Our Voice and Yours

Love is in the air! We wish our readers a Happy Valentine month. The stories we have in this issue are heartwarming, We introduce Rahul Siddharth, a stand up comic who is making waves in the comedy scene and  Gurinder Singh Saini who talks about the new gurudwara at Medford, Events that celebrate joy like the Republic day and Vasanth Panchami are covered too.

 In our section of ‘Technology’ we focus on the importance of rainwater harvesting and introduce a monthly column on 'Health' that we hope will help us all to lead a healthier lifestyle. We bring the issue of  the controversy over the California textbooks  and welcome reactions to it. And all our regular sections…..reviews, previews, recipes, bollywood baatein, math teasers and more.

Finally we celebrate the birthday of Sarojini Chattopadhyay or Sarojini Naidu, as the world knows her, who was born on February 13, 1879 in a Hindu Bengali Brahmin family. As a child Sarojini was of a very emotional and sentimental kind. She had a prominent romantic trait in her blood: "My ancestors for thousands of years have been lovers of the forest and the mountain caves, great dreamers, great scholars, great ascetics…" All these qualities manifest themselves in her romantic lyrics - a world of fantasy and allegoric idealism. Here is an excerpt from her collection ‘The Golden Threshold”

The Poet's Love-Song

In noon-tide hours, O Love, secure and strong,
I need thee not; mad dreams are mine to bind
The world to my desire, and hold the wind
A voiceless captive to my conquering song.
I need thee not, I am content with these:
Keep silence in thy soul, beyond the seas!

But in the desolate hour of midnight, when
An ectasy of starry silence sleeps
And my soul hungers for thy voice, O then,
Love, like the magic of wild melodies,
Let thy soul answer mine across the seas.

The Lokvani team

Ranjani Saigal, Nirmala Garimella, Anil Saigal and Anoop Kumar

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