Hello and welcome to my story. My name is Inshirah Kishwar Sakhawat Russell. You can call me Inshra. I’m a Bangladeshi-born British person who has been living in London for the last 20 years. My roots are in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the richness of culture and values those 19 years of living there with my family and friends have brought is my foundation . I am a visual storyteller: a designer and maker of images that are simple and fun.
One day, I read David Lynch’s book Catching the Big Fish and got so inspired by it that I wrote and illustrated a children’s storybook in one night. It’s called “Tiny Jumps In” and it was the first book to be published by Bengali-English bilingual children’s publishing company Gubabooks, which is founded by my childhood best friend Raya Rahman (who also grew up in Dhaka and moved to the USA). Both of us had children abroad and wanted them to be connected to their Bangladeshi roots.
My new book Where Are The Chonchols is a search and find adventure about a forgetful Bangladeshi family called the Chonchols who get lost in the festivals of Bangladesh. It’s beautifully illustrated by Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy and features 12 colourful festivals.
My life before having kids involved getting a BA degree from London College of Fashion in Fashion Photography, making music videos, short films and working in advertising. I now have a creative services agency called Studio Inku where I design, direct and make stories for brands and organisations in a fun and simple way. We work globally across Bangladesh, Britain, USA and soon Canada. Home is an invisible place that is intangible, transient and also essential. The experience of being Bangladeshi British is represented in the mural called “Home” which I painted in my 6 year old son’s bedroom. The best part about the South Asian Heritage Month platform is that you can find out about so many other people’s stories and ideas of home.
‘I am the unlucky one’ I said to the Consultant. I was sobbing away on my own with nobody to hold my hand or support me. Where did I go wrong? What had I done? I always helped everyone – young old, needy and desperate. So why did it have to be ME? I didn’t understand.
Research studies have validated that trauma experienced by our Ancestors can live on in our DNA thanks to epigenetic inheritance. Read my account of carrying intergenerational trauma from the partition of India and Pakistan here.
I am pleased to share my podcast with you. Expulsion@50 is an oral history project, created to raise awareness of the expulsion over 80,000 Asians
The first of the Trust’s projects is the South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM), which first took place in 2020 and runs from the 18th of July to the 17th of August each year.
SAHM seeks to commemorate, mark and celebrate South Asian cultures, histories, and communities.
It seeks to understand the diverse heritage and cultures that continue to link the UK with South Asia.
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