From Editor’s Desk
Esteemed Contributors,
Subscribers and Readers across the World,
Greetings from IJML’s
Office!
It’s with a dispirited,
aching mind I am addressing you. The 23 year old female physiotherapy intern
who travelled with her male friend in a bus in India’s capital city, New Delhi
at the night on 16th December was raped by a gang of six joy
riders—nay, beaten her and her friend with an iron rod, dragged her to the rear
of the bus and raped her while the bus ran. She suffered fatal injuries to her
abdomen, intestines and genitals caused by penetration of the iron rod. Later
after the rape the perpetrators threw her and her friend out, both unconscious
and almost naked, from the moving bus. A passerby found them on the road and
reported the matter to the police, who took them to the hospital. She was given
emergency treatment and mechanical ventilation. The government provided the
maximum treatment possible and even took her to Singapore hospital for further
care. Public protests of young and old, women and men, burst out in Delhi, and
like hurricanes, then spread to every nook and corner of the country and
abroad. The devilish culprits were arrested immediately and the protesters,
including press and channel media, politicians, celebrities and writers cried
for capital punishments to the criminals at the earliest. The entire nation prayed for the recovery of
the most unfortunate victim, but to the wail of 1.22 billions of people of
India and millions of sympathizers abroad, she bade goodbye yesterday to her
thirteen days fight with pain. She has thus become a martyr now. Her endurance
and tragic death has triggered a sense of protest among the masses,
irrespective of differences of gender, age, class, race, caste, religion,
language, culture and even nation. Kudos to social networking sites, Facebook
and WhatsApp for consolidating millions of minds for a noble cause!
This untoward,
immoral, obnoxious, criminal attitude of the culprits tempts one to analyse the
emotion and reason of the contemporary man. No doubt as man progresses—his
physical, material wealth increases; his necessities give way to comforts and
luxuries--his spirit degenerates and human values drown to mean, contemptuous
emotions. One can’t find such abominable feelings in irrational animals. Sexual
urge is a biological necessity and is bound to find in all beings including
humans. Being a social being, man has to abide by rules and laws. Females are
better loved, honoured and treated in animal world than human. The Delhi
incident and several other cases being reported everyday from different parts
of India and other underdeveloped countries proclaim the fact that women—from
infant age to sinking old age—are never safe in public places, buses, trains,
working places, educational institutions and even their own homes. Molesters
include even one’s own brother and father. Mother acts as agent of immoral
trafficing!
Now the question
comes—is there any way opened before us to bring the modern, materialistic man
back to eternal human values? The answer is, yes. It’s not a new way but the
age-old way of educating man through letters. The rocket like growth of web and
electronic media causes terrible havoc to print media. The noble values and
aesthetics of life imparted through literature—both creative and critical—on
printed sheets of paper are seldom taught or read now. Visual, web and
multimedia have devoured the print media and as a result the production of
books has decreased considerably. Hundreds of publishing houses are being
closed now as the industry succumbs to irredeemable loss. Recently, world
renowned Penguin Books—popular for high quality, inexpensive paper backs—has
been merged with Random House. The web and electronic media—substitute for
younger generations’ print media—teach little value, rather promote base
feelings of violence, lust, superstitions, etc. Instead of portraying innocent
common man’s way of life and noble values they present before us wealthy man’s
posh and luxurious life, full of sensual pleasures, and how he amasses wealth
through illegal, immoral means. Naturally the younger generation is enticed to
such a life and the result is the widespread violence, murder, robbery, rape
and all such crimes found now in our society. The remedy for it is to induce
our youth to printed books bearing value based literature, from the tender
lower primary school stage itself. Let’s hope and pray for a bright new year in
which the print industry survives the influx of web and electronic industry and
thus the production of value based literature multiplies.
In this New Year
issue there are eight research articles, four review articles, two interviews,
two short stories, one tribute, eighteen poems of twelve poets and two book
reviews. Before penning down let me express my sincere most gratitude to all
our esteemed contributors. The credit of the book goes to each and every one of
you. I am much grateful to my Associate Editor, Dr. S. Kumaran who has been
helping me almost every day. Wishing all our readers a very happy and
prosperous New Year,
Thodupuzha, Love,
30.12.12.
Prof. K. V. Dominic
Contents
Diasporic Concerns in Vera Sharma’s “The Invaders” and
Amitav Ghosh’s “The Diaspora in Indian Culture”
--Bibhudutt
Dash
Peripherality and Gendered Spaces in De's Sisters, Gokhale's Paro and Desai's Clear Light of Day
Peripherality and Gendered Spaces in De's Sisters, Gokhale's Paro and Desai's Clear Light of Day
--Lata Mishra
Sense of Loss and Alienation: Gender and Identity in
Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills
--Mahboobeh Khaleghi
Mohit Chattopadhyay: A Thespian with a Difference
(Tribute)
--Ketaki Datta
Interview with Penn Kemp (Interview)
--Sujatha
Rao
Recovery (Short Story)
--Pronab
Kumar Majumder
Treatment of Change in Ernest Gaines’s A
Gathering of Old Men
--P. Premchandar
--S.
Sujatha
Interview with Sue
Wootton (Interview)
--Jaydeep Sarangi
Sita (Short Story)
--Jayanti M. Dalal
(Trans. Rajshree Parthivv Trivedi)
The
Black as the ‘Other’: A Critique of Toni Morrison’s Novels
--Swati Samantaray
Narrating Identity,
Gendered Violence and Abduction: Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man
--K. Yeshoda Nanjappa
Brutal Reality of Sexual Politics in Margaret Atwood’s Bodily Harm
--Zeinab Yazdani & Devika Rani L
A New Religion (Poem)
--Ann Stephen
Kasab Speaks (Poem)
--Ann Stephen
Mother Paves the Way for All (Poem)
--S.
Ayyappa Raja
India Is Shining (Poem)
--Hazara
Singh
A Girl Child (Poem)
--Hazara
Singh
Multiple Rooms of Life (Poem)
--Pronab Kumar
Majumder
A Process That Works out in
Life (Poem)
--Manas Bakshi
21st Century Love (Poem)
--Manas Bakshi
Mountains can be Moved (Poem)
--N.
P. Singh
The Heart of Community (Poem)
--Penn Kemp
Facing
the Epicentre (Poem)
--Penn Kemp
The Genesis of Corruption (Poem)
-- S. V. Rama Rao
Fly High
in the Boundless Sky (Poem)
--Sangeeta Mahesh
Love Is Essence of Life (Poem)
--Turlapati
Rajeswari
Rain Canvas (Poem)
--Yajnaseni Mukherjee
Arranged Marriage (Poem)
Arranged Marriage (Poem)
--Yajnaseni Mukherjee
Addiction (Poem)
Addiction (Poem)
--Yajnaseni
Mukherjee
Fruit of Labour (Poem)
Fruit of Labour (Poem)
--K.
V. Dominic
Poetic Flavour
of K. V. Dominic (Review Article)
--Arbind
Kumar Choudhary
Stylistics in Dr
Chambial’s Poetry (Review Article)
--B. C. Dwivedy
Drops of Honeydew: A Critical Analysis of T. Vasudeva
Reddy’s Gliding Ripples (Review
Article)
--K.
V. Dominic
Najama as Serpent in Ramesh K.
Srivastava’s Coils of the Serpent (Review Article)
--Smita Das
Manas Bakshi’s Between
Flower and Flame (Book Review)
--Patricia
Prime
Jacob Isaac’s Sense of Enigma (Book review)
--S. V. Rama Rao
Our Esteemed Contributors
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