 Born in Rourkela, Anees hails from an aristocratic family in Hyderabad – her father, Nawab Hosh Yar Jung, was a renowned scholar and poet, and served as the "musahib" (adviser) to the last Nizam (prince) of Hyderabad State.Her mother and brother are also Urdu poets.After schooling and college at Osmania University in Hyderabad, she went to the United States for higher studies at University of Michigan Ann Arbor, where she did her master's degree in sociology and American studies.