Highlighting the parallels between humans and non-humans

9/21/2024

Highlighting the parallels between humans and non-human animals

I was thrilled to be invited to contribute to "Unity in Diversity," the verse-narrative project headed by Dr. Rohini Ramanathan. Her description for this project is:
"My security camera captured the raccoon's nocturnal activities, a source of joy until I realized that she and her two kits lived in my attic. Eventually, when I saw the three of them in the cage waiting to be transported to faraway woods, their new home, I was touched by the love, caring, and affection on display by the mother raccoon even in captivity, toward her kits, no different from a humans toward her children. This experience documented in multi-verse(about a dozen poems) in an e-Booklet will capture the reality of the oneness of all beings, the universal bond that exists--E pluribus unum, a necessary reminder in the fractured world that we live in. This thinking too contributed to my conceiving of this at project. In the public presentation segment, in advance short works on the "unity in diversity" theme will be solicited from other writers, the finalists sharing the stage with me. My reading will be accompanied by mood-setting piano and drum sounds."