Interviews

Excerpt from an interview in Helter Skelter magazine about The Comeback:

'...I was thinking about our commitments to big cities in the arts. I think it’s unconscious and we can’t always control it, because we go where the money is, and we go where the big industries are. Writers tend to congregate around places where the publishing hub is, [actors] to where the film scene is. But at the same time, I think that we also are then controlled by the big scene. It’s a trade-off, and we trade our own sensibility. The other possibility that is traded in is of actually having control over what you want to do, setting up your own thing in your own social context. So I think it comes a little bit from there, the sense of wanting and not wanting to be in the thick of things.'

Link to the full interview: https://helterskelter.in/2025/03/interview-annie-zaidi-the-comeback/


From an interview with Mint about my new novel, City of Incident

'I think of cities primarily as people’s spaces and not so much as geography or an urban plan. And when you tell the story of a city through its people, you are bound to use a kind of fragmented approach because that’s just what the city is...
I think every (form) has its limitations. If you ask me if I would do this form of writing again, I would say no, not in the near future. Usually, you need certain preconditions for interconnectedness or multiple-perspective stories to work: There’s this central incident and you come to it from different ways—what happened before it, what happened after it; and all the characters involved have a role to play. In film, you would see this often; the most famous one is, of course, Rashomon (directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1950).
City Of Incident does something similar, except that there is no central event. Bits of the information of one chapter will feed into the next chapter, and you will know a little bit about the characters, but ultimately, the only thing you will know a lot about is the city itself.'


From an interview with Outlook about my new novel, Prelude to a Riot

'Those who wish to remain powerful must retain an acquaintance with the truth. They may serve disinformation to the rest of the country, but they themselves must have access to correct information. They may not invest in mass access to the arts, but they themselves must have access to the vision, the beauty and even terrifying clarity that artists bring. Two, lack of truth is associated with breakdowns of all kinds. What do we recognize as a loss of sanity? It is a state in which you can no longer tell what is real and what isn’t, what is harmless and what isn’t. Individuals who lose touch with the truth react in unpredictable ways. A society cut off from the truth, and from truthful art, starts to lose itself in similar ways. It becomes unpredictable and does not necessarily act in self-interest, much less underwrites someone else’s profit. Alternately, the truth goes underground, leaving the powerful in the dark and, this is worse for them. Look at any society where truth and art have been suppressed, and you will see that it is a sick/sickening society or a nation at war. I don’t think this state of affairs suits too many people, not for too long anyway.'

Link to the interview: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/annie-zaidi-on-culture-of-protest-identity-and-expression/368316



Excerpted from an online chat with readers at IBNlive:

  • Your stories are different from the romances we grew up on as teenagers. Is this a book for the cynical grown up? Asked by: Zoya
  • I am not a cynic myself, definitely not where love is concerned. But love and romance are not the same. I personally find romance a little tiresome, and was never drawn to romantic stories. Even as a teenager, I think I read just a couple of M&Bs and then grew disgusted with the genre. I did like Jane Austen, but her novels are about much more than just romance. They are also about social structure, the power dynamic between women of a certain class, and so on. Besides, she was so very astute, so witty. I think I cannot stand dishonest narratives. "Romance" in books often obscures the precise nature of what a human being is feeling at a given time. Perhaps you mention cynicism because the stories are not always about happiness.
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Extracts from an interview with BlogAdda

Q: After 64 years of Independence of India, which group of people have still not gained their freedom, according to you? Also, what are the positive factors that have evolved in these 64 years?

A: I cannot say what has changed for the better over 64 years. I don’t know enough about what India used to be. But urban/semi-urban, middle-class families certainly have changed even from the time when I was a kid. There’s more consumerism, a lot more television and very little patience.

As for freedom…freedom is not a trophy. You don’t win it once and for all, nor take home little souvenirs that you can display on a high shelf to feel good about yourself. Freedom is a process, an ecology, a constant negotiation of the terms of your life. It can and will be taken away by others if you let them. And you also don’t lose freedom in one go. You lose it by degrees. You can surrender it, or it can be beaten out of you. And when you look at it that way, you realise how fragile freedom is for all of us – all groups.

Q: A lot of buzz has been created by Anna and his supporters regarding corruption. Where do you feel this movement is headed? In a country where herd mentality exists, do you think that a large scale movement by Anna is justified? Can you suggest any solutions to curb corruption? Share your views.

A: I don’t know where Anna’s movement is headed. I don’t know if it was a movement, really. It seemed more like an outpouring of grief, anger and frustration. But a movement requires sustained involvement. It isn’t enough to express solidarity, wear a cap, and walk away.


I don’t know about ‘herd mentality’ though. Most human beings in most nations have a tendency to follow, rather than lead. I think the problem is that there isn’t a large-scale anti-corruption movement yet. Anna Hazare might mean well but he needs to think harder about what he is pushing, who will be affected, and what the dangers are.

Suggestions for curbing corruption:
  • Police reforms.
  • Judicial reforms.
  • Make the interface between citizens and bureaucrats simpler, more transparent.
  • Use the Internet wisely. Make all state and central officials accountable if they do not respond to official emails within a stipulated time frame. All websites paid for by the people must be updated every day, or at least every week.
  • Strengthen RTI. Fight attempts to dilute it or keep certain people or government departments or private organisations outside its purview.
  • Every district, every constituency, every municipality and every village and hamlet should have an account of its monies – what it gives to the state, what it receives, and how it is spent. This ‘hisaab’ should be up on the walls of every panchayat, every year. It should also be uploaded onto websites.
  • Shorten leases on land, shorten mining licenses. Review usage every year.
  • Allow and encourage communities to decide how money should be spent in their area.
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Other interviews:


A radio interview on Karachi's City FM89

"We did some interviews, informal chats with friends, or friends of friends. The only question I asked was: What makes for a Good Indian Girl (or a Not-Good girl)? Some scrap of memory would be volunteered.
For instance, the bit about a girl sticking together two pages in her scrapbook to hide a photo of a film star posing sexily – a friend actually did that. Someone else told me about family friends who’d sneak out from a second-floor window in their Delhi bungalow using a rope ladder; they actually had a fixed phone line that their dad knew nothing about. Yet another friend told me about how a group of girls broke some rules in school, but the prettiest girl got off lightly, while the girl with the biggest breats was ostracised." From an interview with Out of Print.



"These stories need to be told partly for the same reason that any story needs to be told and partly because, where girls-women are concerned, the pressure to conform to strange stereotypes of ‘good’ or to live up to the ideal of ‘good Indian girl’ is higher. Forgiveness does not come so easily if we challenge those stereotypes, and social censure for being ‘bad’ ranges from criticism for not being ‘Indian’ enough to outright violence" In the Pune Mirror.

More: At The Tossed Salad.
At a book blog.
About colourful creatures out of a filmi imagination.
On Terror.




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