Sayankal By V. S. Khandekar

Why did I name this collection as Sayankaal? Some of my readers questioned me pointing at the fact that my earlier collection was ‘Chandanyat`, so the next should naturally be named as ‘Madhyaratra-Midnight`. How it is that you are going in a reverse manner? When I gave it a thought then I realised that the most appreciated picture that I had in my mind contained three main features. Firstly, the picture was showing a setting sun with its mild golden rays reflecting in a beautiful lake, secondly there were hundreds of lotuses in the lake, they were slowly and tenderly closing their petals and thirdly the sky was awakening to the twinkling stars. The lotuses were telling that throughout the day we are in full bloom and throughout the night you are in full swing. Twilight is the only time when we all are halfway either for twinkling or for shutting. The picture resembled my attempt of blending poetry, humour and philosophy together in a sort of collection. The poetic aspect of a short essay should be as mild as the setting sun. The humour should be as tender as the lotus petals, only half closed, creating only humour, not hurting any one, bringing a smile on the reader`s lips and the philosophy should be as scanty as the stars just emerged in the sky, but beautiful from the beginning.