The poems in the book are "born out of a desire to retrace the footsteps of the forerunners" and the experiences of her days in UK. It is as if the very fact of being distanced from Bangladesh, from ancestral roots, have forced a recasting of bonds that must now work within the ethnic and cultural complexities of a diaspora. Azad insists "I can find echoes of myself in my motherland and now that I live in UK, it is my history too."

Azad's poems reflect her experiences in the expatriate community -- uprooting and exile, migrant memories and trauma, separation and loneliness -- all the way from Bangladesh to UK. Her writing deals with human relationships and war. Not just the ongoing tragedy in Iraq but also "to speak of the task of poetry that empowers individuals in ruins, in general".

The poet acknowledges that her "biggest challenge as a creative writer is to try and make a real integration between the personal history as a person from Bangladesh and the experiences I have encountered as an immigrant."

As a 'heritage poet' and storyteller, Azad believes, "Poems are actually stories. I have tried to accommodate tradition, habits, signs and symbols with a little difference." Being a member of a diaspora, she can speak of the past of immigrant Bangladeshis in UK and their stories as someone speaking from own experience providing a wider scope of meaning and significance.

Azad, who spent her early days in Jamalpur, described her years of growing up there: "At a time when a girl would enjoy her adolescence, I experienced poetry. I grew up living with nature and I tried to figure out and interpret it into words. But it was actually 1971, that made me aware of the power of poetry, that is, it has tremendous potential to empower people; so much so that they can reclaim their visions that somehow seemed lost."

During her current visit, she informs, she will conduct a course on creative writing at Brac University and provide training to the teachers of a school for children with special needs.