Samreen Sajeda
Pulls on a sweater her sister outgrew
Sooner than fingers threading
Through the needle’s eye.
It was her fate to share
The mother’s womb, sleep
In the old cradle, shake
A finger-printed rattle, hide
In the blanket with an erstwhile scent,
Or settle in a corner. Burrowed
In dog-eared books, she was destined
To step in her sister’s shoes.
Not to forget all she usurped
Like the red toy-cart, the small
Wooden chair, a nutcracker soldier
And the big blue bear.
So passionately, she played
Until the chair lost a leg; the bear,
Its frozen eye; the cart let go of a rusty wheel,
The soldier limped on a broken heel.
Once, sifting through memories
The elder one mocked—
‘All things yours, were first mine
You’ll always be the second in line!’
The second-born slowly swirled around
Wrapping herself in a makeshift cape
On her head she placed a flower-crown
And declared—
‘Indeed, you are the first in line,
But I, am the anointed one, the Queen
Of hand-me-downs!’
Samreen Sajeda graduated in English literature from Sophia College, Mumbai. She completed an MA in the same discipline from the University of Mumbai. She is, at present, reading for a PhD in Palestinian poetry in translation. She writes poems, short stories and book reviews. Her work has been published in Muse India, This Week in Palestine, The Bosphorus Review of Books, Guftugu, Indian Cultural Forum, Spark, Punch, The Window Journal, Jaggery, Hakara, and in the poetry anthology titled, Of Dry Tongues and Brave Hearts, edited by Semeen Ali and Reema Ahmad.
Farazeh Syed (b. 1971) is an artist based in Lahore. After acquiring a diploma in printmaking at the Gandhara School of Art, Islamabad, she trained with the renowned painter Iqbal Hussain for 15 years in the informal studio class established in the older artist’s atelier. There, she learnt painting and absorbed the acute attention to human form associated with Iqbal Hussain’s painting and drawing, subsequently refining her own visual and conceptual vocabulary. During this period, Syed also attended Continuing Education courses in painting and drawing at Parsons and The Art Students League, New York. She recently did her MA (Hons.) Visual Arts (2014-2015) from the National College of Arts. A subject common throughout Farazeh’s work is the female form or ‘woman’. Her work comments on the historical representation of the female body in art as a visual/symbolic metaphor for sensuality, eroticism and ideal beauty as perceived by the male eye. ‘Woman’ has often been perceived as a submissive, de-individualized and aesthetic ‘object’ of pleasure for the male gaze. Her thematic concern, therefore, is the de-objectification and de-mystification of the female form—portraying ‘woman’ as an ‘individual’ with personal strength, dynamism and character. Using paint, Farazeh uses both semi-translucent and opaque layering in her work.
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