Have you never wondered what exactly goes into your food, and where it comes from, and what it does to you? What if your food actually gave you all the facts about itself?

Here's me doing some dreaming:
http://mintonsunday.livemint.com/news/honest-food/2.3.2758995882.html

A new anthology is out

For over three years now, I have been looking for and reading Indian women writers across genres as part of my research for a new anthology, which is now out as 'Unbound'. Here's the cover and (below) some links to interviewswhere I try and explain the processes, choices and motivations that drove me as I put together this manuscript.

From a piece about the book in the Bangalore Mirror:

"It was also important to challenge the way 'Indian' women are represented in popular culture. Motherhood is a minefield. Food is life itself. It is very boring to think of women and food only in one framework: woman preparing food at home. It is also an inaccurate portrait. I wanted to present a more authentic collage through the extracts I chose"

From an interview with Verve magazine:

8. Which are some contemporary female writers you admire?
“Oh, many, many, many! You will note that about half of the writers included in the book are indeed contemporary writers. I have, however, left out very ‘new’ writers – those who’ve started getting published only in the last 8 to ten years. This was a conscious decision because, sometimes, you are blown away by a new book but within a year, the new voice is already fading from your consciousness. Substance has to be balanced against style. A work may or may not have lasting value, but it is difficult to judge that in the short term. In my (limited) experience, it takes a distance of at least 10 years for me to be able to judge a piece of writing in isolation, to look at it against its own light, not against the light of all the other writing that surrounds it.”

Book review: City of Spies

Decades have passed since the 1977 coup in Pakistan but the forces unleashed as a result have had such a devastating impact on the nation that it still continues to struggle with the legacy of the “Zia” years. Pakistani artists and writers have recalled those years of military dictatorship, the growing influence of the secret service, the bypassing of democractic and human rights, and the ensuing chaos. Sorayya Khan’s City Of Spies is another addition to the memory file.

Read the full piece here 

Registered Post: a short story

It was 7.30 in the morning and my alarm hadn’t gone off when Suhail showed up. I was still in my nightie when the bell rang and I was just looking for a dupatta to throw over my chest. But Shahryar said he’d get the door, so I settled back into bed. 

A whole minute passed. The silence outside was making me nervous. Nobody who comes to our door in this town leaves without saying a word or two, even if it is just salaam, ram-ram, or I’llshowyoubitchjustwatch. Milkman, postman, courier, goons sent by the other party after I’ve had a good day in court. Everybody has something to say. 

Read the whole story here.

A stained culture of menstruation

Despite advertising hinged on 'change' and girls growing wings, I still see women – some of them educated women in metros – who are embarrased about taking a used (wrapped up) sanitary napkin to the dustbin. I've seen women concealing it in the folds of their dupatta or saree pallu. I've talked to women in small towns who don't throw sanitary napkins in their dustbin at home; they walk instead to the end of the lane, and drop them off on a huge anonymous garbage dump – preferably very early in the morning so nobody sees them. We still do not have a sensible disposal system.

Read the full piece here.

An Ode to the Ordinary Muslim

Sometimes I look to you, minority citizen, to understand what it means to have faith in the motherland. 

There was a time when many of you could have left India. Hundreds of thousands did, after all... But you did not go. You stayed.

Read the full piece here

On writing, getting published etc

I often get approached by aspiring authors who want to know how to get published, and what my own experience has been like. So I thought I should collect my thoughts into a single post that will serve as a response to all questions that I am able to answer. Treat all advice, however, as general advice. Each writer has a different journey and therefore different points of view on the publishing process.

1. Finish a manuscript. There are no fixed rules about how long/big a book has to be, but you have to know that you will be satisfied with a book of 'this' particular length before you take it to a publisher.

2. Edit the manuscript to the best of your ability. Format it properly, check grammar and spelling.

3. Send a query letter directly to a publisher. You will know of most publishers if you are a reader (and if you are not a reader of books, I don't know what you are doing trying to become an author).

4. Most publishers have websites. You just have to run a google search. Many Indian publishers these days do encourage you to query directly, so send an email. Try and make sure your email has complete sentences and full words instead of sms-ese.

5. Find an agent if you are confident that you will get a good advance. India has very few literary agents but Siyahi and Writers' Side are two examples. For foreign agents, you will have to again send out query letters. I am afraid I don't know anything about finding foreign agents. I don't yet have any agents myself.

6. There is some good advice, from those who are clearly more experienced than me, here : http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/getting-published

SOME MORE

I recently talked to Cosmopolitan (India) magazine about how I got published. Here's the Q and A, which might be useful to some readers:

1) What made you take to writing? What were some of your motivations, aspirations, goals etc? Anxieties, concerns too?

