falak (noun)
/pha-luck/
-
an orbit; the curved path along which a celestial body travels
-
the celestial sphere, in which the sun, moon and stars move
Compare: Arabic falaq فَلَق, “daybreak,” which means the splitting open of darkness by light
Hi. I am Falak.
pronunciation: pha-luck, if you want to say it in my mother-tongue, Urdu; or
ph-lack, if your accent is westernized, like mine
I am an educator, writer, researcher, lecturer at the University of Toronto and recently I have been kickin’ it at Princeton University as a Fellow writing my book. I have a PhD from the University of Toronto. I write about migration, refugees, displacement, borders, prisons and immigration detention.
When I am not teaching my students or writing/thinking about all the ways this world is upside down, I am with my kiddo, Sophia, cutting up fruits and vegetables or baking a cheesecake while watching a cool National Geographic docu. She inspires me a lot. She has changed the way I think about the world. I read a lot about science because of her. She also encouraged me to re-learn painting and drawing (hence the visuals on this website). Together, we are figuring out how to paint on this cosmic canvas.
Thank you for visiting this digital home of mine. It is a whimsical home, where thought is not manufactured for algorithms. These thoughts are underground. Remember when the ‘97 singing Pippi Longstocking said, “I am the sea and nobody owns me.” Well, I write and create for the sake of thinking through things that I find interesting. It is even better, however, when you can think about these things with folks on the same frequency.
“Hell is other people,” Sartre said,
and his friend-turned- hell,
Albert Camus wrote, “I rebel, therefore we exist.”
peace.