Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back Houstonian poet Varsha Saraiya-Shah with “Number Three, A Mystery,” exploring her identity as the third a girl child rather than the hoped for boy to carry on the family name. From the beginning, she found herself full of verve and grit to match any boy: “I toyed and stumbled with my own misadventures in the neighborhood nooks and games of the alleys, always on fear’s edge my spirit could poke through a good-girl persona at any time.” When her much younger brother was born, things changed and she “split,” delving into the layers of her personality and creativity. This prose poem also splits, illustrating her life-changing individuation that has blessed Varsha, and us, with vibrant and insightful poetry, a keen eye, and a free and sensitive spirit. She exposes oppressive feelings that many women experience in many cultures with warm, impish imagery and reminds us that all humans are individuals.
Read “Number Three, A Mystery,” in Synkroniciti’s “Identity” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/
Author of VOICES, a poetry chapbook by Finishing Line Press, Varsha Saraiya-Shah’s work is upcoming in Orchard Street Press’s Quiet Diamonds. She has been published in journals such as Borderlands, Cha, Convergence, and Soundings East; and featured in anthologies such as Echoes of the Cordillera, Ekphrastic Review, Equinox journal, and Pippa Ran UK book-Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians.
She has been a featured reader at Houston’s First Friday Reading series, Words & Artforum, Women in Visual & Literary Arts (WIVLA), and Archway Gallery. Her work has featured on international panels, Austin’s Jazz-Poetry performance event, Public Radio and a multi-language/century dance program: “Poetry in Motion.” She won first-places for her poem and essay in Gujarati, her native tongue, sharing a stage with two renowned Urdu/Gujarati ghazal poets in Dallas.
Retired from a finance/accountingcareer as a Texas CPA with an MBA from Cal-Poly, Pomona, CA, she loves exploringher first love, poetry. Poetry lets her practice the art of living, always in motion with its magic of discovery.