Ep 215: A Writer Learns to See

There is so much about India that is unseen to us, hidden behind layers of blindness. If only we could peel them off. Annie Zaidi joins Amit Varma in episode 215 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe how her many years as a writer, blogger, journalist, playwright and filmmaker deepened her vision of our world. Also check out: 1. Bread, Cement, Cactus -- Annie Zaidi. 2. Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women's Writing -- Annie Zaidi (editor). 3. Prelude to a Riot -- Annie Zaidi. 4. Annie Zaidi's author page on Amazon.in. 5. Known Turf -- Annie Zaidi's blog. 6. History, Fear and the Role of the Writer -- A talk by Annie Zaidi for Mumbai Local. 7. Ek Red Color Ki Love Story -- A short film by Annie Zaidi. 8. Annie Zaidi's films. 9. The Art of Translation -- Episode 168 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arunava Sinha). 10. राधा सौंदर्य -- Beni Prasad Beni. 11. Thandi Hawayein Lehrake Aaye. 12. Aakar Patel at The Windowpane Sessions. 13. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 14. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 15. Jackson Katz's TedX talk about violence against women and the passive voice. (Also, this quote.) 16. Demystifying GDP -- Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 17. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State -- Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 18. Most of Amit Varma’s writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 19. Our Colourful Past -- Episode 127 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 20. Early Indians -- Tony Joseph. (And the Seen/Unseen episode with him.) 21. The Right to Property -- Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 22. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking -- Amit Varma's column on the Uttar Pradesh Mritak Sangh. 23. India Awakes. 24. Who Broke Our Republic? -- Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 25. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 26. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India -- Akshaya Mukul. 27. The Citizenship Battles -- Episode 152 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 28. 'Understand the Chronology' -- Rohan Venkataramakrishnan's piece on how Amit Shah linked CAA to NRC. 29. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 30. Our Hindu Rashtra -- Aakar Patel. 31. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley’s Father’s Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley). 32. Misogyny and our Legal System -- Episode 58 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Chandavarkar and Hamsini Hariharan). 33. The History of Desire in India -- Episode 161 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhavi Menon). 34. Women in Indian History -- Episode 144 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ira Mukhoty). 35. Sultana's Dream -- Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. 36. The Mothers of Maya Diip -- Suniti Namjoshi. 37. The Prisons We Broke -- Baby Kamble. 38. The High Caste Hindu Woman -- Pandita Ramabai. 39. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu. 40. The Story of My Experiments With Truth -- Mahatma Gandhi. 41. I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Dĕd -- Lal Dĕd (translated by Ranjit Hoskote). This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. The India Uncut Newsletter has resumed. So do subscribe, it’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.