We are happy and proud to present the December 2014 issue of Spark. This is our 60th monthly issue and this edition celebrates the people without whom Spark wouldn’t have come this far. Yes, we celebrate the contributor and feature interviews with ten of Spark’s most published contributors. Anupama Krishnakumar writes the introductory note to this special issue.
Vinita Agrawal began writing for Spark from August 2012. She has been one of our most regular contributors. It’s been a pleasure featuring her work, especially her soulful poetry in our issues. Vinita’s writing is simple, elegant and extremely heart-warming. Her poetry, especially the ones that exude pathos are sure to leave an indelible mark on your minds. Vinita’s humility is something we truly admire and her constant support, encouragement and motivation have been a big source of strength for us.
An interview with Vinita Agrawal.
Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty is one of the first writers who came knocking on our doors after the inaugural issue of Spark was published in January 2010. He has been an asset to the team ever since, delighting us unfailingly every time with his spellbinding writing. Jeevanjyoti writes on Science and human life with equal ease and what we particularly love about his works is the emotional element that finds its way into his writing even inside something as rational as Science. He has a way with words that we believe is his biggest gift as a writer.
An interview with Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty.
Preeti Madhusudhan has been associated with us since May 2011. Preeti’s writing style is one that reminds you of the language that you find in literary classics. She is a versatile writer who can write across subjects as varied as architecture, science, history and life. Preeti’s stories and essays also have well-researched information that makes reading them a pleasurable as well as a great learning experience.
An interview with Preeti Madhusudhan.
Parth Pandya began writing for Spark in June 2011. Little did we know then that he will grow to be such a crucial part of the Spark family. He has always had something relevant and interesting to offer on our monthly themes and has contributed to almost every single issue since then. Parth is a versatile and reliable writer, who is willing to experiment and is open to critique and has filled Spark’s creative pool with interesting fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We admire him for his creativity, spirit and unfailing regularity!
An interview with Parth Pandya.
Gauri Trivedi has been associated with us since December 2011 and her very first submission made us sit up and say ‘wow’! Gauri’s stories and essays have the ability to establish an instant connect with the reader. Her writings for Spark have dealt with themes like women, children, motherhood, the art of writing, personal experiences and life. What we love about her is her ability to write sensitively about a chosen subject and her proactive nature in working with us on bettering a piece.
An interview with Gauri Trivedi.
Maheswaran Sathiamoorthy began his journey with Spark from the very first issue of the magazine. Easily and deservingly, the most published photography contributor through these five years, Mahesh’s photographs have that rare quality of capturing your imagination effortlessly. Time and again, his photographs have had their own stories to tell, gently nudging our soul and kindling our imagination to come up with delightful captions. His portraits and nature shots are our favourites for the sheer creative joy they pour into our hearts.
An interview with Maheswaran Sathiamoorthy.
She writes, sketches, doodles, takes amazing photographs and makes movies – in short, she’s a creative powerhouse. Meet Sandhya Ramachandran, one of Spark’s first contributors. Sandhya has charmed us with her beautiful verse and splendid artwork that interpret our monthly themes in very different light, very artistically. She also designed the absolutely stunning coverpage art for our very special 50th issue. We must say we are a big fan of her art – her doodles and her experiments with mixed media brim with the sort of creativity that we love to feature in Spark.
An interview with Sandhya Ramachandran.
M. Mohankumar has never failed to capture our imagination with his poetry. He has been associated with Spark since September 2013 and in every issue since then, we have published at least one or more of his poems. What we love about his poems are the perspectives they present on a month’s theme – something different and more importantly, interesting. The simplicity of the words is striking and Mohankumar is someone who can convey so much in so little. He is a poet who presents profound truths about life and interesting human traits through simple words and beautifully structured poems that occasionally also have subtle humour underlying them.
An interview with M. Mohankumar.