Why Did I Write Mero Maamu ko Maaya?

Aisha with her mother in the winter of 1987 (New Delhi).

Mero Maamu ko Maaya took shape as a poem,

but really, it began much earlier,

with soft songs, pink clips, warm hands,

and a voice that said, “𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧.”

My mother has been many things:

my first home,

my strongest cheerleader,

my soft place to land.

She is the melody behind my courage,

the scent behind my comfort,

and the reason I believe in love

that asks for nothing but gives everything.

We’ve argued, laughed, fallen apart,

held on, and grown up together.

And even now, as time does what it does,

her love remains the one thing

that doesn’t change shape.

If you have someone like that

a Maamu, a mother, a soul-mirror

may you hold them close.

And if you don’t,

I hope this book wraps you in the kind of love

she wrapped around me.

With all my heart,

Aisha