Charmaine Mirza

ISHQAH

A Return To Innocence

Part I is out!

(Buy the e-book! Available internationally on Amazon.)

The Yarn

(A long story — cut short)

Innocence is an island — and it’s sinking.Bundle is a cross-breed. He’s a baby blue penguin crossed with a blue-footed booby.One day, while practicing his penguin-paddle off the shores of Innocence, he gets tired and decides to hitch a ride on Gertrude the Green Peace Blue Whale’s tail… and falls asleep, losing himself in a deep dream.He suddenly wakes up to find that Gertrude is not on her usual patrol around the island. She’s is on her annual vacation migration instead — and there’s no turning back.Embark on the journey of a lifetime with Bundle as he sets off on an epic adventure. A serendipitous trip, to far-flung corners of the planet, with like-minded souls. Spirited and spiritual — a voyage of the soul that transforms him inside and out.Explore. And discover more…

(More countries coming soon!)

The Big Picture

(the vision)

Innocence is an island. Experience is the Big World.This story is a rite of passage that involves a journey through experience. The wisdom gained en
-route, propels a return to innocence.Bundle is a cross-breed — a baby blue penguin crossed with blue-footed booby, who is insecure about his roots and lives on a remote island that is a dot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far far away from anywhere. This journey empowers him to embrace himself and find his soul tribe, who celebrate him for who he is.The story is based in a post-human era when the planet has returned to the animal kingdom. The humans have exterminated themselves thanks to a mutated virus, and the animals have taken back the planet.However, they have built upon certain positive innovations that the humans seeded before they died out. In certain creatures, a lingering vestige of a human gene still exists which results in a malignant behaviour pattern.Each chapter is built around key socio-political and scientific themes, which are both inspirational and innovative. Renewable energy to robotics, climate change to immigrants and ethnocentrism, spacetime to noesis, precognition, holistic healing, Biophilic design and Buddhism — just to name a few, are drip-irrigated throughout the story.The trajectory of the journey cuts across a variety of geography, topography, natural habitats and cultural ecosystems.As he travels across the planet, Bundle quickly learns that he is not alone. In each location/habitat, he gathers different members of his soul tribe, which swells as the story evolves. The knowledge he gains from the friends that he meets and by building on his experience, transforms him into becoming a dynamic leader of his tribe.The characters are created around endangered and endemic species such as pangolins, cockatoos, caterpillars, crustaceans, salamanders and snow leopards (to name a few) that are not necessarily “popular” creatures or apex species — though in certain cases they are keystone species e.g. elephants.The story features characters that showcase the breath of the animal kingdom, including mammals, avians, felines, amphibians, reptiles, primates, insects, larvae Lepidoptera, and anthropoids.It also emphasises harnessing the “collective power” of heterogeneity as opposed to the “monoculturistic dominance” of homogenity.It highlights the importance of each member species at every cross-section of the food-chain. Beyond it’s unique personality, each creature embraces a deeper cultural or spiritual dimension that resonates with the Big World i.e. Experience.Empowered and enlightened, Bundle’s return to innocence is spirited and purposeful. He embraces himself and his universe from a renewed perspective. In doing so, he not only unleashes his own potential, but the collective positivity from his tribe resonates with such a powerful frequency that it matches the frequency of the ocean and the universe.

The Dreamweaver

(the scribe)

Writer. Dreamer. Creator.A nomadic soul. Her traveller instinct was honed by her family at around age one while riding an elephant. She never looked back.Ishqah is unfettered imagination, inspired by a passion for discovery.Curious about life in general, she feels it is critical to think outside the egg-carton.When she’s not writing, she seeks out the kind of inspiration that seeds innovation, only to come around full circle to catalyse the next phase of her creative and personal evolution.

Author.Unknown

(the portfolio)

Author.Unknown juxtaposes inspiration with innovation.A portfolio of work that transgresses genre, format and style.To create paradigm shifts in thought.It hones differentiated voices. It seeds unusual perspectives.Drawing on the wisdom of the past to evoke an unexplored point of view.Author.Unknown envisions the big picture — and then gets granular, an infinity loop that forever feeds our curiosity.