From the Desk of the Editor-in-Chief

Our civilization has touched a point where there is no chance to get back what we have lost. We have conquered the planet but lost the natural world. Deterioration of human values, the dilapidation of Earth and its nature, the
devastation of human potentialities, and the disappearance of plants and animals around us has made us insensitive and heartless. The aesthetic environment has become a desert. Every moment we come across the threat of war, intolerance and violence in one hand and loss of cultural biodiversity resulting in global warming and forgetting of culture on the other. The bang of knowledge has taken off our choice to be a simple retainer on our excellence, instead, making our life bewildering misplacing our focus from our interest andchoice. Our future is more challenging and more susceptible. Now the most affluent person can also not sure what to do with so much wealth and power.

On the one hand, people are fed-off with plenty, and on the other hand, billions of hungry men are starving for a slice of bread. What made us civilized? The global thinkers face a severe challenge of restoring peace against the demoralizing force. The state authority faces the threat of terrorism and apprehends safeguarding its sovereignty. The prophets of religion, staying on heaven, must have witnessed that how their human religion has been misrepresented and used against humanity resulted in the wash the history with human blood.

We destroyed nature for power and authority, and are in search of water and oxygen on another planet to migrate. Is it not conscious cruelty of power to dream a utopia leaving behind this beautiful Earth? What is left with us? How can we reconstruct the beautiful world again and connect our self with nature and humanity? Can we detach from the mother? We may be in a small territory, but our smallest effort can transform our location, and our creation will fill the air with colour and fragrance. The writers of Lokaratna are a group who believe in solidarity and explore the beauty of humanity. It is like a small flower on the grass to assert its presence in a magnificent garden of creativity. We do not know where the centre of the globe is, but we know where we stand along, there rests the centre. Without our existence, we cannot imagine a globe outside of us. I hope the readers and scholars will well appreciate this volume. We build the new to make them stand forth for a beautiful world of love, peace and creativity and inheritance. Let the Earth be greener and let the rain wet the Earth, let one grain become billions, and one tree generate millions.

Mahendra Kumar Mishra