27 Jul, 2013

last evening in Dhaka…

Sehba Sarwar
27 Jul, 2013

People viewing street photo exhibition at Shahbag Square. I end my time in Dhaka with a trip to Shahbag Square, where historical photos of the 1971 Liberation War are being displayed. Since February 2013 when the International Tribunal convicted Abdul Quader Mollah for war crimes, and community members rose...

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25 Jul, 2013

more visits…

Sehba Sarwar
25 Jul, 2013

Two sculptures at the Institute of Fine Art in Dhaka The Institute of Fine Art at the University of Dhaka is an open space where students sketch, paint and sculpt. Photographer-journalist Zaid Islam, along with filmmaker Shameem Akhtar (who has taken me under her wing for the day) and...

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25 Jul, 2013

stories of loss…

Sehba Sarwar
25 Jul, 2013

Khushi arranges for us to visit Savar, the site where the Rana Plaza collapsed back in April. Today marks three months of mourning for more than 1100 lives that were lost when the building crashed. Today, more than 370 are still “missing”, a situation that leaves family members in...

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23 Jul, 2013

spontaneous party…

Sehba Sarwar
23 Jul, 2013

In the evening, I offer a presentation about VBB to the Britto Arts Trust, and they inform me about their artists collective. After the formal conversation and collection of funds for drinks, a spontaneous party breaks out. Kakon, a singer and visual artist, leads an improvisational singing session.  

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22 Jul, 2013

back in Dhaka…

Sehba Sarwar
22 Jul, 2013

Skulls retrieved from one of the sites where the Pakistani Army conducted mass killings. Back in Dhaka and recovered from a 48-hour journey to the India-Bangladesh border, I spend my Monday morning at the Liberation War Museum, where I experience a different side of history from one that’s commonly...

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20 Jul, 2013

the border…

Sehba Sarwar
20 Jul, 2013

The border crossing at Jaflong/Meghalaya In the morning, Pulak and I rent a car for a two-hour drive to Jaflong from Sylhet to reach the border. As we reach closer to India, tea gardens are replaced by stone quarries where men and women collect stones, which bull-dozers pile into high mounds;...

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19 Jul, 2013

going north…

Sehba Sarwar
19 Jul, 2013

This July is a month of movement for me. Today, I catch an early morning Green Line bus to Sylhet, Bangladesh’s fourth largest city in the northern region, close to the Bangladesh-Indian border. Due to heavy traffic exiting Dhaka, the six-hour journey extends beyond eight hours and artist Pulak...

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18 Jul, 2013

dhaka…

18 Jul, 2013

Khushi Kabir (center) at a music social organized by Britto Arts Trust In Dhaka, I stay at Khushi Kabir’s house, without whose help I wouldn’t have been able to obtain a visa visit Bangladesh. I’m learning all over again that we live at a time when country of birth...

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12 Jul, 2013

first three days in karachi…

12 Jul, 2013

My first three mornings in Karachi are spent buried in the passport office, where my sister is trying to renew her daughter’s passport and I’m trying to renew my own.

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07 Jul, 2013

landing in istanbul…

Sehba Sarwar
07 Jul, 2013

photo from Kulindag website Leaping at the opportunity to skip the Middle East altogether, I book Minal and myself on Turkish Airlines to Karachi since the airline has started non-stop service to Istanbul from Houston. We take a two-day stopover on our way to Karachi, since our friend Shaista,...

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23 Jun, 2013

coming through the gap in the mountain on an elephant

23 Jun, 2013

my installation: Recreating Home A description of the production: Coming Through The Gap In The Mountain On An Elephant (CTGME) is an experimental exhibition at the University Museum of Texas Southern University, featuring installation, performance and mixed media works by select Houston artists. The artists selected for this exhibition...

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03 Jun, 2013

why are streets named after men?

Sehba Sarwar
03 Jun, 2013

On a drive down I-59 to Hillcroft, where we visit every week to collect daal, rice and naan, Minal asks, “Why are all the streets and cities named after men?” We contemplate her question: Austin and Houston, the cities in the US that she knows best are certainly named...

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I was inspired to begin my blog when I visited the library at my alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, and saw a framed photograph of my friends and me calling for divestment of funds from South Africa.

In 2007,  I began a blog when I visited my alma mater and saw a framed photograph of my friends and me calling for divestment of funds from South Africa. I use the blog to document my movement between spaces, Houston, Karachi, Delhi, Dhaka, Los Angeles and elsewhere, recording observations, images and conversations. Here, I document the multiple realities that I inhabit – writer, artist, mother, activist, educator, and transnational. Interviews from my blog were exhibited at Houston’s Baker Ripley Community Center (2014) and at Houston Public Library in downtown (2015). My papers are archived at the University of Houston’s library.