Speaking truth to power: Iqra Khilji presents 'Khabees' and
'Haq Paraston Ke Naam'
Get conversant in a Rational Lady: Iqra Khilji
Iqra Khilji, who shot to fame with her poem Khabees, speaks about what poetry means to her and her literary inspirations.
According to Iqra Khilji’s own words, she was very young, when she learned the way to write Urdu from his grandfather in Bhopal. Her love for Urdu has been growing since. She developed her thoughts about feminism from Fehmida Riaz’s impressive works.
Iqra had been considering poetry very
personal and didn't ever recite it publicly. She was willing to hold her
talent hidden. When a huge platform like Habitat Studio seemed to approach in In November 2018, her cousins pushed her to participate. She was the sole Urdu
poet among 13 other poets at that event. So, this was the primary platform that
gave expression to the incredibly amazing Iqra Khilji poetry named ” Khabees”
which she wrote in the notebook during a category lecture last year.
“Khabees” talks about the day-to-day
struggles from which a lady suffers throughout her life, the male dominance. It
gives strange wings to a lady to fly and celebrate her freedom. Its rebellious
stance provides her with the strength to travel against this patriarchal
society.
After Iqra’s first performance, there
has been an excellent transformation within the way she looks at poetry. Now, she
is willing to publicize her all works as she begins to think if her poems are
worth to vary the society or maybe one person’s thinking, she should recite them
publicly.
For Iqra, feminism isn't only the discretion of girls but it's accompanied by an accurate education given to
her. She wants that a lady should tend an entire rational understanding about
each and each concept of her life.
Although she is pursuing law, she
doesn't have any intention to start out her career as a lawyer rather she is
willing to try to revolutionary write to bring some change within the
society.
"Free verse or meter, rhyme or
no rhyme, as long because the subject of a poem are some things that
organically evokes emotions within the poet's mind, it's sure to resonate with
the reader."
Poetry, for Iqra Khilji, represents a
potent, powerful force: A medium through which one can question power and
traditions. "A medium to precise the socio-political ambitions that I
share with others. It's my personal, minuscule agitation against the
expectations that society projects on the classes of individuals for whom I
primarily write: women, minorities, the Indian middle and lower-middle
classes."
She thinks of this kind as a kind of
inheritance from her grandfather, who played a serious role in raising her.
"He writes in Urdu and English.
He would read Iqbal and Ghalib, also as his own works to me once I was very
young. Naturally, I developed an ambition to write down like him someday. I
wrote my first English poem at the age of six, and a rather pretentious poem in
Urdu at 11." She wrote through school but hit a dry spell of two years
after. What prompted her to return to poetry was the social and political
turbulence she was witness to, and therefore the momentum that feminism had
gathered.
Urdu isn't her preferred medium of
thought, though, and when she sits right down to write, the choice to select a
language is impulsive. Before she begins writing a bit, she has usually
charted out certain expressions and emotions in her head. "They might be
in either Urdu or English because I do not have a primary language. I learned
Urdu reception and English at college simultaneously, so I can emote in
either." She prefers Urdu for its sheer linguistic beauty but
acknowledges English's ability to talk to people of various linguistic groups.
Iqra believes that performing poetry
allows her to convey emotions with exactitude, eliminating ambiguities aside
from those which are intended. "Giving the poem a voice leaves a deeper
impression within the minds of the audience. Moreover, it can reach those that
might not be up to reading poetry."
Though she is a fanatical admirer of
the many poets, it's the works of poets belonging to the Progressive Writer's
Movement and their values that inform her own writing. Fehmida Riyaz, Kishwar
Naheed, Maya Angelou, Plath, and Faiz, Jalib are a number of the various
writers who urge her to place her pen right down to paper.
In January, her poem Khabees gained
wide popularity on social media; surprisingly, it had been not a poem she ever
intended to perform. "Khabees was scribbled during a moment of fury,"
she says. Recovering from a bout of illness, she was to accompany her cousin to
an occasion and was nudged to send her poem as an entry. "It was picked,
but I used to be doubtful about it having much of an audience in vocable
circles because it was written in a rather literary Urdu. So I used to be
extremely surprised at the way it had been received."
Does the reach of her work on social
media interest her? Yes, says Iqra, who makes no bones about social media's
ability to make sure that her poetry reaches those that she writes for, and
people who she questions.
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