The Mainichi, the daily newspaper of Japan has announced the Annual Selection 2012 from its list of published haiku in 2012.The Mainichi publishes one haiku every day from the list of submissions done worldwide.
   
In 2012 annual selection, seven Indian poets have been honoured through the selection of fourteen haiku. Below is the list of selected haiku with the expert editorial comment on indivdual haiku by Isamu Hashimoto, haiku editor of The Mainichi.

Starting 2013, these poets and several haiku enthusiasts engage in poetry talks through the group, In Haiku started in facebook by Kala. Some of these poets has already won awards in the esteemed annual haiku contest conducted by The Mainichi.

 
sound of waves ...
sparks drift over the beach
from corn vendor's stove

— K. Ramesh (Chennai, India)
 
Comment: We have the same kind of vendors selling baked corn or sweet potatoes, with the nice flavors drifting along the narrow alleyways of the megalopolis.

dhyaan* (*meditation in Sanskrit)
a cuckoo's song
fills the void

— Kala Ramesh (Pune, India)
 
Comment: Silence says much. Please add an annotation for a widely unknown word like in the above haiku.

deep dark space
many cosmic townships
with their own light

— P K Padhy (Andhra Pradesh, India)
 
Comment: To put it simply, this piece deals with twinkling stars. However, no one could feel sentiments more hearty than those the above depictions conjure up. This is the secret of haiku.

crowded streets
moving among the years
wretched faces

— Ram Krishna Singh (Dhanbad, India)
 
Comment: The raison d'etre lies in the second line.

backview mirror...
my childhood sky
distancing itself

— Kashinath Karmakar (Durgapur, India)
 
Comment: The three factors, backview, childhood, distancing, are too close. They were made in the process of the same old harmony. Basho once said: "New things should be the flower of haiku."

coastal bypass...
a tractor carries
the morning traffic

— Ramesh Anand (Tamil Nadu, India)
 
Comment: The bypass has only one lane, the tractor moves slowly, and the traffic must follow the bulky cart.

ancient atlas
our motherland called
Pangea

— Pravat Kumar Padhy (Rajahmundry (AP), India)
 
Comment: The very small dinosaur was firstly born on the super huge continent, Pangaea, 225,000,000 years ago. As human beings, we have to replace "our motherland" with "Africa" in the third line.

home-ripened mangoes
I hear my grandmother's voice
in my mother's

— Kala Ramesh (Pune, India)
 
The key word to recall the memories must be "mangoes" in the kitchen gardens that grandma opened. When I am drunk, my brother is always saying my voice is taking more and more after our father.

country road...
tips of tall grass
in the light of fireflies

— K. Ramesh (Chennai, India)
 
Comment: Clean water and air are essential for fireflies. "Tips" is not essential for this haiku.

silence in the ashram...
a squirrel eats each grain of rice
without hurry

— K. Ramesh (Chennai, India)
 
Comment: Hindu priests cherish all creatures, so they would not disturb a squirrel to eat in the ashram.

lone white cloud
in the blue sky
drying

— A. Sethuramiah (Bangalore, India)
 
Comment: "White" refers to there being no rain up there.

autumn twilight
my parents in silence
on the swing

— Ramesh Anand (Tamil Nadu, India)
 
Comment: Flawless. Haikus can be told well through objects, not directly.

potholes
spots of sunshine
wobble

— Ram Krishna Singh (Dhanbad, India)
 
Comment: Singular forms would be better: pothole / spot of sunshine / wobbles

childhood memory...
holding mother's finger
to teach touchpad

— Ramesh Anand (Tamil Nadu, India)
 
Comment: It would be better to exchange the first line for another.