I always wanted to write. My friends' encouragement led me to write and publish. I owe a lot to them. Writing gives me tremendous satisfaction, as I am able to express myself better in this form.
My pen-name is a curious amalgam of two names: Ali and Ashesh. In 1994, I attended a devotional quawwali concert, dressed in a long jacket and a fur cap. That prompted the revered host to remark that I resembled Nawab Ali Ahmed Khan. I took that as a compliment and a blessing. In the same year, later, I attended a programme during which my facilitator said that it was rebirth for me and he would give me the name Ashesh meaning without keeping anything back. The poems that I wrote in that period were published under the name Aliashesh. It is with this name that all my subsequent poetry is published.
Will you ever know a mother's pain? They would have killed you, had they known you to be mine. I surrendered everything: my life, my motherhood and your right to be mothered, except your right to live.
No comments:
Post a Comment