Sharjah: Through the window panes of her heart, Tahaani Hasher lets you in on her feelings and thoughts about the things that matter to her or upset her. And she does it so effectively that not for a moment the feelings and thoughts she has expressed through verses read like those of a 10-year-old girl’s.
From parental love and sibling bonding to insecurities of a girl and safety of women, Tahaani covers a variety of subjects in her first collection of poetry ‘Through My Window Panes,’ which was launched on Friday night at Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF).
The collection of 17 poems is a candid expression of not just what the young poet feels about the world she is growing up in, but is also a reflection of thoughts that linger in the minds of the young generation.
“I write when I feel strongly about something. These are thoughts that just express themselves. I can’t write when someone asks me to write or when anyone gives me a topic. It just comes naturally,” said Tahaani, speaking to Gulf News following her book launch.
The Grade Five student of Our Own English High School, Sharjah, started writing at the age of six – that’s when her teacher noticed her gift and encouraged her.
“She had been writing from a very young age and before we noticed that she had a special gift she had already written a lot and most of her works were scattered around. I am afraid we have lost some of her early works because we just didn’t know; so we couldn’t collect them,” said Hasher Koyakutty, father of the young poet.
The child prodigy has so far written more than 100 poems and several short stories, which are yet to be published.
Tahaani says that she hasn’t read much poetry and from whatever little she has read so far, she has liked the 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson’s work the most.
“I can only understand some of what Emily Dickinson has written, most of her work are beyond my age. I haven’t read poetry that much. Writing poetry has come naturally to me, it hasn’t come from reading or I didn’t choose to write in this form. I just found that I could write and when my teacher encouraged me I just went on,” added the confident young girl.
Tahaani’s book carries words of praise by K. Jayakumar, former Malayalam University Vice Chancellor, who was also present at the book launch, as well as those of K.V. Mohan Kumar, Malayalam writer and Secretary General of Kerala Education Department.
South Indian Actress Meera Nandan, Kerala Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel and renowned Emirati Arabic poet Shehab Gaanem were also present at the ceremony to encourage the young poet.