A - I do not recall ever making a conscious decision to 'take to writing'. I wrote a bit in high school, but mainly essays or my speeches for debating contests. As an undergraduate, I used to participate in all extra-curricular activity - song, dance, drama, fashion show. The college had an extempore (on-the-spot) poetry contest and I participated, and to my surprise, won. I began to take writing a little more seriously then, mainly because of the encouragement I received by my English Literature teachers. Soon I began to co-edit the students' magazine. By the time I finished college, I knew I could write decently, and didn't know if I could do anything else. I had no clear ambition or, indeed, motivation. But I did write quite a lot of letters, diaries, poems. Mainly to express myself, I think. Nor did I have many anxieties in the early years. I had the arrogance and confidence that very young people often do. I think I needed it knocked out of me, and that happened very quickly when I moved to big cities and my reading widening to include contemporary Indian writers who was clearly leagues ahead in terms of both creative expression and basic knowledge of the world, society, culture and so on.

2) Did you start by getting feedback from your inner circle? How did the aspect of support and encouragement from family/ friends play out?

A - I rarely sought feedback in college, though I did show my poems to close friends. It was only a couple of years after college that I began to think about what I could do to get better. I began to read a lot more contemporary work from India as well as translations from everywhere else, that it began to sink in that perhaps I was not ready yet. I began to seek peer review groups and found a couple of places online. 

Friends and family are reasonably supportive, though I do not show my work to them while it's in process. Unless these friends happen to be writers themselves. We've had well-known writers in our family before (my maternal grandfather), and in any case cultural growth has always been encouraged in my family.

3) Were there steps involved? A progression? Diary...blog...digital...publishing/ author conventions & seminars...networking...print? Would you recommend that to aspiring writers?

A - Yes. Like I said, I wrote a lot of letters and essays initially. I began working for newspapers and magazines and wrote almost daily from the year 2000 onwards. At home, I would try to work on fictional stories though none of them came to fruition. In addition, I blogged a lot, from 2005 on, and was offered my first book deal on the strength of those posts.

I don't think seminars or writer conventions helped in the publishing process. I am not good at networking and when I attend, I do so in a quiet way. However, it is always good to hear other writers speak of their ideas, and be introduced to new kinds of writing through such seminars. Writers come in all kinds of personalities, so what they take from a gathering of writers depends on what they came looking for.

4) What's the best way to pitch/ put together a proposal and make oneself stand out in the clutter?

A - I wish I knew. I've rarely attempted book proposals, and when I have, I have not been successful. I prefer to just write the whole book and then try to get an editor interested in the manuscript.

5) Could you please dwell on the writing process itself? Timeline, schedule, any experimentation involved? Learnings from the process? What was particularly fulfilling/ frustrating? What to guard against?

A - I like to experiment with genre. I want to try and write in as many kinds of ways as I can, so I give most genres at least one shot. I also get rejected a lot, and some of my work is a failure even in my own estimation. My main learning is that you've got to keep at it. 

I don't have a fixed schedule, but I try and write regularly, and I read regularly too.  

What's most fulfilling is when I've finished something - a poem or a story - and it is just where it needs to be. For now, this is the best it can be. The feeling that I've said what I wanted to say in the genre I chose. Most frustrating is not being able to do this - to start something and then not finish it as I'd hoped.

6) How would you summarise the publishing and writing industry in India currently? Is it a good time for first time writers and is there a general openness towards new voices? In your opinion, what are the challenges first time writers are likely to/ can potentially face in this setting?

A - There is a fair degree of openness. But this is not a good time for everyone in a commercial sense. Writers whose voices are very experimental, or who do not translate easily for foreign markets must be content with very small print runs and very few readers. The Indian English market is very crowded, and there is not just a lot of intellectual laziness and creative stasis, there are also a lot of below-average writing available at a very low cost. It is easy to be lost in the crowd.

7) Do you think it's tenable to be a full time writer in the Indian context? How do you manage it? Tips on how to follow one's calling and also keep the roof up?

A - Not easy if you're a fiction writer. Impossible if you're a full time poet or playwright. I have thus far made a living from journalism and related media formats. But I continue to struggle, so I really should not offer anyone any advice.

8 - What was the response to your first book like and what's in the pipeline?

A - There were decent reviews when 'Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales' first came out. I'm not sure how much it's sold but it did go into a second edition, which was good news. I'm trying to work on a novella and also editing an anthology for next year.

9) Any general pointers/ insight that you'd like to share that's not been covered in the questions above.

A - General advice - read. Read constantly. Those who live in the world of words must be familiar with the landscape. Reading is what you want others to do, when you write. You better know the worth of what you're offering before you expect anything from readers. 

STILL MORE

If you're looking for more details from my own personal experience, here is another interview:
http://www.bookchums.com/blog-detail/author-interviews/bookchums-interviews-annie-zaidi/NTc3.html

Thela aur thithak: kuch yaadein

I have been searching online for the English translation of "thithak" – "baulk" comes closest but it does not quite capture the mix of emotions – hesitation, surprise, confusion, discomfort – represented by the Hindi word "thithakna".

Thithakna is what happens to regulars at a roadside chai stall whenever I stop by for a cup of tea like the men do – alone, sipping slowly, looking at the passing traffic, street signs, posters pasted on walls.

Read the full piece here