Category: Books
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The Graph of a Cry
My dissertation is available as a book for academics, libraries, and those who are interested to read more about the phenomenal journey of the American ghazal. This dissertation analyzes the journey of the ancient Arabic poetic form of the ghazal to America to provide insights into transnational poetry and cultural mobility. While the movement of…
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But let there be spaces in your togetherness
All you ever need to learn in life is written in The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran: Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.And he answered:Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.And how else can it be?The deeper that sorrow…
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Dustbin Dreams: a short story
Maya was livid. It was that dustbin again. “It is there, on my mind, all the time,” she exclaimed. She had acquired a shrill pitch she gets every time she becomes anxious. One of perils of living in our particular government colony in New Delhi is that you cannot miss the indiscreetly placed dustbin. It…
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Planting the Seed of a Growth Mindset
The core of our beliefs rest in two types of mindsets: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. In this post I will be putting forth some of my learnings on how to nurture the growth mindset. When I say “growth mindset” I mean the conviction that my passions, skills, talents, can be developed further.…
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Standing Together and Apart
The importance of space in relationships is rather under appreciated. While communication is the glue that holds people together, it’s ally space helps keep the bond intact. Khalil Gibran in The Prophet (1923) writes about marriage saying, “Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.” Is…
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Scratching at Layers of Patriarchal Sedimentation
During my research on the ghazal, I discovered that the work done by several women poets in the eighteenth and nineteenth century had been removed from written history. Women had systematically been excluded from several anthologies. In Urdu, as oral poetry started being complied and printed, the biographies penned by poet and historian Altaf Hussain…
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On Reading “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros
I am currently reading The House on Mango Street (2004) by Sandra Cisneros. It came recommended by a friend’s daughter; she read it as part of her English Literature syllabus in Grade 8. Well firstly, I am absolutely delighted that this young bright student recommended this book to me. Secondly, how fabulous that a book…
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Top 5 books I read in 2018
It is almost the end of the year and a good time to reflect on the best books I read in 2018. I try to read as many books as my age, this year had the ambitious 39 figure. I managed to read 33. Falling short of my goal by 6 books, but then it…
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New Blog: Voicing Diversity
The two friends, each talented and both wise, Yasmin and Mojdeh have their own blog and it is a wonderful read: click here “We both took the same path throughout our university career, only our minors differed: Mojdeh chose to do her minor abroad (NYC), while Yasmina did a minor in Education. By the time…
Diligent Candy 