The last word: In conversation with poet and author Annie Zaidi

She has an array of literary work under her belt. Be it poetry, short stories, novels or playwriting, aside from newspaper articles, Annie Zaidi has experimented with it all. She has published several works such as Crush – a series of poems, Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales, a collection of essays that was shortlisted for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award in 2010 and most recently Gulab, a novel which is an exploration of people's fears. While each of her works are varied, essentially they are about people and the things that move and often disturb her. In a freewheeling chat, Annie opens up to us.

BETWEEN MEDIUMS
Annie started her career in writing with poetry which she calls "the most direct form of self-expression." At the time, she says, "I didn't really know that I had any other kind of writing in me. But once I started doing journalism, I was pretty certain I wanted to do other forms of writing. Now, I am quite content doing a mix. I don't think I want to do any one kind of writing. You also go through these phrases. Sometimes you are trying to write a play but it just won't happen and you end up writing a poem instead."

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
With her first collection of essays being short listed for an award, she admits that getting recognition matters. "Of course, I mean it is acknowledgement and validation of your work. It also matters particularly for writers, as directly rewards are few and far between and books don't sell that much. But a book getting that kind of attention, particularly if it's a creative work, not mass-market, then it helps to bring little more attention to your work. Otherwise it's very tough in today's kind of crowded media space. We live in an intensely multimedia world. For both information and for entertainment, people are lost for choice. People are quite distracted so if you're going to try and grab somebody's attention, somebody who isn't a pre-internet generation person, it's really hard for a book to do that," she explains.

BOLLYWOOD DREAMS
When it comes to films, she has experimented with short films and feels there are some good writers at work. "I've always been interested in films and have also tried to write some over the last few years. But I think because we see so many bad movies, we tend to associate Bollywood with something that is necessarily over the top and compromised in some way... One of the most stereotypical films is Amar Akbar Anthony but I loved it as a child and now I can look at it and say it's really silly but I can also see how it's taking from society and giving back certain ideas too. My own sensibilities have been formed from many various kind of sources so I don't know if I can replicate that kind of writing. But that doesn't mean I necessarily disrespect it. I do like a lot of mainstream Bollywood and think there will always be a certain amount of work that caters to the lowest common denominator in an intellectual sense. I quite like and admire some of the new writers. Take a film like Love Sex Aur Dhokha. The writing is completely experimental and is just as sharp as the making. I'm pretty certain I want to do good work. I don't necessarily want to make films for the sake of being able to say I make films. I'm not star-struck at all. It doesn't matter if somebody very big is in the film."

MAKING SENSE OF MEDIA
As a former journalist who has worked for a newspaper as well as contributed articles for various mainstream publications, Annie has much experience in the media sphere. "I started working at a tabloid. Since I cut my teeth on sensationalism, I should be the last one to knock it, but you do get tired of that kind of work very easily. After a point, you want to go deeper into stories and the spaces for that have been shrinking. The really worrying thing is that there are very few independently owned media places now. Some say it was always like that. What's started happening now, corporates owning media conglomerates and not allowing editors to do their job is a serious cause for worry," she explains. And what inspires her to put pen to paper? "You have to have a motivation that goes beyond your wanting to write. The things that move me and drive me to write have been as important as my own desire. If everything was going well, I don't know if I'd want to write that much."

LOOKING AHEAD
Annie already has projects on hand. "I'm editing an anthology of Indian women's writing which spans across centuries. There's already a fairly comprehensive two-volume set by Susie Tharu and K Lalita which was done in the 90s. Mine is a single book, a selection of women who had a certain volume of work, very significant at various points. I am also working on a documentary along similar lines. It tells the story of Indian women through their writing and texts," she says.