Mengi

The outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, afforded an opportunity, though in adversity, amidst our lives going topsy-turvy, and in forced solitude. I started writing regularly tracking the journey of COVID-19, its fall out and the transformation in our lives as a sequel and sharing on electronic media. Unconsciously my style of writing became prose in poetry, generally concluding with befitting couplets of Urdu poetry. was buoyed by the inspiring comments of my friends, who genuinely prompted me to consoli- date my thoughts and take it to the next level. This is how exactly my book project took off. In my write-ups, I quite often venture into the coveted realms of great thinkers, philosophers, saints and Yogis, who have spent their lifetimes to understand the enigmatic human life, a beautiful gift of God, yet for average mortals like me, remains a labyrinth, a conundrum. Nevertheless I could peep into some aspects, and the veil did lift a bit, going through treasured writings of the extraordi- nary authors and exalted souls like Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Paramhansa Yogananda, and Sri Aurobindo. Above all Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali, a collection of highly inspirational poems, devoted to the universal Lord, did leave an indelible imprint in my mind.