Annie Zaidi's Blog, page 9

Consider the zombie

Consider the zombie. What separates it from a human? Both walk, both get hungry, both are capable of violence, both can – in different ways – reproduce, and anyone who has ever seen a zombie apocalypse movie knows that the undead can be clever in pursuit of their goals. What a zombie is not, is self-interrogative. If it was, we’d think it human.Over the last few years, there has been some

A new review for Unbound

We do the work of creation in the hope that it achieves something in our communities. Something gentle, or fierce, or resplendent. Something that makes the world tilt in some way, even if it is at the molecular level. Today, I am feeling rather gratified at finding this review of Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women's Writing. The book was published about five years ago, and I wasn't expecting

'Bread, Cement, Cactus' out in India; some reviews

Bread, Cement, Cactus: A memoir of belonging and dislocation is now available in the USA and in India, in print as well as in ebook format. It was already available in the UK, of course. Please buy the book at your nearest bookstore or look it up online. A free download is available from the Cambridge University Press (UK) website.Here are some reviews: "In the author’s world, there is space to

Bread, Cement, Cactus now out in India

Bread, Cement, Cactus: A memoir of belonging and dislocation is now available in the USA and in India, in print as well as in ebook form, and in the UK, of course. Please buy at your nearest bookstore or look it up online.Here are some reviews: "In the end, the architecture of the book attempts to lead us towards a counter-resolution that will establish home instead in the paradise of personal

History, histories, memories

Dr Ghulam Yazdani was the first to photograph Ajanta paintings, and initiated the first serious conservation of Ajanta and Ellora. His work on the two sites was exhaustive and was published in two volumes. But he did much more than that, and he studied and helped conserve several Indian historical sites, including those in Warangal, Mandu and Bidar. His efforts and scholarship were enabled by

History, histories

Dr Ghulam Yazdani was the first to photograph Ajanta paintings, and initiated the first serious conservation of Ajanta and Ellora. His work on the two sites was exhaustive and was published in two volumes. But he did much more than that, and he studied and helped conserve several Indian historical sites, including those in Warangal, Mandu and Bidar. His efforts and scholarship were enabled by

In spitting distance of flammable

The meaning of spit changes with context. Literature is full of spitters and the spat upon, from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice to Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan to Raj Rao’s Kanthapura. In all of the above texts, a powerful person or dominant community spits or threatens to spit upon the vulnerable, as a way of demonstrating that they can. I was also reminded of Ha Jin’s War Trash, set

New notes on Facebook

Yes, yes, Facebook. Carry on spying. I visited Lithub. Show me all the Lithub you've got now. The worst material there might be on Lithub, you've presented to me. Does it not strike you that I am already acquainted with Lithub, outside of you? That I visit other literary sites without any prodding from you, and therefore you bring me nothing I don't already have? What's the point of this?

New book

New book, published by Cambridge University Press. Out today.




A brief extract is available here:

https://ninedotsprize.org/extract-fro...

Because grief is not an event you can cancel

Behind all funerary efforts and expenses is the urgent need to confront the loss of someone with whom you had (and continue to have) a unique relationship. You acknowledge the person not just as blood and flesh but as someone who was at the centre of a distinct web of relationships, with a distinct place in this world. The food, the sharing of memories, the travel helped the bereaved move past