Kashmir: Doctor gives wings to writer in her

Srinagar: A 30-year-old pathologist, Saba Shafi, gave wings to her creativity and launched her first novel ‘Leaves from Kashmir’.

Until a year ago, Saba had never thought of releasing a novel. Her interest for literature made her think of a career in this field. She first gave a platform to her passion through writing short pieces and articles for local newspapers and magazines.

Giving a brief about her book, Shafi said, “The book surrounds a woman’s views on things like ‘longing’ and ‘exile’. The book is based on the genre ‘stream of consciousness’. The name of the protagonist is not revealed.”

While, the theme of her book centres around Kashmir, it touches universal divines too.

Speaking of her journey of writing this book, she said, “It took me six months to write it and I did it, while I was working as a pathologist in a government hospital of Delhi. I used to write in the evening.”

Shafi said that finding a publisher was troublesome, therefore, she published the book on her own.

Shafi’s family had always encouraged her for pursuing writing as a career and publishing a book.

“My family encouraged me a lot to publish a book. I never thought of doing so. I used to write to release my tension in difficult situation, like a process of catharsis”, she said.

Shafi said that the money earned from the book would be used for cancer and mentally ill patients in Kashmir.

Manan Shah, Shafi’s husband said, “While, working in Delhi, we both connected to the cancer patients there. Since, Saba was good with literature, the idea of publishing a book and using the money of cancer and mental health patients in Kashmir came up.”