Editors’s ote
N
The Mind Creative March 2014
Dear Friends,
I was first exposed to the art
and craft of puppetry during
my school days, when I
joined a puppetry troupe run
by Meher Contractor (who
held the position of vicepresident of the international
body of puppetry, UNIMA, for
three terms).
I feel that this extraordinary (and
ancient) art is still very underrated in
the world of creativity. Today puppetry
has gone well beyond just small time
entertainment and stepped into the
realms of animation, therapy and
education. I therefore decided to
dedicate a major portion of this issue to
puppetry and to the memory of Meher
who was single-handedly responsible for
giving me exposure to the international
stage and performances. It has been
decades since I left puppetry but, as an
art, it remains close to my heart.
My heartfelt thanks to the Australian
puppeteers and theatre companies who
have written articles for this issue.
The reader might also notice the
absence of my regular cartoon feature
Eye Spy. Instead, I take great pleasure
in introducing the artwork of a talent
that I came across on Facebook - Philip
Hill. Unlike many other cartoonists
2
whose works are driven by
observation, Philip’s uniqueness is
in his excellent use of wordplay for
his cartoons.
The two other new contributors are
Steven Clapp with his (I think very
emotional) short story and Lopa
Banerjee who takes us into a
fascinating style of poetry writing
called Ekphrasis.
This issue also features a new
section called The Artist’s Corner
that will showcase articles pertaining
to the world of painting.
I am really thrilled with the
participation of new contributors to
the magazine and I would like to
thank each one of them for their
interest in this e-zine and for
enriching the content with their
creativity, knowledge and the ability
to share their passions with the
readers.
Happy reading!!
Avijit Sarkar