In this issue

Fugitive from Faiths

The opening verses of the Rigveda do not preach any religion, nor do they threaten the infidel. What comes across in the first few stanzas of the earliest of the Hindu texts is a people’s quest for warmth, awed as they are by the overwhelmingly dark, capricious night.

“To you, dispeller of the night, Agni, day by day with prayer
Bringing you reverence, we come.”

The uncertainty of a people amidst unfamiliar circumstances seeking a little comfort and assurance from their god is poetry of unmatched quality. A while later the mood changes – the spell of fear, misgivings of the unknown replaced by cheerfulness, conviviality of tipsiness:

“Beautiful Vayu, come, for you these soma drops have been prepared:
Drink of them, listen well to our call.”

Significantly, all through the Vedas there are no references to temples. For the composers of such elegant lines almost betraying a modern sensibility, fire was the only means of communion with the gods above. Terrified by tyrannical dark nights, hostile forces all around, the community was still some distance away from the stability and rootedness required to raise structures of faith. The intoxicating drink of soma bringing them cheer was accorded divine status. Neither the Vedas nor the later texts of Hinduism acknowledge a single, male, dominant figure as the articulator of the faith, extolling him as divine. Rather, all across the scriptures we see remarkable instances of gender equality: Sita-Ram, Uma-Shankar, Radha-Krishna… Always the female deity ahead of her man. This refinement, among the texts of all religions, is unparalleled.

The Equator Line Magazine Description:

The Equator Line is to India what The New Yorker is to America, Cicero to Germany and Granta to England: cerebral, incisive and entertaining as well. TEL revives an old tradition of journalism which combines new writing with a close account of the fresh developments in areas like business, culture, cinema and lifestyle.
The great periodicals of the past threw up new writers and triggered fresh debates about many issues. With the advent of 24x7 television periodicals lost their predominant position in intellectual discourse, in benchmarking our culture. A ‘breaking-news’ fever swept through India. The beauty of good writing was no longer recommendation enough. Newspapers carried more pictures and less copy. News magazines readjusted themselves to the television era with a new snappy, sharp look. And in the deluge of visual news the sensitive, sharp, upwardly mobile man seemed lost. Nothing was put into perspective for him. Nothing really tested his intelligence. The delight of surveying an altogether new horizon across the serried lines of good prose was missing!
The Equator Line is a journey to rediscover the glory of the written word. Promoted by Palimpsest Publishing House, the monthly magazine offers a brilliant spread – clinical analysis of trends, new fiction, deep examination of political events, latest in diplomacy, spirituality, diaspora, the remote and exotic captured through a sensitive camera, news from the world of books, all that and much more. When repetitive surface news grates on your nerves The Equator Line takes you on a trip to the land of good writing with an impressive line-up of well-known writers.
Waiting for your flight at the airport or in a hotel room in an unfamiliar city, the latest issue of TEL will help you rediscover your world in a new light.