Growing up, Urdu and I never had the best relationship. I struggled to put my feelings into words that never quite seemed to flow off my tongue the way it did for my mother. I found myself distraught and dejected from a language that was meant to be home. I found myself relying more and more on English as a crutch to communicate with the world around me.

Before long, my English was all I knew. I was lauded for my prowess over the language, so much so that it became part of my identity and my only identity within time. Over the past two years I have been trying to forge a new version of myself through trial and error. The words of Faiz Ahmed and the voice of Zia Mohyeddin, I am trying to find myself anew.