Dhvani Ezine was launched in March 2007. Since then it has become a hub for lovers of Indian English Literature and for those who love writing. It is a non-profit venture based purely on the passion for writing.

To sum up our achievements in brief; in a very short period of less than a year, Dhvani has had a great response. Encouraging enough to become a full-fledged publication. Dhvani is henceforth a part of Escribes Publications, Wordweavers, a platform for creative writers and poets, and a couple of publications to be launched soon.

In the section 'Our Author' we have had the opportunity to interview some eminent Indian authors like Onassis Award winning author Manjula Padmanabhan, Man Asian Award nominated Sarayu Srivatsa, Shilpa Agarwal, Sumana Roy (who described the ezine as 'a pleasant discovery',) Gauri Dange, Rakshanda Jalil, Vijaydaan Detha and Farzana Versey.

Our Softboard section, which is the essence of Dhvani, has had interesting topics and unconventional perspectives by our writers. Our team of writers is an eclectic mix of people from all parts of the country and who have worked with prestigious publications like the BBC, Times Of India and Hindustan Times.

WHY DHVANI?

In the preinternet era, new writers had to send their writings to the local newspaper and magazines in the hope that it will be published. However such magazines were few and they already had established writers hence with no need to accommodate new writers. But then the Internet happened and it was democracy in the truest sense of the word.

But just about 5 years ago blogging or ezines were still incipient and there were not many takers for it in India. Big publishing houses had a similar concept but it was mostly used to promote their own writers and books, leaving new writers with hardly any scope. It is true that now in India there are nineteen-for-a-dozen ezines for young budding writers as a platform to express and explore their creative skills, more so with blogging now.

Then what makes Dhvani so special?

Dhvani Ezine is exclusive. There are exclusive magazines everywhere, computers, science, fashion, but it has been seen that when it comes to literature it is a totally open to non-members club. Hence an attempt. But by exclusive we mean it is only for people who have an acumen for literature. Someone who doesn't have a BA Eng Lit degree but has immense knowledge on the subject is welcome too. But I would insist that new writers do their study on the subject. It would be of great help (to you and to us) if you could thoroughly study the various genres and literary criticism.

Exploring literature in the post-modernist world is a challenge because hardly anything is left unexplored. But for that, one needs to know what has been done. You would have now realised that Dhvani is actually the polar opposite of blogging. Dhvani is no place vent off your "Kunsttrieben" . Now if you don't know if what "Kunsttrieben" is, you are the person who needs to study a bit before scoring here.

IDEA BEHIND DHVANI

Dhvani, as the homepage says, is usually associated with 'sound'. Hence the first obvious connections are sound-voice-voice of the people. But on a personal level, the association was different. The seed of Dhvani was sown in an English Literature Class of 2002. One of our favourite professors, Ms. Charanjit Kaur was telling us, delving a bit into etymology, how words lose or change their meaning with time.

That is when she told us about the word 'dhvani' and its earliest association to be cognate with 'suggestion'. I instantly fell in love with it, the association.

Isn't it so true that probably, the best communication happens mostly in the absence of words. That words are only an inferior choice of communication. Popular songs, like "You say it best, when you say nothing at all," find such an easy resonance within us.

In Indian mythologies or epics, there is a very common understanding that Gods speak with each other in their minds, telepathy may be, but mostly they seem to 'know' everything and only seem to watch everything unfold.

I, sometimes think, that might be true. Somewhere in the process of cognitive evolution, in becoming rational, cerebral beings, our subconscious lost that touch, that connection, with what in religions called the Supreme Power.

Even Einstein seemed to believe that, the whole of universe is like a gentle, throbbing wave woven into a supersoft blanket connecting each point of the universe with the other.

That probably might mean that each of us is the centre of the universe reaching out to 'some' other, to make sense of our living in entirity. But since there is so much 'voice and sound' that somewhere in the process the very essence of communication is lost.

That is where, literature, or in a broader sense, Arts comes into picture. The end product of the 'spontaneous overflow of emotions recollected in traquility'. We are 'that' Dhvani.

Team Dhvani.

OLD DHVANI EZINE