Maham Khan

Early life and background

Maham Khan grew up in a family that was fond of Urdu poetry. Khan says her father would always tell her that she should know Urdu. She also says her father wanted her to become a doctor. [1]

Khan says she was 12 or 13 at a cousins' meet-up at her home. She says she was the youngest of the people present at the time. She says she quickly wrote two or three couplets while everyone watched her. Two or three couplets she wrote at that age are included in her published book. She says she wrote her first complete nazm at 14 or 15, after a plane crash in Islamabad moved her. [1]

Education

Khan says biology and chemistry were the sciences she understood and liked best. She says she did not get admission to medical school and liked biotechnology. She says she studied applied biosciences at NUST, and she describes her field as healthcare biotechnology. [1]

In 2017 Khan was in the final year of her bachelor's degree. Her master's project was on gold nanoparticles. She says she studied and wrote in English for 18 years. [1]

Career in biotechnology

Khan has a career in biotechnology, and her research focuses on breast cancer. She says her cancer work looked at targeted therapy as an alternative to chemotherapy. She also says gold nanoparticles are not toxic but are costly, so they are not commercially feasible. [1]

Poetry

Khan says she has taken part in university extempore poetry competitions and has won some. She says she won a competition at a university, though she had not written seriously until then. She says she first read her own work to her family after winning that competition, and that her father was happy that this kind of creative work was happening at home. She says that after this she decided to study poetry properly and read widely, including foreign literature. [1]

Khan says her Urdu verse came naturally, without deliberate planning. Her current focus is her own ghazal. She says her nazms often raise social issues. [1]

Khan says she wrote a poem about the coronavirus and a poem after a plane crash in Karachi. She says she decided to recite her poems herself so audiences would see the human side of the poet. She also says she wants to give people of today something that stays relevant now. [1]

Depression poem

Khan says her depression poem is written from the view of someone who is depressed. She says its purpose was to acknowledge the condition, not to offer a solution. She says people sent her direct messages after the poem, saying they were going through the same thing. She says she told those readers to seek professional help. [1]

Book and audience

Khan says she had her first book published through a publisher. She says readers can order her book online through her page, and that she will return to a conventional book form after some time. [1]

Khan currently shares her poetry through her own page and social media. She says she has about 178,000 followers on Facebook, which is more than her YouTube audience, and that her Instagram audience is about four to five thousand. She says she became overwhelmed by Facebook and is moving towards YouTube, where she plans to add playlists. [1]

Views on biotechnology

Khan says biotechnology has limited scope in Pakistan because research gets little focus. She says Pakistan does not have the labs needed to develop vaccines. She also says COVID-19 suddenly gave biotechnology much more importance. [1]

Views on language and Urdu literature

Khan says language was part of the ideology behind Pakistan's creation. She says she has seen elitism associated with English, and that English is still the working official language in Pakistan. She says Urdu should be brought into the school curriculum, and she urges people to speak Urdu if they can. She says speaking Punjabi keeps that language alive. [1]

Khan says her aim is to make Urdu seem cool to young people. She says the image of the Urdu poet is often that of a poor person, and that the person who writes is often paid little compared with someone performing at a concert. She says she wants Urdu writers to earn in line with their talent and that she wants to monetize Urdu literature. She also says social media lets a writer share work and earn from it. [1]

Timeline

2017

In the final year of her bachelor's degree.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Language shapes identity in Pakistan . Thought Behind Things , 2020-11-27.