Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Annie Zaidi’s Love Stories #1 To 14 is an exploration of love, that looks beyond the superficialities of fairytale romances.
Annie Zaidi's Love Stories #1 To 14
Review By Anjana Basu
Love is not a matter of two hearts beating in unison and lovers walking hand in hand into the sunset to live happily ever after. Most often, it is about heartbreak and misunderstandings, different takes on that wise old slogan, ‘There is one who loves and one who allows himself/herself to be loved.’
Annie Zaidi’s set of stories are a set of interior monologues – dramatic monologues we would call them, if we were considering them from a Robert Browning viewpoint; a person looking at life and sometimes stumbling on an attraction without being aware of it in different ways. A lonely woman, for example, falling in love with the voice of an announcer in a railway station and making train journey after train journey just to hear the voice. That is actually the opening story and is used to signal to the reader that Zaidi’s romances do not start with a ‘once upon a time’ in the accepted fashion.
Her narrators are sensitive people, not all women, some of them are artists and many of them are estranged from the world around them, especially from that one particular person who may or may not be a lover. Zaidi’s skill of observation is used to effect when one of her narrators looks at a baby gecko trying to swim in a bucket and thinks of the man she might or might not love – love after all is a complicated word. It implies being attached to someone with no room for external distractions.
Very often people are more in love with love than with the lover. In the 14 stories, Zaidi explores every aspect of this ‘not so brief’ madness through situations that could belong to any part of the country. All the stories are characterized by a deep sense of compassion, though their titles – hashtags, aka and all – offset the compassion with a modern quirkiness.
Most of the action is internal, because on the surface very little moves. There are walks in the park, stolen mufflers, geckos on the walls and in the bucket, or a hunt for medical reports. The stories are very much about mind over matter. Nor is sex a part of it, the emphasis being on the undercurrent of chemistry that if strong enough can be visible to an entire roomful of people.
The collection does credit to a writer who wants to be taken seriously. Annie Zaidi takes us on a voyage through the nature of love in modern, urban India. Occasionally one wonders how the protagonists are so omniscient that they can understand the thoughts going through people’s heads in the flash of an eye – and not necessarily the ‘two hearts beating as one’ kind of understanding. A man realizes his wife has returned because she is worried about her finances if she divorces him, a woman understands a retired army officer’s marital history perfectly without ever having been married or deeply involved herself. One could perhaps say that love was responsible for this percipient wisdom, but lovers are seldom that wise, as some of the stories themselves can testify.
Publishers: Harper Collins India.
If you’re planning to purchase Annie Zaidi’s Love Stories #1 To 14 do consider buying it through this Women’s Web affiliate link at Flipkart. We get a small share of the proceeds – every little bit will help us continue bringing you the content you like!
Readers outside India can purchase Love Stories #1 To 14 through our affiliate link at Amazon.
Women's Web is a vibrant community for Indian women, an authentic space for us to be ourselves and talk about all things that matter to us. Follow us via the read more...
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Being a writer, Nivedita Louis recognises the struggles of a first-time woman writer and helps many articulate their voice with development, content edits as a publisher.
“I usually write during night”, says author Nivedita Louis during our conversation. Chuckling she continues,” It’s easier then to focus solely on writing. Nivedita Louis is a writer, with varied interests and one of the founders of Her Stories, a feminist publishing house, based in Chennai.
In a candid conversation she shared her journey from small-town Tamil Nadu to becoming a history buff, an award-winning author and now a publisher.
Nivedita was born and raised in a small town in Tamil Nadu. It was for schooling that she first arrived in Chennai. Then known as Madras, she recalls being awed by the city. Her love-story with the city, its people and thus began which continues till date. She credits her perseverance and passion to make a difference to her days as a vocational student among the elite sections of Madras.
Please enter your email address