Life and literature are not two separate things. Creative literature grows out of the realities of life and that life without creativity, has no inner significance. Literature is a trail, blazed by the human spirit ‘voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone’.
The power of the pen is such that language and literature are not only an imitation of life, but a man’s entire life, including its joys and sorrows, miseries and comforts, tragedies and comedies, is reflected though literature. A nation that has no literature of its own, as a matter of fact, has no foundation – it may have a long history. Our ancient civilization, the Vedic Civilization with its culture, has been mirrored in our ancient literature. What are the works of Kalidas? Do they not convey to us even today, the greatness and glamour of our ancient civilization?
In the modern age, man has become almost a prisoner of Science and has been reduced to a machine, it is the love of literature that makes his life once more beautiful and healthy. He can once again claim a higher and richer life which is inspired by a sublime ideal. A life, which is divorced from literature, is a mechanical life and not an ideal one. And this is the sole reason why, today, we have all gathered here, to celebrate this elixir of life – the enticing world of English literature.
K.R. Mangalam World School GKII
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