Born with Two Wings
 

My family was originally from Sindh, Pakistan, where my family had lived for several generations. My father was a physician and had his own practice there. In 1947, when the British left India, their holdings were divided into predominately Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. As Hindus, my parents were forced to leave their home and other possessions and travel with their children to India by train. Initially they lived in refugee camps before settling in Ajmer, Rajasthan. I was born in Ajmer, the last of ten children.
 

Ajmer may be a small desert town, but the area is a great pilgrimage attraction for both Hindus and Muslims. Hindus travel from all over India to dip in the sacred waters of nearby Pushkar Lake, while Muslims travel from all over the world to visit the tomb of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti, a Sufi mystic who died in 1230.

My father died when I was ten years old. My mother and four of us younger siblings moved to Bhilai, Madhya Pradesh in India, where my eldest brother, an engineer, had settled and was working in the Bhilai Steel Plant. My mother was a very spiritual person.  Though she was a practicing Hindu, she believed in one God, who is the source of all life on this earth and beyond. She often said that we are the children of the same God, whether we are Hindu, Muslim or Christian or Jewish.

I had complete faith in what she said, and as an adult it became my aim to bring the whole world together through my artwork and poetry.
 

I was born without four fingers on my left hand. My mother did not perceive this as a deformity. Before I encountered the prejudices of others, she managed to make my faith in God so strong that I grew up with confidence and gratitude. I was shy and self-conscious, but I knew that my God has created me for a special reason. That thought gave me all my strength.

I feel blessed because I was born with two wings, the love to create and a love for God. These two gifts have been sources of eternal joy and a constant flow of positive inspiration in my life. Painting became my need at very early age. I could draw and doodle with continuous lyrical lines moving on the rhythm of my own soul. I work every day, as I have made covenant with my Creator that I will spread the love and blessings that He has showered upon me.

Born into the Hindu tradition in my native India, and accepting Islam later on, I have enjoyed the beauty of these two distinctive traditions firsthand. I met Alam, a Muslim architect, in Fine Arts and architecture college, and I married him because of his unconditional love for me. When I accepted my husband’s religion, I knew my bond with God was the same. Only the rituals for prayer had changed.  I received my mother’s blessings and moved with Alam to Iran and then Kuwait where I was exposed to a wealth of Islamic arts and Arabic calligraphy. I continued searching my identity—exploring new techniques, raising family, and travelling. The new vistas, merging with different cultures has added much texture and color to my art.

In 1986 we immigrated to USA and landed in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As artist and architect couple with two children, settling down was not easy because of financial struggles. My husband got jobs and was laid off a couple of times. My dream was to establish myself as a fine artist here in the US, but in order to pay the bills, I started designing greeting cards. A local printer encouraged me. He printed my cards in exchange for paintings. I started searching for a niche market and gradually made up my mind to serve Islamic communities here in the US by creating Islamic greeting cards. 

My husband and my children supported me by accompanying me conventions and community fairs, making sales and generating mailing lists. Slowly but surely, we created a mail order business. Sales not only helped us pay our bills, but they also sustained me as a practicing artist. I was able to rent a studio and continue my artistic explorations. In the beginning, the works were abstract.  I was searching through layering materials like paper, rope, and modeling paste on my canvas, and scratching, sanding, before finally embellishing with pen and ink. As I applied thin layers of acrylic paints, mystical figures gradually appeared that looked like animals or fish-like forms connected with continuous lines. Later these forms turned into gestural human figures connected with one line as groups celebrating, sharing, and communicating together.

After 9/11 I went deeper in my faith to counteract negativities about Islam. I learned Arabic, studied Quran, and used my calligraphy skills to create large paintings of positive verses that conveyed the Quran’s messages of love, reassurance, unity in diversity, and mercy for all. 

Later, verses that speak about ecological consciousness inspired the project Our Earth: Embracing all communities. Most recently, I have immersed myself in deeper knowledge to find remedies to save our planet and its ecosystems. And I have discovered Mycelia- the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments that can break down dead plant and animal matter into soluble sugars, nitrates, and phosphates that can then become food shared with multiple organisms. A new ray of hope is rising from mushrooms and the underground network of mycelia to regenerate, activate, and heal the damaged state of our environment. 

Through my lifetime of work as a painter and poet I have arrived at the beautiful concept that oneness is not restricted to humanity only. We must achieve oneness by connecting humanity, soil, and soul. Today, I am moving forward in my attempts to bring together all humanity through Onenessprojects.com. Through compassion and spirituality, we can create art, music, dance, and poetry to share and spread understanding and unity.
 

Previously printed in Uncommon Ground: BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism, Pease Press, 2022.