Hasnain Ali Syed
Set in Stone
You read my name on a piece of paper
And you made a judgment about me
You judged my origin, my religion
The color of my skin
My mannerism, my personality
Just by reading my name
Have heard that reputations precede people
But I never knew that only the name
Of a person could lead to
An opinion so staunch
So absolute
That it will be written in stone
And I
And my kind
Would spend a lifetime to change it
But still fail
I didn’t know that my name
Comes with a baggage so big
That I would have to prove
Through everything that I do
That I am not just my name
I am so much beyond it
I didn’t know that my entire life
Would have to be a battle
Against the stereotypes
That you so conveniently hold
About me
—Submitted on 06/28/2020
Hasnain Ali Syed was born in Sialkot, Pakistan, and moved to Lahore to study medicine, graduating with a medical degree from Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan Medical College. He lives in Lahore with his family.
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