There are many facets to love. It can be all-embracing, passionate, fulfilling, platonic. And when this love is shattered, it gives rise to anguish, hate, anger, jealously, and melancholy. There are times when such powerful emotions must be expressed, for to keep them bottled up inside can render one senseless and unbalanced. What better way to find release than through the age-old medium of poetry? It is the author's sincere hope that her poetry will bring solace to others who have endured the sametumultuous experiences with love and heartache. Perhaps the sharing of her words will provide healing for both the author and her readers around the world.
The Flame Will Always Burn is a collection of very raw, heartfelt poems written in free verse that chronicles one young woman's traumatic disappointment in love. Given the range and detail in which the trauma is recounted, she might well stand for every woman in such a predicament. The poems are written at a white hot heat, employing no niceties or euphemisms. The honesty and anguish of extreme disillusionment are not papered over and the writer is true to her raging feelings, resorting to none of the more acceptable attractive phraseology that usually tempers such poems. Her hurt and suppurating wounded soul are laid bare for all to see in sordid detail. The reader watches transfixed as she vividly delineates the course of her initial shock at the sudden change in her loved one's affections, the pathos of her helplessness to win him back, and the rancorous ungovernable emotions she experiences subsequently, which veer from tender to stridently vengeful and frightening.At several junctures her psychic wounds push to the surface and the poet renders these overwhelming sensations lucidly and without shame. The range of her feelings as a result of this seismic rejection in her life is at times truly hair-raising and the reader at times fears for her welfare.These are common human emotions that attend a devastating disappointment in love, but rarely are they found on the page in full public view. More often they are stifled, swallowed, and repressed, for the average woman rarely has the nerve to lay bare for all to see.There is no decorum in these pages, only the unfiltered psychological truth of the confusion, pain, rage and heartbreak that follows on the heels of a catastrophic disappointment in young romantic love. The poems are not easy reading given their intense honesty about what this young woman experienced. If there is redemption and solace to be found in these poems it is in the poet's ability to record every iota of an all-too-common anguish in wrenching detail for all the world to see.This indeed is writing as therapy for an individual, but its brashness and truth seem to surmount mere journaling as an outlet for personal psychological relief. The poems as a group stand as a startling unforgettable testimony to an unavoidable rite of human passage, harder on some than others, but real and life changing nonetheless. Fiza Pathan displays a unique compassion and deep understanding of the travails all such individuals face when dealing with this sort of cataclysmic upheaval in one's personal life and the extreme difficulty involved in surviving it.
Middle School is the worst period in a child's life. He or she has to undergo bullying, and an often painful transition from childhood to young adulthood. It is also a period most neglected at home and in school, for the child grows rebellious as he feels he is misunderstood and unjustly dealt with. Parents feel helpless to interfere. Imagine what then can be the plight of twins?Set in teeming, exotic Mumbai, India, this is the story about Raman and Sunny who are twins. Their childhood period was full of companionship and love and healthy competition. But with their graduation to middle school their travails began. Raman and Sunny felt suffocated on being compared with each other. Each wanted to choose his own path, be it academics or sports. They drifted apart and the bullying began. Where before their togetherness was their strength, their separation resulted in their being isolated and bullied, especially the mild Raman. Resentment between the twins creeps in and the crevice in their relationship widens. The mild Raman allows resentment to feed him and he becomes irritable and destructive. This leads to him being thrust before the school counsellor, Mrs. Bulwa, who decides that the best way to deal with waywardness in children, is to deprive them of their comfort zone.Raman's only solace is his friend Imran. Imran is the son of a Doctor. He is weak in studies but has a literary bent of mind. He shares his passion with Raman. But as things turn out, even here Raman misreads the situation and resorts to a deed which lowers him in the estimation of his father.Enter Sunil Sir. He is a reformer teacher who firmly believes that children should be encouraged to explore the different subjects taught by research and analysis methods to inculcate a love for learning and literature. Though sometimes prejudiced by past events, he does not allow this to cloud his judgement. The book deals with parenting, the agony of middle school, the individuality of each child, the jealousy, resentment and fear of change faced by both children and teachers, each at their level. It deals with violence, resentment, bullying, and defiance in children. It explores new methods to get the child on the right path by introducing him to those less fortunate than himself. It explores a synthesis in learning and new and fun methods of teaching. And it deals with the inherent goodness in children and in man. It's a family story, which shows that love, forgiveness and understanding in family life will help bring stability to a child's life.
