These days I am searching for the meaning of richness. No, no, I am not talking about recession in business hubs or poverty in Mumbai huts. I just want to know the feeling of richness, (which is very different from the physical richness which is felt on the body and inside the brain).
Why I am thinking of richness -- this question itself is not clear to me. I remember those days, when Kritya journal was launched (almost five years ago), there were not many such journals on the internet. One of the readers phoned me from the far northern mountainous area of India, and told me that he had shown Kritya's link to his friend who worked in the Income Tax Department, and his immediate reaction was – one should raid the person who is running this journal. It seemed to him that this person obviously had lots of money.

When I heard about this incident, I was a little worried, as for me web journal was the cheapest medium, because I was doing everything myself, designing, typing, publishing, and distributing. So the total cost was very less compared to any other print journal. But law is blind—law enforcers do not see, they just imagine.

I remembered this when I went to CIIL once again recently to attend another seminar; I was shocked to see that the guesthouse of the CIIL looked so lifeless and dry. There was so much of life, when we were together here for the kritya festival 2010. The outer guest room used to be filled with people; painters would be filling colours near the fountain (though the showers were dry). From early morning till late night all the poets, artists, and filmmakers were chatting, laughing and singing. The CIIL auditorium used to resound with poetry all those three days. As Osvaldo Sauma (Costa Rica) had put in very interesting words -- it was like a Big TV show, where a number of people speaking different languages, from totally different cultures and lifestyles, were under one roof forgetting their differences, united in love and harmony. What a Big show should achieve, we all had achieved through Kritya. (He mentioned this in the interview he gave for Kritya).

I really missed that feeling of richness we had enjoyed when we were together, we had assembled there to talk abut exile and trauma, but learned to love and live in harmony. I had felt that the positive power we were getting from each other was the real source of our richness. Richness is something which is very different from the material richness created through coins and bricks.

This richness was always felt by our Devotional poets in the presence of God and God's people. This richness can be felt through arts, poetry, and literature if we learn to see with eyes filled with love and harmony. I am really thankful to all the poets, participants and artists for creating that charisma during Kritya 2010.

Now I do understand the feelings of that officer from the Income Tax department. He had felt the richness of the journal Kritya, but as one always dealing with money in cash, he could only visualize that richness in the form of coins. Though his feeling was right, his understanding was faulty.

I tell you friends, the richness of Kritya is due to beautiful poetry from poets from all around the world. I thank all the poets and artists, who make Kritya richer by every issue.

In this issue, there are a few poems from very young poets; I see the seeds of imagination in their poetry, though they have to learn a lot. This time we have an essay on the pre–Islamic odes by Safaa Sheikh Hamad. In the section ‘In the Name of Poetry’ we learn a lot from poetry from different cultures.

The Editor’s Choice is very different this time, a long poem by a young poetess Eleonora Matarrese from Italy, I had heard her reading this long poem in Monza. I was very impressed by her presentation. She has translated this poem for Kritya. I am astonished to see how interestingly she blends past with present, myths with reality.

In the section - Our Masters, we once again have the Dalai Lama’a magical words. Artist of this issue is Swarnjit Savi and  Radhelal bijdhavane . both of htme are poet, artist and writer.Dear friends, I thank you once again and hope you enjoy this issue of Kritya.


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Rati Saxena