Our Voice

"I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts." - Leo Tolstoy (Anna Kerenina)

Imagine how the world would appear, if we all had the same likes and dislikes. If every single one of us draped in same tones, tumbled along with the same pace, visiting the same places, sharing the same intensity and passions…It would almost become a mechanised control society- the world tilting in one direction. And the irony of the situation is that even then, there would be differences between that very homogeneous group of individuals. That 0.4% genomic difference can engineer a kaleidoscope of realities.

We are a curious assortment of 195 countries housing billions of individuals and each of them having a story to tell- their life is a story worth listening to. If we give them a chance, we can become developed beyond mere measures of progress and into a society that grows on empathy, tolerance, and the strength of understanding one another.

We have a strange fascination with uniformity. Any deviation from those accepted categories unsettles us. Truth be told, everyone clings to the power they inherit from society, or the power they manage to seize within it. This is how entire civilisations are flattened into stereotypes. If the general consensus of say Africa as a whole continent is reduced to some far-flung decrepit home to the “backwards” and if another so called first-world nation is projected as the safe haven and a land of opportunities and wonder, one must look at where and how these ideas get ingrained in the mass. These become nothing but obtuse remarks churned by narratives and discourses that lack both factual grounding and genuine understanding.

As Voltaire reminds us- “I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to

the death your right to say it.”

Much of what is available to the public is premediated by certain notions. Popular culture has some specific ideas that it nurtures and propagates. There are stakeholders at various levels funnelling content through narrow channels, often trimming away the unfamiliar and uncomfortable. This makes one wonder- What specialty should you host in order to catch hold of their attention? How damaged must you be in order to be "seen" by the ones in power?

Then again, it is the wrong question to be asked. Because the depravity has never rid itself from humanity. People from the lowest of the low and all the shades in between have been existing since time immemorial. They have been with us, sharing this space we call "earth”; But not everyone has had the privilege and the chance to say what they want to say, to show what they have witnessed, to share what they have experienced.

Here comes in the publishing houses. No amount is enough an amount. No story is enough a story. It is like having a myriad of lens through which one can chance a glance into the multitudes of realities existing alongside us.

Despite the inhibitions, people have found some refuge in publishing. It has ushered in a collective change. Every story is a step towards emancipation, a step towards refinement and a step towards reclaiming the right to have a say. Storytelling has been with us as long as the civilisation has existed. The modes have changed over time, but the act of storytelling has always been an act of binding the society together.

And in today’s scenario, this binding needs to be broader, stronger, deeper and more inclusive. Diverse voices in literature are a necessity. It offers the reassurance us that our lives are worth remembering. Every single one of us has been placed meticulously in the spaces that we occupy. Every life matters. Inclusive storytelling opens doors for empathy; global literature reminds us that no culture, no people, no individual exists in isolation. Authentic voices in publishing carry the weight of lived experience- voices that might otherwise have been silenced or ignored.

The call of our times, where literature is being demeaned and belittled for the sake of technicalities, is to return to the pages. It is to read widely and to publish responsibly, celebrating the chorus of voices that make up our human story.