Feel the new air coming in With a layer of crispness that wasn’t there before… A new season is approaching hitting every part of the body in a different way. The breeze still a bit warm is wrapped in with a slight sting of cold Hitting your face with a shock as you realize the…
noises of my commute…
I listen to the sounds of the ride as I move along in a shared journey to a destination Hearing conversations of loss, of love, of everyday happenings as we all navigate a daily commitment of traveling together An unwilling partnership of navigating stops, movements and delays It is here that the most profound connections of human…
her feet…
Her feet floated in the air more often than not. A movement of the winds can sway her direction in a moment. The firmness that exists with two feet planted firmly on the earth is not present here. Leading her to move in different directions rapidly and without notice even to herself. What would life be like,…
Why Chaistan?
ChaiStan is a place where stories of migration and its meaning are deciphered. Chai because it carries with it a deep meaning of who I am as a Pakistani, with roots in a colonial history and a desire to find my own identity within its versatility, sometimes with an aroma of cardamom and cinnamon and sometimes just plain tea bags intentionally boiled in water for a prolonged period of time. Stan because it is literally translated as place. A place, that I keep wanting to find where the immigration experience that is my own is embraced in its full complexity and layers of contradictions.
Chaistan 