Pain is personal. Pain is immeasurable, unfathomable … pain is pain, ceaseless and boundless. Pain is universal. The only difference is that some are insensitive to it while there are others who easily become prey to its slightest stimulus. It’s a common experience that individuals often magnify their inconveniences and undervalue other’s problems. There is a lack of empathy among people. Even if someone acts sympathetically, they are often ridiculed or questioned about the credibility of their compassionate words or kind deeds. It’s easier said than done – to accept pain in all its magnificence. I present a few lines from my poem Pain:

I smile at pain, it reminds me,
I’m human – that I am alive.
Each nerve, each cell, soaks with the blizzard,
Bawling … for mercy.

Unlike the rugged stone,
enduring aeons of battering tempest.
The heat and the gales have only managed
to shove the stone an inch or so.
Pain wasn’t a dream,
even in the history of the stone.

As for me –
When I burst out of the aqueous burrow
I created pain, to my mother,
who, so lovingly accepted me,
all through gestation.

At every point in my life, I squabbled with pain.
The soreness never left me –
my name and pain synonymous
I mused – Pain and I are one…

I hope the reader agrees with the irresistible pain in each one of us. The seven stories in this issue’s Fiction section portray varied degrees of pain. It is interesting to note that pain in some form or the other drags along with the characters and their perambulations – The Mascot is a disguise, deep within lies a longing to be loved and cared for; at the outset, Cricket and Bar is a light narrative depicting the idle lives of adolescent boys but at the core, it resonates the absence of belonging; Cuffed Yearnings underscores the need of being unchained in views and actions; Little Grebes are those tiny birds that die needlessly – are they emissaries of the oppressed; Oasis is succor to the heart and soul of the long lost love; Stealing Memories is a grave crime, what about those innocent minds and hands that chalk careful plans to grab delicacies; rivals have a painful time in Primal Instincts but in the wake of a calamity does enmity overcome its inborn status and embrace the learned behaviour of togetherness?

These stories are replete with pain at different levels compelling the reader to consider the numerous proportions of pain and pain. I leave the reader to ponder on ways to cope with pain.

Read on to experience the author’s temperament …