Does my Western sounding name make me more employable?
I remember my first day of secondary school like it was yesterday. I was born in Peshawar, Pakistan and my family and I moved to the UK when I was…
Category: First Person
What Liverpool’s long-awaited victory means to me and my family
At last, the storm had ended and there was a golden sky for Liverpool. The title was decided by an old enemy against a contemporary one. At the end of…
For me, India’s authentic history is best captured by its literature
Framed by a socalled “Western” lens, India is often viewed as an exotic, faraway place – an image reinforced in Western classrooms, which rarely venture into discourse about Indian history…
Diversity and White Privilege at Durham University
With the #BlackLivesMatter movement breaking the internet and protests ongoing across the country, I have witnessed a somewhat performative activism taking over my social media feeds, from many who have…
Husband Hunting: seeking a rishta in lockdown
I’ve reached an age where everyone I know is either married, engaged or searching for a partner. I fall into the ‘searching’ category. I don’t know when it was that…
Complexities of being a minority within a minority during a global pandemic
Are you working twice as hard to get half as far more than usual? For those growing up with this narrative, this notion has only intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic.…
Visiting the motherland: My first trip to India
I had a line prepared for whenever someone asked me about my heritage. Whether it was in person, in my Instagram DMs, or on a dating app, it was always…
One month of MESA
MESA Magazine launched just over one month ago, around the same time that we saw the Coronavirus outbreak take full effect. On a small, yet more positive note, this month…
