“It took longer than I expected to adjust to thinking in Hindi, but I think that initial frustration allowed me to appreciate even more the enriching experience of perceiving the world in more than one language.”
“I was asked to create a painting which showed my reaction to the negativity and biased views about Muslims and extreme Islamophobia around the globe… While thinking in mind about the image the poem happened naturally.”
“This poem is one of the few poems I knew I would write someday, I’ve wanted to write it even before I wrote it.”
“[When] I write poetry I always have an image in my mind. Even if the starting point is an emotion or a vague idea, I try to visualise it. Whether I include this initial trigger right away in the poem or I save it for later on is something I decide along the writing process”
“I guess I listen and steal from what is going on around me. Sometimes I hear something hilarious or outrageous and think that has to go in a poem! I want to record and share it”
“I guess it was an attempt to convey on the page the way the mind and memory works combining the known past (my mother reciting the town name), the unknown past (how my grandmother died and why my mum never spoke of her) and the in media res present”
“It’s a funny thing with writing, as so much of the time I find I don’t really know where I’m going to end up with a poem… I guess what I’m trying to say is sometimes it does happen ‘organically’ and sometimes it’s more purposeful”
“Sometimes a short poem or phrase feels a little like a gift: it arrives almost fully formed and I get the sense that adding too much deflates the impact of the image and sound of the poem.”
“This poem was unusual for me in that it was written very quickly. Although I experimented with different stanza lengths, this version is close to the very first sketched out draft which was in couplets”
