For the love of Literature
It is for the love of the story and the joy of its telling, that I write. My first novel Yellow Dirt Road began on my first MacBook Air, twelve years ago because it became so easy to write. Its been long in the writing and many revisions later the family saga unfolds.
In my career I've stayed in some one hundred cities and I have read voraciously from Lucy Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables to Becoming by Michelle Obama and I know the story of the Muslim woman, in hijab has not yet been told. That is Yellow Dirt Road.
Now, free from the committments of a 24/7 job, I pursue my lifelong goal of story telling. Enjoy
For Posterity
At the height of my career, my world changed. Grandchildren entered the world with lullaby eyes and listening ears so I wrote and self published three children's books out of urgency, purely for their enjoyment. That is evolving into a series for them.
The Nobel, Gifted Prophet Series celebrates the great men who brought the most powerful books of all time: the Torah, the Bible, the Quran.
It was about telling a story of the greatest people in history, in the shortest form possible so the attention span of an 18 month old would not fall.
Other Writings: The heart responds to much more than prose.In the margins over time, I've written sonnets, to express an appreciation for love and loss in people around me.
Newspaper Columnist
In my professional capacity as a financial planner I wrote Sunday columns in two leading daily newspapers: Money Matters and Wallet Watch, on the art of the spend over some ten years.
Those experiences with people inform my second title, now on the drawing board: Estates In Paradise - migrant in America.
Since 1993
As a former President of the Senate of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, I am the first Muslim woman to have occupied such a seat and to have acted as President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
I am the first hijabi in the western hemisphere to have presided over Parliament having served as a Senator under two Prime Ministers, as well as in Opposition.
Before politics I worked in the financial services sector. I was a ten year member of the Million Dollar Round Table, qualifying for Court of the Table and Top of the Table, ranking among the top one percent in the world.
I served as President of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Insurance and Financial Services and a Board Member of the Caribbean Association -CARAIFA.
I have served as President of Madinah House, a half-way house for battered women and Chairman of the CARAIFA Foundation, a charitable body headquartered in Jamaica.
It is still worth saying! Of course I hit the glass ceiling many times in my career, but success is not in never falling, success is in the speed with which you can get up each time and pursue the path to the end.
Since 1993
a future we can salute...
Freedom to live as you believe, freedom to respect the rights of all people, it's the kind of world I envision for all mankind.