The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name by Fiza Pathan is a collection of twenty-one original short stories, each centered on some aspect of the social, cultural, psychological, and emotional issues facing the LGBTQIA community in the world today. False prejudice has blighted much of society's sensitivity to what is necessarily a human rights issue. Ignorance has compounded it. What if you, as a parent or a family member, are faced with this "coming out" issue? Are you aware what each term in the acronym LGBTQIA really means? Are you aware of the emotional and psychological damage you do to a loved one when you fail to understand, and/or reject, their perspective of love, sex, and acceptance? Understanding the implications of the above, the author after months of research has crafted these stories based on actual conditions existing in different countries of the world. You will meet Rocky in "(A)sexual Story," the psychiatrist Dr. Timothy in "Fix It," and Jasmine and Randy in "Human Work of Art." You will learn about DSD--Dysfunction Sexual Disorder--in "Isher" and why Bangkok is called the "Kathoey Paradise." You will shudder at the public repression of gays by ISIS in Raqqa, and learn about the dichotomy that exists in Iran. You will revel at the miracle you witness in "Topanga," cry for Sameera in "The Girls' Bathroom," and be educated by "The Gay Truth." And in all these stories and many more, you will learn that every human being suffers like you do and rejoices as you do, and deserves the right to choose how he or she should live their life, however different we perceive them to be.
This story is about Nirmala the Mud Blossom, who had the misfortune of being born female in Mumbai. Rejected and thrown into the dustbin when she was just two days old, the child was rescued and returned to her family by the NGOs.Nirmala is ill-treated by her mother and subject to violence at her hands. She is allowed to continue her studies only because she can coach her younger brothers, as her parents are illiterate. On one occasion her mother brutally beats her when she is caught reading David Copperfield instead of doing the household chores; on another, she is struck for voicing her dreams of becoming a doctor. Loving school and the access it gives her to books she relishes, Nirmala accepts each beating with forbearance.What will happen to this little mud blossom? Will she fight back or succumb? How can she rid herself of harassment and rise above the stigma she endures?Nirmala: The Mud Blossom graphically depicts the travails, discrimination, and abuse faced by female children in India from the cradle to the grave.
Amina: The Silent One is the story of a musical prodigy born in the slums of Mumbai and her journey into hell. Born to Jaffer and his wife, Amina is their third female child, and they want to get rid of her. But sage advice from a professor of history changes their minds. This is the story about how poverty, sexual debasement, and sexual abuse is meted out to Amina, and how music can sometimes melt a heart of stone. Can Amina overcome the poverty she's been born into, her second-class status as a woman, and the sexual abuse she is made to withstand? Or will she sink into anonymity? This novella will get under your skin and stay with you for years to come.
This book of personal essays documents the relationship Fiza Pathan has had with the many libraries, secondhand bookshops, boutique bookstores, and writing haunts that have made her into the writer, publisher, and teacher she is today.
"I am a recluse and I love books more than I love people." - So begins Fiza Pathan, the self-proclaimed Reclusive Writer and Reader of Mumbai. In this charming collection of personal essays, Fiza recalls important phases of her life, along with the books she was reading at the time and where she read them. Revealed along the way are Fiza's personal struggles, from the father who didn't want a girl child to the years she believed she wanted to be a nun to the college friends who shamed her for gaining weight.Her greatest victories are found here as well, among them the publication of her first story, the request to autograph her most popular book by an author she admired, the start of her own publishing company, and the acquisition of her very own office-cum-writing hut. Within her stories, you'll meet Fiza's beloved Mama, editorial partner (and uncle) Blaise, many other uncles and aunts, the librarians of her youth, and plenty of book salesman. All the people who have helped Fiza along her path to books, books, and more books. You'll also take a taxi with Narayan, Fiza's "Man Friday," to visit her favorite haunts, from libraries to kiosks to boutiques to vendors who pile their offerings on the sides of the road, and you'll learn the plots of her favorite comics, religious writings, medical thrillers, horror stories, activist writings, and so much more.Fiza believes that every one of the books she has read has helped her become the person - and the writer - she was meant to become. Scenes of a Reclusive Writer & Reader of Mumbai is her life in books
"I am a recluse and I love books more than I love people." - So begins Fiza Pathan, the self-proclaimed Reclusive Writer and Reader of Mumbai. In this charming collection of personal essays, Fiza recalls important phases of her life, along with the books she was reading at the time and where she read them. Revealed along the way are Fiza's personal struggles, from the father who didn't want a girl child to the years she believed she wanted to be a nun to the college friends who shamed her for gaining weight.Her greatest victories are found here as well, among them the publication of her first story, the request to autograph her most popular book by an author she admired, the start of her own publishing company, and the acquisition of her very own office-cum-writing hut. Within her stories, you'll meet Fiza's beloved Mama, editorial partner (and uncle) Blaise, many other uncles and aunts, the librarians of her youth, and plenty of book salesman. All the people who have helped Fiza along her path to books, books, and more books. You'll also take a taxi with Narayan, Fiza's "Man Friday," to visit her favorite haunts, from libraries to kiosks to boutiques to vendors who pile their offerings on the sides of the road, and you'll learn the plots of her favorite comics, religious writings, medical thrillers, horror stories, activist writings, and so much more.Fiza believes that every one of the books she has read has helped her become the person - and the writer - she was meant to become. Scenes of a Reclusive Writer & Reader of Mumbai is her life in books
