Editorial

Strangers – strangers in most movies are shown to be smiling , genuine persons who arrive in one’s life as an angel or a breath of fresh air (except of course for a couple of movies , mostly of the genre – horror), but what is a- stranger in  real life?

Someone we are to be wary of by our parents, teachers and authorities. Well sensible of course if you take into consideration the risk factors , but I am speaking of a new arrival who is a stranger and who unfortunately remains a stranger most of the time and I speak, because suddenly today, I do not feel like being sensible for a change and instead see the other side of the fence or sense as you might say.

We have started imbibing an ‘ignore stranger ‘culture in every arena. Coterie works great, but enter alone in a strange land and only a lucky few will be received warmly . For the less lucky ones, you start from the bottom rung of the already existing coterie to grease and butter and familiarise your way up irrespective of your worthiness.

The “we are family ”  ideology has been taken so far up that we do not even feel an iota of guilt when we over look new comers in any field. The new arrivals either face no reaction or a hostile reception, unless and of course there is a fairy God mother. We do not read new unknown authors ( I am starting with authors as I belong to a magazine) , scorn unknown actors , do not give a second look at an amateur artist and so on. The artist needs to be blessed. He or she needs to be a ‘protege to be accepted with open arms’. Yes, I agree, real talent cannot be hidden, but for that it needs to be seen, read and the word spread around but many a good one have met a sorry dead end because of the ‘beware stranger’ apathy that we have cultivated over the years because they never were detected because of forced invisibility.

Art, talent has to be nurtured , encouraged, spoken about , corrected , irrespective of whether you are related and familiar with the creator or otherwise it better be announced shamelessly that- From hence forth only may my tribe increase !

Hope , I can hope that the writers in our e zine will not meet such a dead end and will be received warmly by you all.

Its a beautiful compilation and if you just open your eyes to them, I am sure you will enjoy the read.

Good day

Manipadma

Editor Fried Eye

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