It is our tendency often, to divide the world. The cans and can-nots, the haves and have-nots, deserving and the undeserving, all become part of this subtle divide. That we can divide people into one or the other seems to simplify matters to an exceedingly unreal extent. What is real though is that none of us are a sum of absolutes- neither are we in totality what one assumes us to be, nor its opposite. We are in fact a blend of those amongst whom we live, hear and feel about. A blend of those people, who we think are different from us. A blend of the stories we hear and often become. We become in the end an unassuming concoction, of who we were yesterday and those who we are capable of becoming tomorrow.

People are not the simple equations one would imagine them to be, nor a set of data that needs unravelling, using powerful analytical machines and data scientists. For every finite set of possible actions we are likely to enforce in a given situation, there are also an infinite set of unpredictable responses that we are likely to come out with. We call this the power of diversity.

Diversity is natural. We need not seek it as a criteria, that needs to be met or as a social imperative that we cannot do without. Diversity is around us and in who we are as a people. Yet more and more struggles around us today, whether political or apolitical, armed or unarmed, are increasingly designed to wipe out the diversity quotient. What we often fail to understand in this journey is that challenging diversity is more likely to be detrimental to the human cause than to be of any necessary effect. Forces around us continue to limit the wider voice of diversity only to echo the voice of authority that appears louder and mightier by the day.

My ideas may not be the same as yours. However, there’s a space between us where my idea could meet and embrace yours. Nature teaches us not to live in isolation, but to be unitary social beings that thrive in beautiful diversity.

The Bangalore Review serves as a platform for diversity and the diverse. From the time of our inception, we promised ourselves not to judge a contributor by the length of her/his bio. To ensure that more voices are heard more often, and to exploit the benefits of our digital presence, we are moving away from the monthly magazine format. Beginning this month, The Bangalore Review will be publishing more often in the same period, depending on the quality of submissions we receive. Some weeks you may see more action and in others you may see little. We also plan to launch a digital issue in the PDF format once in every three months or six, but we would rather talk more about it when such plans come in better shape.

Meanwhile, we are open for submissions throughout the year. You may send in your fresh works whether you are a new writer or old or in a space in between. We encourage writers from different parts of the world to send in their works. Be brave, bold, fresh and exciting in your voices. We are waiting to read stories that we haven’t seen or heard in our part of the world.  We are looking for the different. Don’t tell the stories you read, tell us the stories you live every day. For more guidelines on submitting your works, you may visit our Submissions page.

The Bangalore Review is the fruit of collective labour. We are made up of our contributors, our readers, our editors and a whole lot of technical support in the background. We invite you to be a part of us.