ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the following people in bringing out this collection: Dr. Kailash Vajpeyi (poet and philosopher from India, author of many books on philosophy, poetry and columns in various newspapers), and a friend, has been a guiding force to me always and to my writings. Shri Tejendra Sharma (story writer and poet from England, author of many novels and story books ), for his immense support and encouragement. Shri Suman Ghai (writer, poet and publisher of a literary Hindi website from Canada) has been a major help in bringing out this collection. His broad thinking process and timely suggestions have been important, right from the beginning to the end, both in literary and in technical points of views. Ms. Nasim Syed (Urdu poetess and writer, President of Canadian Urdu forum), who became very close to my writings and me in a very short span of time. Her suggestions while publishing the book have been very useful. Dr. Shailja Saksena (poet and writer) and Shri Rakesh Tiwari (poet, writer and publisher) for their support and their concrete and useful suggestions. Tahira Masroor (teacher, journalist and writer) for her thorough knowledge of Hindi, Urdu and English,. Her suggestions became very useful, specifically in the final editing of Urdu edition of this book. Ben Girn (photographer) for photographing my paintings. Bhupinder Virdi , my life partner and friend, for his continuous support and suggestions. Taabeer Virdi, my daughter for her frequent inputs, constant support , ideas and inspiration.
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