Narmeen Lakhani

May 24, 2024

Seeking permission to be known

I was reading the poem "Lost" by David Wagoner, which is anchored entirely on the principle of stillness. I do not know the last time I was able to be still, even more so after the pandemic. Waiting "to be found" elicits every form of anxiety that I try to keep buried beneath my threshold of perfectionism.

December 27, 2023

What traveling solo this year taught me about uncertainty

When I left home in January to travel across Pakistan, the temporality of life hit me the moment I said goodbye to my 93-year-old grandfather in Toronto. He had just returned home from the hospital, and I looked into his eyes as he put his hand on my shoulder. I think in that moment we both knew this was it – we would not see each other again in this world.

September 18, 2023

What a village toymaker invested in my educational startup

It was nearly 40 degrees inside a sweltering workshop located in the small town of Bhit Shah, Sindh, Pakistan. With no air conditioning, fans, or hope for when the electricity would return, I disrupted a group of artisans toiling away at their craft by asking for insights into a traditional Sindhi art form called "jandi"

May 12, 2023

The reluctant pace of self-discovery

Three-year old Humna was my first friend in the mountainous region of Hunza, Pakistan. When I went for my evening prayers, she came and sat beside me with the biggest smile and a curiosity about the new stranger in her neighbourhood.

February 8, 2023

The only lesson I've learned in 35 years

When I first started writing this reflection, I wanted to list 35 lessons in honour of my quintricennial - surely I could come up with at least that many reasons to have tumbled and stumbled through the last few decades of my meagre existence.

January 13, 2023

NecesSCARY: Investing in my childhood sense of idealism

Leaving my job and home and family to travel to the other side of the world and take on this ambitious entrepreneurial goal is one of the hardest decisions I've dared to make in my professional life.

December 8, 2022

Meeting the team behind Sesame's Rohingya muppets

I first heard about the persecuted Rohingya community in 2018 when the UNHCR invited me to a documentary screening of I am Rohingya, featuring the harrowing stories of Muslim children in Canada whose families had fled from genocide in Myanmar.

October 27, 2022

Making up for lost time

I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in a minute, but this year I was compelled to make an exception in tribute to Ms. Marvel, the first Muslim superhero in the Marvel universe.

March 20, 2022

I am always being born

Birth is defined as a one-time activity. You are born, you "start to exist" as the OED says, and then you die. But, as I am sitting here overlooking the expanse of nature's creation through a glassdoor barn in rural Pennsylvania, I am asking myself what it means to "continue to exist".

January 24, 2022

Whose side are you on?

In the middle of a heated argument with someone, I'll sometimes resort to asking, "But, whose side are you on, anyways?!" And, the resounding response is, "Yours, always." I believe that. When the people who love me tell me things I don't want to hear, I believe that even their criticism is in service to their intention to look out for my best interests.

September 27, 2021

Manifestation as an act of gratitude

For many years, I interpreted the popular notion of "manifesting your dreams" as a forward-looking exercise for conjuring what I don't already have. What has been interesting in the past months is the re-presentation of this idea to me through a lens of gratitude for where I am and what I have in front of me today. It positions me in a strange conundrum to be sure – what does being 'still' today have to do with moving forward tomorrow? Is my life as it is now, anything short of a dream?

February 20, 2021

What compels me to new heights

I have a fascination and intimate, mysterious relationship with words - they follow me, fill me up, and find me when I am lost. They challenge and test me. They both limit me and show me endless possibilities. At the end of 2020, a year that many will argue was one of extraordinary global circumstances that pushed us all to our breaking points, the word I witnessed was Al Jabbar - The Compeller, from the 99 Names of Allah.

January 17, 2021

For the love of tupperware

Have you ever found yourself caught in the vicious cycle of the tupperware game? You know, the one where somebody makes a neighbourly gesture to bring you some of their mom's delicious homemade butter chicken in one of those fancy matching Ziploc containers?

July 1, 2020

What improv taught me about falling up

What does it mean to fall up? How can failure ever take you "up to the roof tops, up over the town, up past the tree tops, up over the mountains, up where the colors blend into the sounds"?

March 1, 2020

Don't ask me where I'm from

A four-word question that can have the power to either give you a sense of belonging or exclude you from the status quo: "Where are you from?" If, like myself and many other immigrants, you have lugged suitcases around much of your life, you might have a perfectly rehearsed response (much like the one in my bio) that usually ends in the bewilderment of your audience and a follow-up, "Of all the places you've lived, which is your favourite?"

December 31, 2019

The anxiety of ending a decade

If you face bouts of high functioning anxiety like I do, then the turning of a year comes with an overwhelming impulse to hide under a blanket fort until all the hype about "the end of the decade" passes. Did I accomplish everything I was supposed to? Am I running out of time? Change is the enemy - nobody move and maybe we can all hold on to the present for as long as possible.

October 30, 2019

It really does take a village

Three weeks ago we welcomed the cutest addition to our family (yes, I reluctantly conceded my crown to a more formidable contender). By the time baby Kinza reads this, the world may have done away with social media, but I hope you and I will still be around to tell her that she made her debut surrounded by immense love and light. This will be an important reminder when she begins to witness the "bang-ups and hang-ups" (Dr. Seuss) that go along with this journey, but it will be critical even more so, when she feels alone in navigating them.

September 16, 2019

Paying homage to your journey

I hope that everyone reading this has the opportunity to experience a pivotal moment in their lives when resentment or anger for your struggles transforms into immense gratitude for bringing you to where you stand today so that you can tell your story with head held high.

July 24, 2019

An immigrant narrative of risk-taking

Do we need to take big risks to succeed? This is a question many of us probably struggle with regularly given the constant glorification of professional risk-taking on our social media feeds. It is a growing narrative, at least in the western market where jobs are scarce and "discoverability" is the buzz word. Can anyone really discover you if you are too afraid to put yourself out there?

June 28, 2019

Bulldozers and Ben & Jerry's

I do not know if I am in a state of heightened awareness right now, if the job market is dissipating, or if it is just a coincidence that many of my 30-something friends and I seem to be in the same sinking boat of hopelessness in the search for just one opportunity to achieve our potential. Major déjà vu of life after undergrad. You go to school, you work hard, you come out on top - and then what? You start losing your mind trying to prove yourself to an uninterested economy.