Editorial (January 2021)

Sunil Sharma

“The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, 
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

– ---P.B. Shelley

How prophetic!

Positive!

Uplifting!

These lines from one of the finest poems by one of the finest poets of the English world.  So inspiring and optimistic in its overall effect, its core appeal.

These sum up the basic faith of humankind. A hope that things are bound to change sooner or later, the heavy barriers notwithstanding. As it is said, the only constant is change in life.

2021 heralds that much-anticipated change, almost announcing the upcoming spring---the winter of gloom is finally over.

Nothing can keep the Homo sapiens down for long.

And January of this year shows that. With the many vaccines found and rolled out; vaccination drive is already on in India, and elsewhere, dread of Corona has been challenged by science to a large extent.

And humanity is limping back to normalcy slowly but steadily, regaining confidence and faith.

This January 26th marked the 72nd Republic Day of India and was celebrated across the vast country by the citizens. The largest democracy moves on, despite a rough and bumpy road, ably guided by the best principles and traditions of a great republic and its constitution. A pluralistic and liberal nation of more than a billion people reaffirms its faith in the democratic model and the path chosen by the founding fathers of a post-colonial country.

This edition carries an article by Atreya Sarma Uppaluri, a noted author, on the recipient of Padma Shri, Dr. Prakasa Rao Asavadi---one of our valued contributors and a veteran author, the nation is proud of---and his rich and complex creative world and literary journey for our readers in a highly scholarly manner.

This January, another of our patrons---the academic-poet-critic of international stature, Dr. Bashabi Fraser from Scotland, got conferred the prestigious UK honour---the CBE (The Commander of the British Empire). It is a great honour for us to have such distinguished authors. Our congratulations to both of them for the much-deserved recognitions for their individual contributions to the public life of their concerned countries.

The special section on "Voices Within" curated by the eminent poet-editor-earth scientist Gopal Lahiri, features 62 poets of Indian English, a selection of most happening voices for the third consecutive year for Setu. A sheer delight reading these and other signatures in the general section. Different tones---producing a great symphony.

We remain grateful to Gopal Lahiri, and all the featured contributors, for their loving support to a bilingual e-journal that has got a combined readership of almost two million in its fifth year of monthly production from Pittsburgh, USA, at the time of writing and will cross this figure soon---setting a new record.

We take this opportunity to wish our readers Happy New Year!

And great health, wellbeing, wellness and good luck!

Read on.

Take care.

Stay blessed!

Sunil Sharma,

Editor, Setu (English)
Mumbai Metro Area, Maharashtra (India)

Setu, January 2021