by Atiqah Ghazali-alKashif

Ulam Raja or Wild Cosmos whispers through Nasi Kerabu, one of forty-four voices now nearly lost. Few gather them all; the jungle keeps its secrets. Housewives trade herbs for cabbage from China, bean sprouts from mung beans. Baby boomers shake their heads at the softened recipe, lamenting what once was. Yet the village lets the soil tire, the rivers thin, the rains forget their rhythm and no one moves, not for climate, not for roots.

Atiqah Ghazali-alKashif is a digital marketer and strategist, educator, and writer. Trained under Bernice Chauly, she performed her monologue at the Georgetown Literary Festival in 2019. Her work has appeared in international and regional publications, and her short memoir was published on Sick Stories via Substack Canada. A short story of hers was a top 10 winner in Timeless Tales: Egypt’s Cultural Heritage Writing Competition, with another featured in the Scribbled: The First Year anthology (London, 2026). She writes at the intersection of personal history, cultural memory, and poetry.