Book Launch on August 3 (at British Council)

Toto Funds the Arts,

Zubaan and British Council, Bangalore

are delighted to invite you to the launch of

Annie Zaidi and Smriti Ravindra’s

The Bad Boy’s Guide to the Good Indian Girl

Or The Good Indian Girl’s Guide to Living, Loving and Having Fun

Annie Zaidi, who will read excerpts from the book, will be in conversation with writerJahnavi Barua

Venue: British Library, Prestige Takt, 23 Kasturba Road Cross, Bangalore

Date and time: Wednesday, 3 August 2011 at 6.30 p.m.

Annie Zaidi writes poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, blog posts, reports and reviews. Her first collection of poems, Crush, was published in 2007, and her collection of non-fiction reportage, Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales, came out in 2010.

Smriti Ravindra writes fiction and poetry. She is a regular columnist for The Kathmandu Post, and a founding fiction editor of the Raleigh Review, a literary magazine in the US.

Jahnavi Barua is a writer based in Bangalore. Her first book, Next Door, a collection of short stories, was published by Penguin in December 2008 to wide critical acclaim, and her second book, a novel, Rebirth, has been published by Penguin in January 2011.

Blurb for Good Indian Girl

What is she afraid of, after she has had two cups of coffee with you? Does she get into the car when you offer her a lift? Does she tell you her name after she gets into the car? Does she give you a phone number? Does she chat online? Does she agree to meet guys offline? Are you the only one she meets online? Is she married? Is she happy? What does she wear? What are her views on God? Who is this ‘Good Indian Girl’ - what does she look like? Does she even exist?

Here’s an insider look into the lives, limits and longings of girls who have been born or raised on the subcontinent. Each one sheds a little more light on this alluring, illusive, perhaps imaginary, creature – the Good Indian Girl – in all her marvellous complexity