Kafka in Ayodhya and Other Short Stories
Publisher: Kitaab, Singapore
Published: 2015
Language: English
Genre: Fiction
“From Kafka and Faulkner to Babri Masjid and Bollywood, the myriad strands of contemporary South Asian life are twisted and turned into memorable stories — ironic or indignant, sad or touching — by Zafar Anjum in Kafka in Ayodhya and Other Stories.”
– Tabish Khair
“Bizarre turns normal in these stories–fruits of a splendid imagination.”
– Kunal Basu
“An impoverished couple is plagued by rats in their hut. A young husband struggles with erectile dysfunction. A writer is trapped in his own book by the character he created. And a young Palestinian girl grieves for her brother killed by the Israeli soldiers. This is a collection of heart wrenching stories and fantasy told in simple bold strokes.”
– Suchen Christine Lim
Startup Capitals : Discovering the Global Hotspots of Innovation
Publisher: Ra
ndom House India
Published: December 2014
Language: English
Genre: Business/Technology
As the Internet has matured in technology and reach, we have seen an explosion in tech startups all over the world. Not only are some of these startups changing the world and how we live in it, they are also proving to be the engines of job creation – an aspect that will be critical in the future. To support these startups, new ecosystems are popping up all over the globe to help grow these companies, aided by governments, successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
In Startup Capitals, Zafar Anjum brings you a ringside view from the world’s top ten startup cities. Well-researched and highly insightful, this book lays bare the engines of innovation and the lessons that can be learnt from these burgeoning startup capitals.
Iqbal: The Life of a Poet, Philosopher and Politician
Publisher: Random House India
Published: October 2014
Language: English
Genre: Biography
Allama Mohammad Iqbal, whom Sarojini Naidu called the ‘Poet laureate of Asia’, remains a controversial figure in the history of the Indian subcontinent. On the one hand, he is considered the ‘Spiritual Father of Pakistan’. On the other, his message of Eastern revivalism places him in the ranks of the twentieth century’s major intellectuals. Iqbal’s tragedy was that after his death, he was made the national poet of Pakistan and largely ignored in India. In his time, he was lauded as much as Tagore, but today India celebrates Tagore while Iqbal has been banished from her consciousness.
This meticulously researched biography will redress that erasure. This is the story of Iqbal’s evolution as a poet, philosopher and politician. While his role in the struggle for India’s freedom and the Pakistan movement are well known, not much is known about his personal life. This book highlights some of the least known facets of the poet’s life: how did a nationalist poet transform into a poet of Islamic revivalism and global revolution? How did three years in Europe change Iqbal’s political and philosophical outlook? Why did he start writing in Persian during his stay in Europe? Why did his first marriage fail and how did his romantic relationships affect him? What exactly was the poet’s role in bringing about Partition? Written with the passion of an ardent devotee, Zafar Anjum’s Iqbal answers all of these questions—and many more—in this carefully told biography.
Urdu Poetry – A Introduction
by Anees Ayesha/Zafar Anjum (translator)
Publisher: Kitaab International Pte. Ltd.
Published: November 2013
Language: English
Genre: Non-fiction/poetry
Buy it at Amazon.com
As one of South Asia’s most popular languages widely used in Bollywood films, Urdu has between 60 and 70 million native speakers in the world today. Sadly, the new generation is losing access to this language due to a variety of reasons. Despite this deprivation, they often display a passion for the poetry of this beautiful language. This book presents a small slice of Urdu’s heritage in an easy-to-comprehend style.
The Singapore Decalogue
Episodes in the life of a foreign talent
Publisher: Red Wheelbarrow Books, Singapore
Published: October 2012
Language: English
Genre: Fiction (Short Stories)
Buy it at Amazon.com
In this collection of ten beautifully crafted, interconnected short stories, Zafar Anjum engages two commonplaces about Singapore: one, that it is a nation of immigrants; and two, that it is a nation still looking to sketch out the parameters and contours of its own soul.
Through Asif Basheer, a newly arrived immigrant from India, Zafar Anjum takes us through the complexities of present-day Singapore. As we follow Asif making his spiritual odyssey through a fast-changing Singapore, we are taken on an unforgettable journey of love, lust, hope and despair. (Read more about the book)
The Resurgence of Satyam: The Global IT Giant
Publisher: Random House, India
Published: October 2012
Language: English
ISBN: 9788184000757
Genre: Business & Management/Corporate History
All hell broke loose with a simple confession from Ramalinga Raju—founder and chairman of Satyam Computers, the fourth largest IT company in India with over 50,000 employees and business in more than 66 countries. His admission in 2009 of cooking the books to show exaggerated profits combined with the diving economy rocked India Inc and forced it to look inwards.
With robust research, interviews, and stories—Zafar Anjum tracks the chronicle from Raju’s confession and Satyam free-falling, to the phoenix’s rise as Mahindra Satyam. This is a tale of betrayal and devastation, but more importantly of hope and resurrection. With an afterword by Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra Group, The Resurgence of Satyam is the definitive book that will answer all that you wanted to know about the Satyam saga.
Kafka and Orwell on China: Essays on India and China
Publisher: Smashwords
Published: April, 2011
Language: English
Genre: Non-fiction/Essays
This ebook contains four original essays that deal with India and China. In the opening essay, “The unmaking of the East—India and China in the age of globalisation”, the author examines the high-octane economic growth of India and China in the light of the wisdom of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The second essay is about George Orwell’s reflections on the attitudes and interactions between the West and China over the centuries. In his third essay, Zafar discusses Czech fabulist Franz Kafka who never set his foot in China, yet wrote a masterpiece, The Great Wall of China. John Updike counts this story belonging at the summit of Kafka’s oeuvre. In the fourth essay, Zafar wonders why India and China, two of the world’s oldest civilizations, are so near, yet so far from each other. Can Bollywood and other cinemas of India, ambassadors of India’s culture and emblems of our soft power, take India to the Chinese?
Zafar Anjum 