Known Turf

Our eyes first locked across the street but I may be mistaken about that. Across a street, things look different from what they are. ...

Remember that delicate old song ‘ ajeeb dastaan hai ye ’ (what a strange tale this is)? It’s a romantic sort of lyric, but I often feel a...

The wind was strong enough to drown out the feeble sounds of a group walking up to the tiny market in Rekong Peo. They had probably ‘marche...

“Earlier, people just did as they were asked. Or, they sniffed at the wind and followed its bent. Now, people note which way the wind is bl...

In which I expose my maha-random musical tastes and hold forth on eggs as a philosophy to live by. http://cityfm89.com/annie-zaidi-on-89-c...

I was in transit through Delhi recently when I spotted an ageing gentleman at a metro station. He stood out in the evening rush hour crowd...

Humans discovered that seeds could be put in the soil, to get more fruits and vegetables and grain. This caused humans to settle down in ...

24 kids ‘disappear’ everyday in Madhya Pradesh alone. Between 2003 and 2011, the total figure was as high as 75,521, with the chart peaking ...

Two extracts from two pieces worth reading: " A plan to stop the destruction of the world’s oceans was blocked by the US, Canada and...

I thought it worthwhile to reiterate this — the President does represent us. As ‘First Citizen’, he (or she) signs off on our future. He ...

Recently, watching the documentary  Supermen of Malegaon  — which is the funniest, most empathetic film I’ve seen this year — I began to ...

Infrastructure and colonialism make me think of Lord Dalhousie. I read recently that he built the Grand Hindustan Tibet road in 1850. Acco...

So I made this short film. 'Engine' was entered into a contest organised by humaramovie, where the main draw was a brief...

Last week, in Rohtak, a young man who sold boiled eggs for a living was reportedly beaten up as he tried to stop other young men from sna...

I’ve been thinking about what Gandhiji would do about our Public Distribution System (PDS). At the heart of this programme is the idea th...

Shyamal Chaudhary, a 65-year-old farmer was running around, trying to get the block office to sanction an irrigation project in his villa...

I wonder if you travel by cycle-rickshaw. I wonder because recently, some friends mentioned that they suffer too much guilt on account of ...

Surveys can be very confusing, of course. Last year (2011), the Gallup poll found that only 11% Indians were ‘thriving’, Pakistan was appar...

What surprised me was the newspapers’ howling. Then, I realised that most journalists — especially editors — ride in cars or taxis or autos...

Part of the problem is that the author gravitates towards spaces of leisure—house parties, nightlife, music, TV, concerts, restaurants, sho...