I have always been inspired by the great poets of the Eastern world. Their verses, therefore, have more than often appeared in my paintings, especially miniatures and calligraphy. My exhibitions so far have featured poetical creations of Rumi, Ameer Khusrau, Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz, Bedil, Mohsin Naqvi and Hilal Naqvi. The present exhibition is an attempt to weave together a diverse group of poets whose works are laden with longing for their homeland while encumbered with forced separation. The genre is known as “habsiyāt” or prison poetry where poets have memorialized their incarceration in verse. Another facet of this show is the collage of different regional languages and scripts such as (in alphabetical order) Gurmukhi, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu and sign language. The range of poets included are Guru Nanak, Mas’ud Sa’ad Salman, Shah Abdul-Latif Bhitai, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ghani Khan and ‘Ata Shad. Thusly, my current work is an additional collaboration with the motivational and inspirational ethos of all those literary figures that I have mentioned earlier. So, I have used their rich and everlasting words to create various calligraphic compositions based on the special technique known as siyah mashq. Siyah Mashq is a style of Persian calligraphy that was originally used by calligraphers many years ago in Iran as a tool of practice. Siyah means “rough” and Mashq means “practice”. Students of calligraphy, in order to practice their skills, would write and rewrite words over each other, and in doing so, would fill up the entire sheet. Subsequently, calligraphers elevated this technique to the status of a recognized style of Persian calligraphy, and gave it the name of Siyah Mashq. I have made a humble but sincere attempt to present the great poets’ work in an innovative and unique style using this technique. In doing so, I have not only focused on the calligraphy itself, but have also borne in mind the meaning of those words, which I have tried to portray and depict through my work, by creating the compositions embodying the emotions and the message expressed in the selected verses. Moreover, my work is presented in such a manner that it not only expresses itself as a work of calligraphy, but also appears to go beyond this into the territory of the genre of “painting”, by taking on some semblance of a painting.