Photographers Unknown, In Union Shall You Drift
“There will be times in which things appear hopeless. You will begin to doubt everything around you. You will even begin to doubt yourself. You will think things will never look up and you may be in the deepest, darkest, loneliest place in the world. Everything which had once been infused with wonder may appear disappointing and harsh. You may grow cynical and come to believe that this is simply the way the world is…that one must bear with the unforgiving realities of the world and only hope that it doesn’t get worse. You might grow suspicious of others, as adults tend to do, and close yourself off from the rest of the world. You might just look to the past and reminisce about better days…or you might just dwell in one place for a little too long and become nostalgic for the future. Just remember—regardless of where you are, what experiences you have, and who you have become—that there will always be those who have loved you. Those whom you may have taken for granted, but have nonetheless, always had you in their hearts and in their hopes and wishes. Lives that you have touched: whether you realize it or not. To separation you may venture, but indissolubly in union shall you drift…you will always be at the whims of forces, both great and small, and far beyond your capacity to control. That’s how all our stories go. Innumerable arcs intersect and scatter into a vast indefinite sea.”
—Ashim Shanker, Don’t Forget to Breathe
Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania to Indian immigrants, Ashim Shanker graduated from Pennsylvania State University and briefly worked in the wireless communications industry in New York. He struggled early in life with the complexities of identity and found writing to be a suitable outlet for analyzing the many contradictions he faced on a daily basis. The page became the medium for all the questions that had no particular answer.
Shanker relocated to Japan in 2003 and spent the next eleven years as a teacher and a content planner for textbooks and software. While working at several jobs, he continued to write and, in 2008, published his first novel of his absurdist Migrations fiction series, “Don’t Forget to Breathe”. Still living in Japan, Shanker finished the second installment of the series, “Only the Deplorable”, in 2013, as well as his first book of short stories and poems, “Sinew of the Social Species”, which was published in 2014.
Ashim Shanker moved back to the United States for his graduate work and completed a Master’s Degree in International Educational Policy at Harvard University. His teaching experience in international and public school environments have contributed to his fervent advocacy for systemic reform in global educational policy and delivery.
Shanker contributed to educational research publications in collaboration with UNICEF and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He also contributed to a collection of educational case studies profiled in the 2018 book. “Building Bridges to the Future”.
In 2019, Ashim Shanker completed his third novel in the Migrations series, “Inward and Toward”, and released his second book of short stories entitled “branches para parallax leapfrog” in 2020.