This Stays Between Us

In this episode, I sit with Moka - an engineer, designer and secret poetic genius - who tells me about how she would tell her younger self to be grateful for each phase of her life, from being a college student to a university student, and to not worry so much. She describes her journey during a Design Project (DP) at university and how even though it was difficult, she got through it and became a...

Growing up, Dia was told that her laughter was too loud. Being the eldest girl in her family, she felt the weight of her father's expectations, and the need to maintain her family reputation. Her story is a mirror for many Bengali sisters alike, who have shrunk themselves into tiny spaces to maintain family peace, but have learnt the price of doing so - the fracturing of their happiness and indivi...

In this episode, we meet the very lovely Fizza, who is a first-year journalism student with a passion for writing and poetry. We talk about our hijab journeys, life in Year 4, the importance of accepting who we are now and living in the present moment, and how public speaking can help with this. Get ready to be empowered, because who you are is in the now!    Salaam, your host, Z.K.   Opinions sha...

Today I get to sit with the debut Bangladeshi-American author, Samiha Hoque, and discuss the inspiration behind her novel 'Slums of Paradise'. Samiha talks about her research process when documenting the generational impact of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, a time of great political turmoil, injustice and devastation. Her writing is a testament to the power of authentic and honest storytellin...

Were you an overachiever at school? Did you always want to be like Hermione Granger? Did you ever feel that if you did not get the highest mark, you were not enough? Today, in this episode of my 'Advice To My Younger Self' series, I am joined by Lily Mott, the CEO of Be The Change Media Network, who talks openly about her younger self - how she wanted to be a Hermione, and wished she gave herself...

In a funk? Need a new book to pick you up? Or are you tired of having nothing interesting to read? In this special episode, I will tell you all about my latest favourite reads, from The First Jasmines by Saima Begum, to Mongrel by Hanako Footman, to my favourite story by Angela Carter: The Tiger's Bride, and my unusual hot take on it. As always, this stays between us xoxo Opinions shared by the gu...

Salaam, in this special episode I am joined by Mariam and Khadijah, two best friends who will talk about the friendship and life advice they would give to their younger selves in secondary school. Khadijah will also tell us a really heartwarming story about her school friend Maja who helped her to stay away from drama and gossip at school, and how she is grateful for their bond. Mariam will talk a...

Welcome to Season 3 of This Stays Between Us, where I will be talking about the pursuit of freedom, what it means to belong inside your body and finding comfort in the voices inside your head.    This episode is an introduction of what's to come, with a special teaser on my guest episode series: Advice To My Younger Self, and a bit about where I currently am in life.   Nothing is yet set in stone,...

In this post-Eid episode, I will read out the poems written by the two winners of last year's creative writing competition - Janki Shah (@wordbyjanki) and C.Louise (@hersoftspokensoul). The theme of the competition was secrets. One line in particular stuck out to me by C.Louise: 'secrets make a prison out of our own skin'. It made me think of the many secrets we keep, and how it eats us on the ins...

Dear listener, when you feel a yearning in your heart. Ask.    Ask the One who created you.   He will not let you down.   In this episode, I dive into a time where I made dua for good friendship. At the time, a major friendship had ended and left a hole inside me, a hole that I filled with dua. I explore how sometimes, I felt that I did not deserve to ask for good friendships. I felt ashamed for a...

Picture this. You’ve moved out. You miss the comfort of your mother’s arms. You miss seeing your siblings tease you and laugh. You miss the warmth of your dad when he sits at the dining table, and asks you how your day is. Suddenly life has changed. You are living in a place where you should hear the sound of your mother’s laugh bouncing off the walls but all you can hear is your belly rumble and...

Is there a novel that you've been wanting to write? A poetry collection hiding at the back of your OneDrive? A protest speech that you just don't think is good enough but rehearse when no-one's watching you?    In Episode 2 of Season 2: Go Global, we dive into a deep conversation with Ayman Sabir, who will make you rethink your decision to hide your writer-self away. Because if you don't write, ho...

Content warning: this episode mentions abuse, violence, torture and sexual assault in the context of the experiences of Sudanese people during the war.    Welcome to episode 1 of a new chapter in my podcast: 'This Stays Between Us'. This series is called Go Global. Today we will be learning about Sudan and bearing witness to the pain, the suffering and the resilience that blooms in Sudan despite t...

To wrap up 2025, I will tell you a winter love story featuring two people.  The girl who held a date between her fingers, and the boy who stared at her in wonder. The girl who choked on her Arabic, and the boy who picked up each word.  The girl who couldn't make eye contact, and the boy whose eyes seemed to swallow her every move.   The minutes pass, and a year does too.  He has forgotten this mom...

My generation thinks that love is a YA novel. That love is Draco and Hermione making eyes at each other. That love is the chocolate boxes, the bouquet of roses, and the candle lit dinners. And yes, maybe all of those contain an element of love. But what about the love that our parents have for us? Why don't we ever consider that in our grand definition of love? In the seventh episode of 'This Stay...

Being the only brown girl and hijabi at school was never going to be easy - except it became one of my biggest battles in my self-worth journey. From being bullied over my skin colour to finally seeing my worth, this has been a tough ride through which I hope to share some key learnings that helped me along the way. Get ready my friend, episode 6 is going to be a deep one.   Things you will need:...

As a thank you to everyone for all the support you've given me with my podcasting journey, I wanted to give you a bonus episode which is called: 15 Qs to get to know your podcaster a bit better (that is one mouthful of a title AHAH)! In this episode, I asked Chat GPT to come up with 15 questions and my, it came up with some deeply philosophical ones! From exploring my relationship with books to ho...

In Episode 4 of my podcast, I will be exploring the break-up that no-one really talks about - the death of a friendship. I know! We should talk about this more! But don't worry, your big sister on the internet is here to talk about this huge topic and (hopefully!) make it easier to come to terms with. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that some friendships are like a second skin, a shadow that haunts...

“A Bengali woman does not shrink. She burns. She blooms. She becomes.” In the third episode of ‘This Stays Between Us’, I challenge the negative expectations placed on a Bengali woman and teach you that she does not have to shrink to please others.  For the girl who had to walk on eggshells around the elders.  For the girl who was made to feel less than her brothers.  For the girl who was undermin...

In the second episode of ‘This Stays Between Us’, I will take you back to my first year of uni. I studied engineering for the first time and hit a wall. I bunked lectures. I failed modules. I wanted to walk away. On top of that, I wanted to be a writer, and thought, what am I doing in this degree that glorifies equations and fluid flowing through a pipe?  But then I prayed istikhara.  What happene...

In the first episode of 'This Stays Between Us', I take you back to a moment where someone once said something that almost made me give up on my dreams. A boy who made me question my worth. But this episode isn't really about him. It's about the journey I took to silence his criticism and trust the voice inside me that said: 'I can do it'. In this episode, I'll be drawing on stories from my sixth...