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Innovative Voices

Each of them shared short stories and poems written by them. Saudha narrated a short story called Eggs which was about Mrs Rao, who owned a multi-storeyed house and so had many tenants living in them. One of the tenants is a man called Zainuddin, a friend of her son Vivek, whom she suspects is a terrorist.

All the news channels keep blaring news that terrorist bombings are happening all over the country and in Mrs Rao’s eyes, her tenant is a potential terrorist. She doesn't leave even a single opportunity to take a dig at him and keeps warning her son that he will have to pay for keep his friend in their house.

One day, police come knocking on their door asking for Zain. This confirms her doubt. She faints, waking up to find that a huge crowd has assembled outside her house to watch Zain  being dragged away by the police.

Later her son comes home and tell her that Zain had bought a few peacock eggs from the market and since it was illegal to hatch them, the police had come to arrest him. The story throws light on the never-ending prejudice that everyone possess which is all Muslims are terrorists.

Annie Zaidi was the other author who was present at the event. She read a few poems of hers, which were based largely on love. She had written on fairy tale love, rustic love and rejected love.

She asked the audience to choose a poem they would like to listen to.
The introductory poem she recited was very well written. It spoke about her and the place that she came from.

“This poem helps me introduce myself to a foreign audience. Since I am a poet, introducing myself through a poem is ideal,” Annie said.

One of the poems she read out was about what could have happened once the princess kissed the frog in the fantasy tale The Princess and the Frog.

She narrated one of her short stories about a flutist. The programme was conducted by Toto Funds The Arts.