Zara Chowdhary sits down with David Ahrens to talk about her exquisite memoir The Lucky Ones (Penguin, 2024).

In 2002, Zara Chowdhary was sixteen years old and living with her family in Ahmedabad, India, when a train fire claimed the lives of sixty Hindu passengers — and upended the lives of millions of Muslims.

Instead of taking her school exams that week, Zara is put under a three-month siege, with her family and thousands of others fearing for their lives as Hindu neighbors and friends transform overnight into bloodthirsty mobs, hunting and massacring their fellow citizens.

The chief minister of the state at the time, Narendra Modi, was later accused of fomenting the massacre. Now, he is India’s prime minister.

Chowdhary’s The Lucky Ones entwines lost histories across a subcontinent, as it prods open a family’s secrets, and gazes unflinchingly back at a country rushing to move past the biggest pogrom in its modern history. Somehow, it also reflects the joy of two young sisters living their lives by resisting the bleakness of their home life and the dangerous world outside.

It is a warning to the world by a young survivor, to democracies and to homes that won’t listen to their daughters. It is an ode to the rebellion of a young woman who insists she will belong to her land, family, and faith on her own terms.

About the guest:

Zara Chowdhary is a writer and lecturer at UW-Madison. She has an MFA in creative writing and environment from Iowa State University and a master’s in writing for performance from the University of Leeds. She has previously written for documentary television, advertising, and film. You can find more at zarachowdhary.com or follow her on Instagram @zarachowdhary.