Speaking truth to power: Iqra Khilji presents 'Khabees' and 'Haq Paraston Ke Naam'

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.