Soliha Shabir, a 24-year-old girl has created a history by becoming the first person from across the country to recreate the life of Habba Khatoon’s poetry. She says that the recreation is aimed to keep the name of a prominent poet alive in the modern era.
Talking to the news agency— Soliha, who lives in Koni Khan area of Dalgate, said that she has been following her aim to recreate the life of Habba Khatoon’s poetry since Class 8th. “I have been inspired by Haba Khatoon since childhood. We have been hearing the names of Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon since childhood. I even played the role of Haba Khatoon in a skit when I was in Class 8th. This was the time when I got fully inspired by her and started doing research on her,” Soliha said.
“During research, I came up with an idea to recreate the poetry theme as it would have been injustice to translate her life,” she said. The recreation of the life of Habba Khatoon’s poetry has helped Soliha to add her name in “India’s World Records” as the youngest and first author in Jammu and Kashmir, who has recreated the life of Habba Khatoons poetry. Her name also figured in the Asia book of records.
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“The life of Haba Khatoon was full of miseries. I tried to incorporate the life of Haba Khatoon in my recreation. It was my contribution towards my culture as we are forgetting the names of Haba Khatoon and other prominent poets due to modernization. So, it was my bid to keep the name of Haba Khatoon alive and to keep the sense and essence of poetry alive,” she said.
Soliha, who has completed her schooling from Minto Circle School and completed her graduation from Islamia College, is currently pursuing Masters in English Literature.
She is aspiring to research on the icons from Kashmir. However, she said that the sources for getting knowledge about Kashmiri culture are very few. “People hardly get material to read the culture,” she said, adding that she was helped in recreation by a prominent writer and poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef while the professors turned down her pleas for assistance.
