‘Known Turf- Bantering with Bandits and other True Tales, Annie Zaidi takes you for an intimate journey across parts of India that she knows closely. Inspired from her popular blog, ‘Known Turf’ and her journalistic sojourns, but not limited to them, Known Turf is a welcome addition to the study of an India and Indians that is falling off the map of the popular imagination. The India that Annie chooses to write about is the hidden India, where fault-lines exist at every step. She showcases a country divided deeply on caste, communal, linguistic and gender lines, a country that is forever hunger stricken. It’s not a pretty country. It’s the ugly truth. Yet, there is a compassion that shines through in her stories. What I most loved about the book was how smoothly she turns a personal experience to a universal one. She writes beautifully and with authority. The tone might be inconsistent at times and the structure could’ve been better. Yet, these are minor blemishes in an otherwise an excellent book.