Like a Diamond in the Sky

"Drug addiction is a growing problem in Bangladesh. Many people are taking a drug called yabba, which comes from Thailand and is similar to speed. It’s an expensive drug so it’s the well-off young people who are doing it. A lot of those I met while researching the book didn’t realise they were going to get hooked. None of them knew how harmful it is. I grew up in Canada and Saudi Arabia, and had learnt about drugs from an early age, but in Bangladesh, talking about drugs is taboo. Young people have no access to knowledge here. As I was speaking to people, common threads started emerging. Many addicts had previously attempted to detox, they had trouble with the police, parental relationships that had completely broken down, and had been being kicked out of home at least once. So I wanted to string these threads together in my book. My masters thesis, which was on happiness, was also related to my book. I interviewed really, really poor women in slums about how they defined happiness. That research became the voice of the character Falani, a single mother who sells drugs from her slum. Yes. The main character is an addict called Deen, who struggles between his spiritual and material self. He wants to ascend and he wants to be happy, but he is stuck in his material world because he keeps needing his hit. The gritty reality of poverty and crime keeps him trapped in negativity. I believe that the overriding characteristic of addiction is negativity. To overcome it, you have to overcome a negative frame of mind. There are many ways to do that, whether it’s strengthening relationships, prayer or attaching yourself to a higher cause. This can be applied to everyone, not just to addicts. Deen is a negative person who is constantly blaming others, whether it’s the government, his parents, or his university. He is very self-consumed and doesn’t think of other people, so he is not in a position to give. He feels disempowered. I wanted to explore why the youth here are feeling alienated. Part of the reason is linked to the state of the country, the failure of leadership and widespread poverty. But there are also a lot of similarities with drug addicts elsewhere – such as the failure of certain important relationships."