EDITOR’S NOTE

"We are better than animals because we have kinsmen. An animal rubs its itching flank against a tree, a man asks his kinsman to scratch him." ― Chinua Achebe.

Or, so the story is supposed to go.

But if ever there has been a time when we realise that kinsmen can do more than scratch, it is today…as it has been for the last 50 some days. They can wound and behead – like we read in the extract of Mir Mosharraf Hossain's Bishad Sindhu. They can promise to help but cause more hindrance – as seen in Marzia Rahman's short fiction. At least though, we have Farah Ghuznavi's sound advice to help us control our creative powers from going astray. Let us start from there. To summarize with the same Achebe: "If you don't like my story, write your own."

MUNIZE MANZUR