Biographical Information:
- Name: Shah-Jahan(pseudonym),
- Age: 28
- Place of Birth: Bangladesh
- Current Residence: Rajbari
- Languages Spoken: Bengali, English
Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin: Can you tell us about your childhood? What do you remember most vividly?
Shah-Jahan: The river, always the river. The Padma was wide, calm in some seasons, violent in others. I remember the call to prayer rising over the water, carrying through the alleys. It was like the whole town breathed together at dusk. My earliest memories are of standing near the banks, the smell of wet soil, and imagining that the horizon itself was alive.
Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin: When did you begin to understand yourself as different from those around you?
Shah-Jahan: From very young. I wore my mother’s saris before I even knew what that meant. The neighborhood children laughed, but I liked the way the fabric felt, the way it made me stand tall. Later, I understood: I am a woman. A trans woman. And though some people resisted that truth, my reflection never did.
Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin: You describe yourself as litho-romantic. Could you share what that means to you?
Shah-Jahan: It means I love without needing it returned. My heart is full of romances that live only in my imagination. I don’t want anyone to love me back. That would ruin it, in some way. My loves are one-sided, but they are vast. I build palaces inside myself—marble domes, gardens, verses. I am never without company, even if I walk alone.
Dipa: Do you remember the first time you fell in love like this?
Shah-Jahan: [laughs softly] Too many times. A poet in a book, a god in a story, a stranger whose face I never saw again. My friends ask, “Why don’t you date?” They don’t understand that my romances are already complete. They bloom in silence. To me, love is not about holding a hand in the market—it’s about holding an entire world in my imagination.
Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin: You also write poetry. How does writing connect with your solitude?
Shah-Jahan: Writing is how I tend to my garden of unspoken loves. Each poem is a garland for someone who never asked for it. I don’t share most of them. They are too fragile, like glass. But they give me peace. Sometimes I write as Mumtaz, waiting for Shah Jahan. Other times as Sita, in exile, listening for Rama. And sometimes, I am simply myself, dreaming of a poet from centuries ago.
Dipa: Some people describe solitude as loneliness. How do you see it?
Shah-Jahan: Loneliness is emptiness. Solitude is fullness. My solitude is my kingdom. I am its eternal queen. [smiles] People think I am missing something. I know I am not.
Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin: What do you dream of for your future?Shah-Jahan: To keep writing. To keep dreaming. To continue dressing in colors that remind me of the sky after rain. My Taj Mahal is already built—it lives inside me. I don’t need someone else to complete me. My life is already complete.
