As Spring gives way to Summer, life gives way to journeys! Spark’s April issue is all about journeys – the literal, the physical, the emotional, the metaphorical. Read on for poetry, fiction and non-fiction that will make you ponder, chuckle, and sympathise. Here is another Spark issue whose diversity in themes we are delighted about – and we hope so will you.
Parth Pandya draws upon the migration and the linear lifecycle of Monarch Butterflies and compares this to the human journey, which is never only about the future but is also a lot about the past.
Wealth, and attitude – one gets to witness these in travellers at airports. Shobhana Kumar writes a poem that captures the mood and the chillness.
Words can carry you to realms where the imagery superimposes on the real, the ‘now’ on a different period in cosmic time. Saranyan’s visit to the Daulatabad Fort gives him one such experience.
Divya Ananth fondly remembers her first holiday in a foreign land, with an eight-month-old no less. Despite the baby’s innocent fuss and frequent reality checks, she did manage a dream vacation.
When a loved one departs all of a sudden, the reality is hard to come to terms with. M. Mohankumar writes a poem that describes the emotions surrounding a journey’s end.
A man is on the brink of finishing one journey, and wonders about what the next one will be like. Ram Govardhan pens a story.
A little boy, full of energy and jabbering away in a language she can’t follow, keeps the narrator glued to her seat on a bus journey. Prashila Naik tells us about the boy, the epitome of innocence, and what happens next.
A woman visits her ancestral village with her family after many years. Shobhana Kumar’s poem is a mix of memories, contemplations and the incidents that happen during the visit.