Anees Salim of Draftfcb Ulka releases his second book 'Vanity Bagh'

Vanity Bagh, published by Picador, is the story of how inside every big Indian city, there is a tiny Pakistan, and the emotions involved

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | May 22, 2013

Anees Salim

Following the success of his debut fiction book, The Vicks Mango Tree, Anees Salim, Creative Head of Draftfcb Ulka, Kochi, has released his second novel, Vanity Bagh (Picador). The new book depicts how inside every big Indian city, there is a tiny Pakistan.

Touched with a wistful small-town feeling in the midst of a teeming city, Vanity Bagh is a darkly comic tale of how Imran Jabbari, inspired by the legend of Abu Hathim, an aging don, forms a gang with his friends called 'Five and a half Men' in their mohalla, and how they dispense a batch of stolen scooters to different parts of the city and become prime terror suspects after the scooter bombs explode.

“I have always been fascinated by the role of Pakistan in the Hindu-Muslim relationship in India. A minority of Hindus thinks all Muslims are pro-Pakistan and a section of Muslims secretly feels that they can empathise more with Pakistan than India. I wanted to portray this air of mutual distrust without employing a serious tone about the divide. And I think Vanity Bagh is a prototype of any Indian city,” said Salim.

When asked if he had ever experienced discrimination in the name of religion, Salim said, “During the Kargil war and after the Mumbai terror attack, Indian Muslims were frowned upon. I think a minority of Hindus feels that all Indian Muslims are Pakistan loyalists and belong to the other side of LoC. Such generalisations pain and anger me.”

In the book, one of the prime accused in the 11/11 serial blasts, Imran is destined to live in captivity for the next 14 years. He kills time plotting jailbreak until he is assigned to the bookmaking section of the prison. The new job equips him with a new facility: each time he opens a book and stares at its blank pages, he sees them scribbled with tales from Vanity Bagh. Imran thus traces the history of animosity between Vanity Bagh, nicknamed Little Pakistan, and Mehendi, a Hindu neighborhood. The solitude and reflection that characterise Imran's narrative is undercut by communal tension and a simmering violence.

Having spent most of his growing up days in a home library, Salim calls himself an autodidact. He spent his adolescent days travelling across India, seeing places and meeting people. In 1995, he joined Ulka as a trainee copywriter and, except for a short sabbatical, has been working in the same office.

He made his literary debut last October with The Vicks Mango Tree (HarperCollins), which tells the story of a journalist who disappears during the Emergency. Salim has two more books coming out in 2013. The Blind Lady's Descendants (Tranquebar) is written as a suicide note of a young Muslim from a little known Indian town. Tales From A Vending Machine (HarperCollins) is a hilarious story of a young girl employed at an airport coffee shop.

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