Annie Zaidi's Blog, page 34

Tech it up

Recently, I had to apply for a new PAN card. It was a relatively painless process, despite a few weeks' delay on account of a misplaced cheque. But what made me feel better through the whole business of following up on the application was that there was someone I could reach. The fact that I could send and email and actually get a response, that I could call a helpline to understand the problem

Un- comical adventures

My second graphic story for Mint's 'The Small Picture' had appeared a few weeks ago.

Here's a link.

3 new poems

I have three poems in the new anthology of Indian poetry at Big Bridge: 'Cine Sestina'; 'City, Twilight'; and 'Lifer Giving Advice to New Convict in Female Ward'. Read here.

After the suffering

About a month ago, I'd read a critique of the report of the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on hydropower projects in the Upper Ganga Basin and Ganga River. The report was submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. It came in for sharp criticisms from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), which claims that the report is biased in favour of large hydropower

Waste not, want not

The other day, I had to throw out a kilo of potatoes. I bought a bunch of vegetables, took them home and put away some inside the fridge. Potatoes and onions were placed on the shelf as usual.Three days later, a luxuriant layer of white mossy fungus had appeared. So I threw away the potatoes, which were still inside the plastic bag. Of course, I felt guilty about wasting food. But I felt even

The Decent Thing To Do

I've often heard it said that you come
into this world with just your body and you leave the same way. Which
is to say, don't get too attached to what you have. But as long as
you live, you need certain things. Your desire to live is
proportional to how much you have – money, work, love, support,
freedom.




Indirectly, our laws acknowledge this
fact. That's why every society eventually has to

Reclaiming Magadh

One of the best things about reading a
good book is that it makes one want to rush out and buy everything
else by the writer. It makes us hungry for more. On that count,
'Magadh' and its translation by Rahul Soni scores high.




I was introduced to the work of
Shrikant Verma only in 2009, when some translated poems from 'Magadh'
appeared in Almost Island, the literary journal that has now

Why not kiss and make it right?

Imagine being dragged out of your home
at midnight, being beaten up and shamed publicly. 



Imagine that you
have not beaten anyone else, done no violence, no economic fraud,
nothing. All you've done is fallen in love, and decided to live with
someone. And for this, you were punished by someone who claims to
speak for everyone.




This is what happened in Balrampur
district. The woman was

2 poems

Two new poems published in Kindle Magazine.

A Flesh Poem about War

and March-end Sonnet

Schools spell trouble?

Schools have been in trouble lately. Hundreds have been derecognized. Thousands of them stand accused of fleecing us – all of us taxpayers, not just parents – of crores of rupees. There is talk of how the fate of millions of students hangs in the balance.I have to confess that I find these developments slightly amusing, because schools are where we are supposed to learn basic democratic values.