How has it come to this, that racism has reemerged with such vengeance? I thought society had made great strides. Or was that purely me residing in a different milieu, embracing the brotherhood of man? Perhaps I did inhabit a parallel universe. Perhaps nothing ever changed at all.
Little britain is not for me. My maternal grandmother was from elsewhere. One of my uncles is from the subcontinent. My eldest brother’s wife is from across the ocean. My middle brother’s wife from other shore of that ocean. My wife is from the east. All these amazing people who married into the English tribe, …
O believers! Whoever among you abandons their faith, God will replace them with others who love Him and are loved by Him…. Quran 5:54 If we abandon the path, we will be replaced. This is quite clear. It does not matter if our forefathers followed the path for generations; if we abandon it, it will …
I’ve written a mountain about regret the past few years, particularly through the pandemic.
Whenever I read truly talented authors, I regret setting pen to paper at all. I have spent twenty-five years honing my art, but still I remain a complete amateur. This realisation hits hard whenever I read their fluent prose, its rhythm dancing inside my soul. Reading their magnificent writing, I truly cringe at my own. …
Don’t let yourself get wound up by the vitriol you discover on social media. If you believe all you find there, you may quickly conclude that the Hindu population of the UK is composed in its entirety of rabid, anti-Muslim, Modi-supporting extremists. But I say pause for thought.
I called a company to come and do work on my house. I’m an IT professional and earn a decent living, but we live in a tiny house in a working-class area. He took a look at me and my house, then immediately said: “Let’s not beat about the bush. We don’t take jobs smaller …
It’s strange: I’ve forgotten the names of nearly everyone I once knew—those I shared brief moments in time with—but some names never seem to leave me, no matter how hard I try. How strange that we so quickly become just dust to those that once knew us—forgotten, totally forgotten, obliterated from their mind. How quickly …
In childhood I was not a writer. I was a daydreamer, certainly, forever composing stories in my head, but I never contemplated writing them down. When asked to write a creative piece in school, I invariably wrote of that quaint subsistence lifestyle I once yearned for. I was frequently castigated by my teachers for penning …
I remember now why I don’t engage with the wider community all that much anymore. People like me are not considered part of it. And that is fine. Absolutely fine. I have zero interest in your activism either.
Shock horror: that really hilarious /sarcasm billboard and viral media campaign featuring a bloke asking women to save him from an arranged marriage turned out to be an advert for an online matrimonial business.
Friends and family have great expectations for me. They set goals and milestones they believe I must conform to.
It has taken me nearly thirty years to make sense of events back then. Now I have threaded together all the strands. Now it all makes sense. And so I have let go.
When writing, don’t be afraid to delete a whole chapter and start again when it seems you’ve lost your way. Friday evening’s writing just went in the bin. Saturday night’s writing seems to have got me back on track. Write with a pen and a pair of scissors.
I always cut myself off because I’ve always been cut off. I suppose old habits die hard.
