Creation and Criticism

(One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.)

CORONA KAAL has swallowed many lives leaving near and dear ones mourning over their passing away to the UNKNOWN world from where nobody returns.

In this CORONA KAAL, I suffered personal as well as literary loss. I lost my research guide Prof. Sushma Sharma on 2^nd July 2020, my father Dr. Vijay Kumar Arora on 20^th August 2020, dear poet Prof. T.V. Reddy on 26^th August 2020 and dear poet, novelist and short story writer S.P. Saxena ‘Surya’ on 1^st November 2020, dear poet, editor and critic Dr. C. L. Khatri on 20^th March 2021 who left for the Heavenly abode while embracing their natural death.

The weight of so many deaths bows man and makes his vision dim and obscure. But, Time is the healer. It heals the wounds and makes him ready to face the challenges of Life. R.K. Bhushan’s lines offer a clue for living:

After the lunar light,

Soon there is

NEW MORNING

Man sleeps to awake and awakes to sleep. My near and dear ones will continue to spread light of knowledge from the Unknown World as they did when they lived in this known world.

Life is to be loved, not to be hated. It brings hopes and fears and smiles and tears. Joys end in sorrows and sorrows in joys. One who comes in this world has to go away from here. This is the way of life.

Man is in the forest of life which is full of darkness and here he has to find out the way without any grudge. Poetry, as dear Khatri believed, stands with the man in his struggle of life, struggle in life and struggle for life. I quote here Khatri’s lines which offer the art of living life in the forest of life.

Listen to the song of your soul

dance like a peacock in the forest of life

Poetry wants to stand with you.

All the best!

Happy reading…

Sudhir K Arora

Editor-in-Chief