Zehra Rizvi

The Alternative Muslim Identity Dec 31, 1969

We are not planning on going back home someday. We are home!

Involuntary Closure Dec 31, 1969

I have been scarred and disillusioned by this whole process and I think I will need therapy when I get back home.

The first time I quit Dec 31, 1969

Three of my smoking neighbors pass by outside my window. They are sweet and I have been collected by them already. A collection amounts to a wave and a smile.

Parents and the Pill Dec 31, 1969

Which desi girl goes around asking her father, when she is unmarried, or even when she is married, to call in a birth control prescription?

Two months and counting Dec 31, 1969

I just know something doesn’t feel right and that I’m neither Sri Lankan, or white

Hi, I’m Zehra, Your DJ for the Evening Dec 31, 1969

I am told this is how desi DJ’s start. A rites of passage of sorts. Just make sure it is a passage and not the end of the hall. You play at a desi wedding. You watch the drunk uncles swing around the aunties and come and ask you for the 7th time

The Monsoons are Coming Dec 31, 1969

Bitch sessions consist of relief workers sitting around, exchanging one frustration after another. The average time is that of three cigarettes and one Lion Beer per frustration.

Asoka Dec 31, 1969

I’m sitting and rubbing my back, smiling.
I want it to hurt.

Volunteer Sri Lanka Dec 31, 1969

Some Weekends Dec 31, 1969

We all revert to our younger selves at homes. When my world was theirs and theirs was mine. I am still their world. Mine has changed but inside these walls, I try to stop time.

Livin’ La Vida Aid-a Dec 31, 1969

The life in Colombo is easy. Instead of bitching and complaining, D and I are going to pursue other options and see if there is anywhere else that we can go. It is not about finding a hard situation so that our stories can be better...

EMACE Dec 31, 1969

It has been two days since I arrived in Sri Lanka as a volunteer for the post-tsunami rebuilding efforts.

Rantings of an Aid Worker Dec 31, 1969

I am of course, in this mindset that once D and I leave and the structures that we will set up will collapse. How the fuck did I get so colonial? What is the middle ground here for me?

Reaction Dec 31, 1969

Terrorists Breeding In Your Gentrified Neighbourhood of Ft. Greene, Brooklyn.

Loves loved {some not so loved} Dec 31, 1969

My future has been flirting with his past

In Sanity Dec 31, 1969

I don’t tell tales

Aik Geet Dec 31, 1969

These are my words but it is Your voice

Cocoa Butter and Strawberries: Florence Diary Dec 31, 1969

They can’t take That away from me

Love Letter Dec 31, 1969

The words form an assembly line

Untitled Dec 31, 1969

’i stand alone and naked...’

No Call the Next Day Dec 31, 1969

But i know something you don’t-

Touch Dec 31, 1969

That lingers far after it’s gone

Growing up an American Muslim Dec 31, 1969

You’re related to Saddam aren’t ya?

The Temptress at Barnes & Noble Dec 31, 1969

You, my child, still use pencils.