Editor Speak

Lilacs symbolise renewal and the onset of spring. So, we have designed our edition in a colour palette of lavender and mauve, with its delicate connotations of hope and tranquillity for our readers and viewers driven to isolation yet again by the capricious antics of a fast-mutating virus.

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This edition is very special because it carries the interview of Denmark-based Tabish Khair, a world-renowned poet, writer and critic, who despite being a big name in literary circles, has none of the arrogance one would expect or associate with a celebrated writer. Tabish Khair has authored several books of poetry, fiction and studies which have been critically acclaimed. His novels include The Bus Stopped, which was short listed for the Encore award (UK), The Thing About Thugs, which was short listed for a number of prizes including the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Man Asian Literary Prize. A special thanks to him for all his encouragement and support.

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We have been receiving a lot of positive feedback about our Interview segment, so we decided to add an interview segment to our Visual art Section as well. In this section we are featuring an interview with modern day naturalist and professional wild-life and paleo artist from Norway, Esther Van Hulsen. Her beautiful photo-realistic paintings of wildlife breathe life into her magnificent subjects. As a paleo artist, she brings to life extinct species for the present-day generation. Esther’s award-winning art has been exhibited the world over and her illustrations are a part of innumerable books. Her illustration of Ida, in a book of the same name, brings alive the 47-million-years-old primate found in Germany.

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As our magazine offers a platform for upcoming writers and artists, we decided to introduce a tete-a-tete section, which will carry short conversations with upcoming writers, poets and artists. This segment features a short conversation with a young and talented writer Sakoon Singh, whose debut novel, ‘In the Land of the Lovers’ has been short listed for Valley of Words Book Awards 2021.

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Poets from Nigeria, Botswana,Pakistan and USA jostle for attention in our Poetry section. Our fiction section carries three very interesting stories of vastly different genres, by Nisha Nair, Satish Pendharkar and Mridula Sharma. These can also be heard in our podcast section. Our Non-fiction section ponders the decline of the circus and features a beautiful piece by Chitra Singh. Abbie Stirling’s travelogue takes us on yet another exciting adventure, this time to Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia.

Our Review segment features the review of an unusual Indian film, ‘Eeb Allay Ooo’ in the Absurd theatre tradition. We also review a very interesting film, 'Spencer'. 'Another film on Diana Spencer', you might crib. However, this film introduces us, not to an unruffled, perfect princess, but a human being with all the flaws of one. The Book review section showcases ‘Hell of A Book’, by Jason Mott which has won the National Book Award for 2021 and is a telling comment on the treatment of Blacks in America.

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In the Visual Art section, we are showcasing life-like portraits in oils and watercolours by Manu Goenka, an artist settled in Los Angeles. We also have some beautiful photographs of the changing seasons by Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Nazareth Pennsylvania. In the Modern Sculptures section, we have some delightful scuptures that add character to the cities of Geneva, Laussane (Switzerland) and Lyon (France), photographed by Anhad Jai Singh. We also pay tribute to Hollywood legend, Sidney Poitier, in our Editor Pick segment.

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You are all warmly invited to browse through and savour the Lilac edition.

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Happy Reading & Viewing!!!

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~Rachna Singh