From the Editor 0FTERNeruda Marquezis the most eloquent chronicler of the Latin American people. He is one of them and at the same time the best historian of Latin America from the outside as it were. The 'magical' element in his writing springs from this quality of being an insider and an external chronicler at the same time. The ^magical realism" can, therefore, be quite fascinating. However there is nothing 'magical' or "mystical" about his writing. His work is easily the most glorious "chapter" of the grand novel Latin America is writng"; which is how the Latin American writing was described by Neruda. We feature an interview by him (translated from the Russian) which gives some idea of how the novelist looks at the arts, society, dictatorship and the like. S.P.Ganguly in his essay discusses this writer against the backdrop of Latin American writing and in terms of the world of his work, In our review section we feature an interesting review of Michael Coulson's translation of Kalidasa's Shakuntalam by K.V.K.Sundaram. Its discussion of translation and its problems will, we hope, be very stimulating. We also carry a review ofPrasanna's production ofGirish Karnad's Tughlaq in Delhi. It seems a little unusual for a quarterly like this to carry a review of a single production. The reason why we did so is the unseemly manner in which the production was treated. There is sufficient reason to believe that Prasanna was commissioned to do the play with a view to showing that production eventually in the Festival of India, London. The decision was changed. The controversy on that