Prakash Kumar

The power of silence and solitude is not easily felt. For roughly one decade, I have been trying to experience this elusive state. I explored several manners of techniques and tools, yet it continues to elude me. I spent considerable time in the Himalayas, embarked on several long solo journeys both within country and abroad, read countless books and articles, and practiced meditation and yoga. Throughout this journey, I try to develop a non-reactive mindset while continuing to work. What amazes me in this process is that the murmuring self never allows you to rest in silence, even in the deep mountains where you are completely alone. What I come to understand is that the inner self is the primary obstacle to meaningful silence and solitude. I try to work on this realization, observing all sorts of communication with my inner self while trying not to be reactive or repetitive. It remains a work in progress, but the initial results are bit positive. In this process, I learned to mai...

  As we witness the devastating conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and witnessing the rising tide of authoritarianism worldwide, Doris Lessing's 1957 reflections on the artist's role become more relevant. Since the 1960s, the world has moved from testing nuclear weapons to stockpiling large arsenals, while simultaneously creating an ecological time bomb. Today’s conflicts starkly put nuclear power nations against aspiring ones, while environmental destruction threatens all nations regardless of their arsenals.  Writing in the shadow of nuclear testing and the cold war, she understood something profound about how we face civilizational threats—and how easily we retreat into either "the pleasurable luxury of despair" or hollow platitudes. Her words remind us that in times when madmen hold switches of destruction, artists, writers and individuals bear a special responsibility: not to turn away from the nightmare, but to help us imagine what living might look lik...