To
those whose voices are subjected to naught
A Literary Venture Not Meant To Promote
War, Terror, God, And Ghost
This site www.thanalonline.com is
a realization of a long-cherished dream.
I wanted to create this a flawless literary
venture, just as anyone else would have
wanted. Poets have cooperated abundantly,
if I may say so. Poets from South Africa
have shown a particular liking for this
site and me. Perhaps the feeling of oneness
created by centuries of common imperialist
subjection and subjugation. Joop Bersee
has helped a lot, by asking his friends
to write and by calling upon the poets around
the globe to cooperate. I dont express
thanku to Joop; it would be an abnormal
formality.
It is as difficult to collect matter for
publication, as it is difficult to get ones
creations published. I have rejected only
two or three poems that were sent to me
for publication. I believe that generally
there are no bad poems and bad stories.
All works published are good, and all works
remaining unpublished are bad ones! There
could not be more idiotic a conception than
this. We have received so many poems and
other writings, due to the time and space
constraints we can not include all in this
issue; you can expect those in forthcoming
issues.
In the course of the work for this site
I could come in contact with a poet Rati
Saxena. For her poems always stand on her
shoulders ready to fly on her hints. And
they fly to the hearts of men and women
who could understand what is love. This
time the editors choice in English
consists of three small poems by Ratiji
Her works are given in the general English
and Malayalam sections. She is the editor
of the site Kritya.in published both in
Hindi and English. She is a great Sanskrit
Scholar and a great poet in Hindi.
Besides Joop Bersee and Ratiji, Winston
Mzikayise, Joneve McCorck, Michael Yuan,
Meena Kandasamy, Santharam, Usha Kishore
and others also have cooperated with me
by sending their poems. Joop Bersee is the
editor of the famous South African Web Magazine,
www.southernrainpoetry.com.
I am very much gratified that I could read
his poems, translate hem into Malayalam
and publish a book of his poems. I have
given a write-up on Bersee poetry in this
issue of www.thanalonline.com.
The poets choice in Malayalam section
is a poem by the well-known Malayalam poet
Thirunellur Karunakaran. This poem is a
pain, a pang and a beauty that penetrated
into my heart some four decades ago. It
is the Sorrow of A Rose(Oru
Panineerpoovinte Dukham). I had worked
with Thirunellur in the Advisory Council
to Kerala Cultural Publication Departments.
perhaps he does not even remember me. I
choose this poem as my choice in this issue.
I hope he would not object, as I could not
collect his permission to do so.
This site is dedicated To those whose
voices are subjected to naught. It is A
Literary Venture Not Meant To Promote War,
Terror, God, And Ghost. Except a few
people like President George Bush, mankind
as a whole is against war. Slaughter of
men, women and children are a joke to the
warmongers of the world. But for us it is
not. The terrible slaughter and the unnumbered
wounded in the battlefields of various countries
lacerate our hearts. The hinterlands of
Afghanistan and the streets of Iraq are
stained with the innocent blood. And then
after killing we tell the world that we
would punish the killers, after committing
follies we could tell the world that we
have committed follies and we would not
correct those follies and we would not compensate
them. War creates Terror and in its turn
terror creates war. Both are mutually contributory
and complementary. Therefore we eschew both
fully aware that both annihilate human culture
and human attainments through millennia.
God does not require the help of man. We
could have asked God some four-to-five questions
on what was happening to this world as Vaikkom
Muhammad Basheer had done in his celebrated
work, Sandhya Pranamam. But this would not
solve the problems of humanity. And, as
to the Ghosts, are we not ourselves a few?
We need not fear them, praise them or ridicule
them; there is no use.
I earnestly request that readers make use
of all facilities provided by this site.
I should thank many. The history of this
site in the present form is very short.
One day, after I visited www.harithakam.com,
I received a mail from someone querying
whether I am interested in creating a site.
It must be Sunil Prabhakar. I have not yet
met the man. Behind the scenes are Jayadevan
and Jayasree, I presume. O! What an editor
this is! I know you would ask, but this
would suffice, I believe in man; otherwise
how could I get cooperation from Africa
and America? Just imagine how great it is
to get a thing done in this way in a time
when not an iota of faith and belief is
retained among human beings. I thank Madanan
for the beautiful design of a shade for
this site.
Nothing more is required in this editorial.
C.P.Aboobacker, Editor
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