EDITORIAL : Shweta Ganesh Kumar on 'Hope'

Editorial

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the fourth issue of ‘Inkspire’ - and the first issue to come out this year. I am so excited for all of you to feast your senses on the wonderful pieces in this issue.

This issue’s theme is ‘Hope’ - a theme I chose because of the times we live in. From political turmoil to the virus that is sweeping across the world felling massive swathes of the population, humans all over the world have turned to hope. And so as 2020 began, I opened up submissions asking writers - new and established alike to send me their interpretation of the theme, be it in verse or prose.

The response was unprecedented. Many had a tale to tell, a poem to share, a true story to relate. Fifteen pieces finally made it to the pages of the issue and while different in theme and treatment, all of them were born from an optimism that hopes to triumph even in the darkest of times. 

We open the issue with Maithri Arunkumar’s simple poem - ‘My Everlasting Hope’ that follows the author from the hopes of her childhood to the present day.  ‘Tomorrow' by Sammy Sahni urges you to give into hope and lay down that which wearies your soul. Maya Philip’s ‘All that you need’ urges you to believe in hope and yourself and Amruta Prakash’s 'Just Keep Moving' encourages you to push a little bit more. Eivine Renny 'Poems on Hope' celebrate the many avatars of hope with a series of poems, individual enough to stand alone but interconnected enough to be read together. 

In Creative Non-Fiction, we start with Hasitha Illa’s essay on the weight of hope and what happens when hope is not quite enough. Swapna. S talks about her experiments of writing on hope. And Swarna Janaki writes about the lessons she learns from watching a Mother Bird and her nest.

We open our Creative Fiction section with a story on a wrongly accused electrician from the very talented thirteen-year-old Sanjeev Vijayasankar, the youngest writer to write for Inkspire thus far. Megha Varier personifies Hope for us in a quirkily moving piece. Kanchana Suresh captures the desperation of a woman who has lost track of hope. Nazneen Aibara illustrates how hope helps bring a family out from the throes of a tragic development. 

‘United in Hope’ by Sandhya Selvam who explores hope as experienced by multiple parties on opposing sides of the same issue. Ragini Ravichandran’s ‘Yearning for Love’ paints the portrait of a grandfather whose day to day is bolstered by hope. In 'Bypass views' Resham Bhattacharya writes about the resurgence of hope in a protagonist who finally has a home of her own.

As usual, most of the writers in this issue are showing their ruminations, ramblings and writing to outside readers for the first time. We hope that you will enjoy their takes on the theme and that it will inspire you to stand in hope in the most trying of times. 

I hope that you enjoy this issue and that you will take the time to appreciate the work in the form of a comment or by sharing it on your social network. 

Happy reading!

Shweta Ganesh Kumar
Editor-in-Chief,
Inkspire.