About Me — Zesty Zaria
Happy to be able to find a space where I can learn to fly with clipped wings
My name is Zaria. I live in Lahore, Pakistan with my two children and a husband. My husband has one other wife. We all live in one gigantic house like one big happy family.
I always have been a writer. I wanted to study further and teach English,but my rich family thought I did not have to do anything. So I ended up writing by the light of a candle in my lonely room.
In those days, I would scribble my thoughts at the end of the day and keep them under lock and key in my diary. As soon as my parents left me in solitude to shut my eyes to be well rested, my mind opened up.
I would stare at the glittering stars and be ready to strain my eyes and my fingers, sometimes until dawn. The chirping of the birds and the Islamic call for prayer was my warning sign to stop and get ready for school.
My addiction to books and writing was never appreciated by my family. I kept at it somehow, at all times. It has since become my only escape for normalcy. When I write, the universe listens, and attempts to find a solution to my problems.
I have kept quiet too much. I have adjusted and re-adjusted to satisfy my family, then my husband, then his mother and now my kids. I have always kept myself in second place, only to learn that there is no one who would keep me in first place.
This realisation is fearful, in a world so uncertain and unkind. I have since promised to make the world my oyster. I will not keep quiet, as long as there are people who would read my work.
There are many women who have suffered like me. Who have given their loved ones all they have. Who have shoved their own desires away to take care of them later.
Later would never come. My mentor, the only person in the world I could share my written work with, waited too long to write his book. It was left incomplete, and so was his life. With his last breath went away his life-long dream and his unshared thoughts.
When my fingers collide to put pen to paper, my meekness withers away. Suddenly I am more in control of myself. My unspoken words find meaning. I would be very happy when others too find inspiration in my words.
This I would like to do, before I wither away.
So at zesty Zaria you would find
- the confessions of my dirty mind
- blasphemous thoughts that race with time
- struggles of my absurd life
- fantasies that keep me alive
I hope, we can continue this journey together — you and me.
Thank you for reading and letting me share a part of my world with you.
