My voice
Kritya is six months old. Indeed a long way to come, for an
E-Journal like “Kritya,” which does not have any type of
support. While this is nothing less than a miracle for me, deep
inside I feel that this miracle was worked by my readers. Some
of them feel like writing words of encouragement to me and some
enjoy it quietly in their private worlds. There may be a number
of readers who might prefer to ignore it. Still I feel Kritya
has drawn power from both those who like it and those who
preferred to ignore it. This brings to mind the words of Billy
Collins, which I strongly believe: “Novelists, playwrights,
painters and others may hold in their heads the expectation of
fame, but not poets. Having chosen that road, all one can dream
of is the jealousy of one's rivals. Celebrity is unexpected and
almost unseemly--it forces one to wear a constant look of
chagrin, if that is possible. Unless you are Byron, who was the
first poet to become a star. At its worst, fame means being
known by strangers--enough to bring on waves of paranoia.”
Farideh Hassanzadeh ( Mostafavi) introduces Billy Collins to our
readers through her brilliant interview. Professor
B.Hrdayakumari, one of the noted scholars and critics of our
time, elaborates on what poetry is. Highlighting the fact that
the poetic experience varies from person to person, she brings
in wonderful synonyms for poetry. As she concludes, the greatest
significance of poetry is that it “communicates with the
reader’s sense of himself and of life, .....................
grows with him and becomes his ever as he becomes its.”
An unpredicted event took place with this issue. Kritya was
planning to devote this issue to Telugu poetry (poetry of a
south Indian language), but due to the inconvenience of our
Telugu editor we could not work according to our plan. When I
started collecting other submissions for this issue, to my
surprise most of them were female voices.
That
is how in the section “Poetry in Our Time” 10 out of 12 poets
are women. This was totally unplanned but it certainly shows the
love and affection women have for poetry.
As an editor’s choice “Kabir “is an ideal choice, as he is the
poet who talks for society and who raises the voice of the
common man. Very few poets sound the voice of people who live
close to the earth. Kabir is our master too, no doubt, but the
poetry of Kabir is part of daily life for people like me, that
is why I feel that he is the best choice.
In the section “Our Masters,” Kritya is bringing out Persian and
Urdu poetry from Iran and India. Persian is the language which
has provided wonderful poetry from a very early time.
Friends, Kritya is again in your hands. I will be glad to get
your response to this issue.
The paintings
depicted here in this issue are by a well-known young artist
from India, Vijendra S. Vij. He has given these paintings for
the maintenance of Kritya as it is a non- profit-making journal.
Any one who is interested in buying the original paintings can
contact the editor of Kritya or Vijendra himself. His contact
number is +91 9810464520.
The “sketches “ illustrated on
pages along with poetry / articles are drawn by late Prabhakar
and his artist son Roshan. Kritya hopes and wishes well for the
artistic journey of Roshan.
Other pictures and borders
are made by the editor
herself.
Rati Saxena
