I had started learning English and Urdu alphabets and words at home from my parents before I joined a school where I was taught English for academic purposes through grammar translation method. It was a so called English medium school at which although books were in English, the teachers explained in Urdu. Besides science, mathematics, geography, social studies, I learnt Urdu, Sindhi, Arabic and English languages. I had a great deal of exposure to regional as well as foreign languages in which I secured better grades than other subjects, while continuously making conscious efforts to get good grades in science subjects that promised careers in engineering and medical science, the fields that were supposed to bring social progress and financial prosperity. No matter how hard I worked, I fared better in languages and literature with little effort.

I recently completed my degree from University of Exeter in MA English literary studies. Before that I did MA in English from University of Karachi which offered a unique opportunity to study both literature and linguistics in year one and two respectively. I secured first class first position in the batch of 2004.

My postgraduate experience began with a stint at IoBM, then at PAF-KIET where I taught English, before I joined Greenwich University in 2006. Greenwich University provided me the opportunity to teach literature and linguistics at master’s level. I took keen interest in literature as I found it intellectually stimulating, enlightening and challenging. Literary criticism and Shakespeare studies became my special domain of interest since they trespassed other fields particularly philosophy. I excelled in teaching these courses and received excellent evaluation in them.

I have also been a freelance writer contributing to Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper. Since 2017, I have been reviewing books on history, philosophy and sufism and have written an essay on Jaun Elia, Pakistan’s renowned Urdu poet on his fifteen death anniversary in Dawn. This experience proved to be the impetus for becoming an amateur critic of culture, history, philosophy and literature. I intend to be an independent critic writing for newspapers and magazines besides being a professional university teacher.

It was lack of career and educational counselling opportunities and market forces that directed my educational route initially, however, it was my personal, psychological and self-fulfilling desire that changed the course of my education, career and life. Reflection on my own self revealed to me what I am and what I want to do. Once my interest and goals got in sync with each other I sailed smoothly in my education and career. Eclectic reading interest has had a profound impact on my professional, intellectual and personal development. It paved the way for holding discussions on complex ideas and carrying out in-depth analysis of interdisciplinary subjects. With reading grew my curiosity in the realm of knowledge which proved to be quintessential in university teaching, helping me to break away with tradition and dogma, and cultivate independent thinking and openness to new ideas.