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PROLOGUE
By Mrs Padma Singh,
Former Principal of SVHS Nadi Fiji
Many writers inadvertently bring their life into the world of the readers with them and want the readers to read about their world. After his beloved wife and my dearest friend Saroj passed away, Dr Ram Lakhan Prasad was indeed devastated, completely distraught and totally bewildered but he went on a path to heal his sorrow and loneliness through his literary art and creation. He used various genres to express his innermost feeling and unconditional love for his departed soul mate and his life partner of over half a century.
In the last three years Dr Prasad has created and published many poems, DVD presentations, articles, short stories and novellas for his beloved wife and tried to heal himself of immeasurable loss he felt in the absence of his beloved lotus. This collection of short stories is perhaps its reflection that he is growing from strength to strength as a writer of creative dimension.
RL, as he is known among his colleagues, has been pouring his heart and soul out to create presentations as homage and loving tribute to Saroj, his pretty lotus but he has a long way to go to complete this journey of ultimate joy and compassion. This according to him would be the day that the two souls reincarnate and merge again to resurrect their love life.
The phrase ‘history repeats itself’ is not accepted without challenge but we have to acknowledge that certain chains of events in the life of a person bear marked resemblance to incidents of earlier family life. These short stories that are the continued creation of this matured writer are symbols and signs of some of his emotions, conflicts and frustrations that make interesting, cool and attached reading.
What is presented in these pages as an art is perhaps an ultimate in the refinement of the craft of this writer who has over thirty publications to his credit and I am confident that the news of created construction is going to guide him to produce many more in the future. We wish him all the best.
My family was very closely related to the family life of this artist but that is not the only reason for empathizing with, appreciating and understanding his inner most feelings that he so meticulously and tactfully expressed in his creations.
I am mindful that anyone who has known RL as an educationist, humanist and a trade unionist would be able to relate well and respond healthily with all his presentations.
Finally, I must admit that reading RL’s anthology brought back the beautiful years I shared with Saroj not only as a friend but as a sister and my confidante. I am indeed proud to be given the opportunity to share my feelings to respond and recommend this anthology of great stories to the readers.
Padma Singh.