For Happiness, Hope and Humanity


We have become immune to cruelty, wars and disasters, and that is why we do not take these things seriously unless they affect us directly. We make weapons and choose to disregard their misuse, appoint a few people for safeguarding our boundaries and conveniently forget about them, look at a disaster as if it were a horror film and shed a few drops of tears. But when problems come to our door, without warning, we attribute different reasons for such eventualities. Something along these lines happened in Mumbai. War directly entered rooms which were considered sanctuaries and killed innocent people who never before faced such situations.

What do we do, when war knocks at our doors? Naturally cry, show sadness. Gradually, we enjoy crying as a Jewish Prophet said once - "we enjoy suffering; grief becomes more voluble than joy."

I think it is true, that we start enjoying pain after such incidents. We will translate them into music, art, or poetry. The question is, can we do something before such incidents take place? The answer will be "yes," but again the question will be "how"? Can we adopt constructive measures to stop violence and war? Can we use art in such a way that we all start enjoying love and friendship? This does not mean that art is only for happiness, it should also highlight the darkness of society. Art should act as a mirror accentuating all the shades of society, but at the same time it should underline hope, happiness and friendship. We cannot assure the success of art hundred percent. But the message given by art is most important in these times.

I feel that in this age of vindictiveness, an artist or a poet (a writer may be) should come forward to take responsibilities. It is not the time to brood over the unfortunate events, reveling in our own pain. It is not the time to live in our own world, it is the time to become part of the society and do some productive work to help fellow human beings. In other words, we should come out of our self-created cocoons.

This is what Kritya hopes to do, going to different towns, talking in different languages and trying to work for happiness, hope and humanity.

This issue is for all of us. Artist of this issue is Pat Hogan King , we can read her poetry too. Sketches are made by Rajendra Nagdev, an Hindi poet.

Happy New Year friends!

Rati Saxena