'A writer is first of all a reader.' - Susan Sontag
Hi, I'm Mariyam, a researcher-writer, podcaster and spoken word artist, based in Singapore.
Originally from India, I've spent the past decade of my adulthood (the 20s) moving across cities and countries, in search of new experiences, but mostly myself. You'll find here, key highlights of my professional, interspersed with personal, life so far. Like most of us, I'm simply connecting the dots that might at some stage, appear in order amid the chaos we call life.
I'm the researcher of the best-selling book 'The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age' by former Financial Times journalist, James Crabtree. The book is Crabtree's reportage on India's billionaires, industrialists, politicians and other power barons that influence the inner workings of the world's largest democracy in the 21st century.
I have also worked with Suchitra Vijayan, author, photographer and founder of the civic journalism initiative, Polis Project, on her book 'Midnight's Borders - A People's History of Modern India'. I contributed my research on her chapter on Assam and detentions under National Register of Citizens (NRC).
I run and produce a podcast 'Main Bhi Muslim' (translation - I'm Muslim too) that brings to light diverse Indian Muslim experiences. The podcast is a storytelling initiative that aims to become a public archive of not just my own stories, but of those that can help us better understand the fluidity that thrives as Indian Muslimness.
Poetry and spoken word performances are by far my dearest literary companions, simply because they offer me the chance to be an audience to my own words. I read them to listen to myself better, and heed to them in ways they demand, namely through reflection, courage and compassion. I've performed at stages in India and Singapore and you can watch some of my performances here.
A major part of my writing life so far has been influenced by my father's journey with oral cancer. He was 51 and I was 21 when he was first diagnosed. Over the course of the next ten years, he would go through every possible treatment, almost losing his ability to speak and possibility to survive. We came very close to knowing there wasn't much hope, until it arrived in the form of immunotherapy. You can read parts of that journey I documented being his co-primary caregiver and the eldest child. Here are some of those links:
- Dealing positively with cancer (Livemint, 2018)
- Living with a cancer patient - A Series (Hindustan Times, 2018)
- Why second opinions matter - My father's journey from suffering with cancer to living with it (Cancer Research, Statistics and Treatment Journal, Vol 2, Issue 2, 2019)
By now, if you're still reading, you might be interested in my other writings in the form of author interviews, book reviews, essays on mental health, society and feminism. You can find them here.
A journalist by training from Delhi University, I hold a Masters in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore.
You can find me on Instagram.
...