City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh

Written by Zeyad Masroor Khan

Narrated by Adwait Karambelkar

'An intimate new memoir about growing up amid everyday communalism' - The Hindu

Zeyad Masroor Khan was four years old when he realized that an innocent act of clicking a switch near a window overlooking the street could trigger a riot. As the distant thud of a crowd grew closer and calls for murder rent the air, he got his first taste of growing up in Upar Kot, a Muslim ghetto in Aligarh. Khan's world was far-removed from the Aligarh of popular imagination-of poets, tehzeeb and the intellectual corridors of the Aligarh Muslim University. His was a city where serpentine lanes simmered with violence, homes fervently prayed to dispel the omnipresent fear of a family member turning up dead, and the soft breeze that blew over crowded terraces carried rumours of a bloodthirsty mob on the prowl.

In his coming-of-age memoir, Khan writes, with searing honesty and raw power, about the undercurrents of religious violence and the ensuing 'othering' that followed him everywhere he went: from his schooldays in Aligarh, when hopping over to the lending library to the 'Hindu' part of town to find his favourite comic book or lighting candles with neighbours on Diwali was fraught with tension; through his years as a college student in Delhi, where being denied apartments because of his name was the norm; to ultimately becoming a journalist documenting history of his country as it happened.

City on Fire is a rare, visceral portrait of how everyday violence and hate become a part of our lives and consciousness; a society where name and clothes mark out a person as the 'other'. It is as much an incisive examination of religion and violence, imagined histories and fractured realities, grief and love in today's India, as it is a paean to the hope of continued unity, to an idea of India

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins India
• Release date: Jan 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9789356998261

Zeyad Masroor Khan

Zeyad Masroor Khan is a journalist, writer and documentary film-maker based in New Delhi. In his decade-long journalistic career, he has worked with national and international media companies like Reuters, Vice, Brut and Deccan Herald. A South Asia Speaks fellow, he primarily writes on politics, marginalized communities, crime and culture. Three of his documentaries have been screened at international film festivals. City on Fire: A Boyhood in Aligarh is his first book.

Reviews for City on Fire

[intezar hussain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a true story it full fills the requirement admirably. Hailing from ETAH, I vividly recall the days when Aligarh relatives would visit, seeking refuge from communal strife before returning home. I recommend it to anyone who believes communal harmony can be upheld without compromising religious identity. That’s the essence of our diverse nation.