The practice of sharing poetry or 'shayari' with everyone sitting together in a circle is a fond memory hidden deep within my childhood. Frequent trips to India as I was growing up meant I was familiar with the language. However, without the chance to practice it on the daily, the formal Urdu, in which poetry is often written, was lost on me. I remember the sheer joy as my family exclaimed 'wah wah' or 'oho' when someone shared a particularly profound poem, and I craved to understand the epiphanies they were having. As a means of connecting with my family and my culture and improving my Urdu language, I started reading more poetry and planning photoshoots to match the sentiments I found. Coupling the shayari and the photos became my way of reconciling my identity within the diaspora.