NEW Chapter 1 of Jaldimatrimony.com By Suneetha, Trivandrum, India

Subhadra Pillai paused a moment and surveyed the scene ahead of her before she opened the car door and got out of the vehicle. The expensive, black, high heeled, sandals touched ground, first the right one, then the left. The golden jerry of her brilliant cherry red Kancheevaram silk saree framed her wrinkled but fair feet. The arm that extended to close the door was fair and plump and revealed half a dozen gold bangles and four rings on each of the fingers except the thumb.

NEW Chapter 1 of The Green Room By Neha Gupta, Delhi, India 

There she stood… painting her reflection in the mirror… dressed in a transparent apparel of her own self… naked of all pretensions… devoid of the mask she had donned up till now… removing whatever traces of artificiality she could find on her face…. No longer was she the Savitri of the play Aadhe Adhure! She was herself… her true identity… Ragini Kashyap. She looked around and smiled. Everyone around her was engrossed in doing the same.

Chapter 8 of The Vacation By Gagan Sohal, Ludhiana, India

“You go from here promising me to take care of things, then you come back and suddenly you are an entirely different person. It’s as if some evil witch casts a spell on you and whoooosh! My husband is gone. Someone else possesses his mind and body.” Ankit looked a bit fiercely at Charu. Even she realized that she should not have used that ‘evil witch’. Trying to handle the damage, she quickly asserted, “ Now don’t you dare to think that I called your mother an evil witch. I’m way too sophisticated to indulge in this crude name-calling.

Chapter 13 of Manhattan Indian By Prema Sastri, Bangalore, India

After this Ramu never spoke to Lois again. She had changed her place in class and cut him dead. Ramu took on himself the role of a woman hater. He threw himself more deeply into his studies, and spent all his spare time in the library. The librarian Janet, a thin pony tailed girl with glasses, often tried to draw him into conversation, but Ramu cut her short, with curt remarks. It was almost time for the Easter Vacation. The confectioners were full of chocolates, bunnies and easter eggs. Fifth avenue shops sported spring dresses and coats of every hue.

SHORT STORIES

Part II of Just For A While By Eva Bell, Bangalore, India

His boat “Gale Force” was docked on the Astoria waterfront. I was comfortable in my warm clothes and wind cheater. But he gave me an additional blanket just in case the winds grew stronger. I could see he had even brought a picnic basket with him. As we sailed along, he filled me in a bit of local history. I heard how long before the white men came this way, the area was home to more than forty American Indian tribes. They lived off salmon from the river, and had bison to work their fields. They believed that Nature’s bounty of land, water and sky was theirs to enjoy. It was a symbiotic existence.

Past Remembrance By Sucharita Dutta-Asane, Pune, India

Dawn is minutes away; I can’t sleep. Can’t dream either. Dreams have continuity with wakefulness. I grope for continuity. Void. Yes, that is what I fumble in. Vacuum. Nothingness. Streaks of light across the eastern sky are reminders. That the sun will rise after some time, shed light. Will it rise again tomorrow? Dhiren sleeps soundly behind me, his days are long, one task after another, lists, chores, people, places, an endless eternity of engagement. Endless time for me. What will I do when the sun rises? Sleep? Bathe? Eat? I don’t know. I must be hungry now. Will Mita call me for breakfast as soon as daylight breaks?

The Books I Must Read By Mita Banerjee, Pune, India

I’ve never seen you polish off your breakfast so quickly, so early in the morning, and that too during vacations,” observes Ma, plonking down a glass of chocolate milk in front of me. “I’m dying to finish that Leon Uris book. Just the last few pages left to go,” I mumble as I polish off the milk in three large gulps. Ma is right. Vacations usually find me lazing around in bed. But this year is different. I have a goal – I must try to finish reading at least half the books in Chandumama’s (Mama=uncle) private library, and given the hundreds of books that he has, that’s quite a lot!

Spurious Promises By Fehmida Zakeer, Chennai, India  

Chaaya sat on the floor, her fingers repeatedly pleating and crushing the edge of her saree. She looked at the tiny clock ticking from atop the little wooden shelf her husband had bought just last week. Both the clock and the shelf were new. She remembers now, Gopal had been on a buying spree for the past few weeks. First a clock, then a new saree full of sequins and beads just like the ones worn by those beautiful women on television, a fancy cycle for their three year old son, a shelf for her kitchen, two new fluffy pillows…

The joys of labour By Surabhi Kaushik, Mumbai, India 

An anxious Madhu was waiting outside Doctor Rajeev’s clinic. She fiddled with her mobile phone, constantly looking at the screen if anyone was calling her up. She finally smiled when she saw Doctor Rajeev arriving at the clinic with an equally anxious couple. The Doctor led all of them inside his clinic and once they were seated he spoke “Mrs. Madhu, as I mentioned to you, the Guptas are delighted that you are ready to be a surrogate mother to their child. They have also said that they will bear all the expenses including any personal wishes or cravings that you have during the pregnancy.”

JESSIE'S CORNER

Waiting in anticipation

Here moi was, waiting for the impossible to happen. Although moi knows it’s never going to happen, yet moi waits. Take for example we all know and moi too knows for sure that a fairy isn’t going to come over, wave her magic wand and turn moi into Cinderella or that my prince charming could come riding on a white horse. Ha, we know if any prince is to come – they sure aren’t going to depend on the old fashion mode of transport but would rather prefer fast wheels to get to their Cinderellas.

SHAIL'S SPACE

MOVIE REVIEW BY IRENE

Kambakkt Ishq

This Monday’s newspapers told us Mumbai readers that the opening day tickets of Kambakkt Ishq for some halls were already sold out. When a film is being sold as a hit even before it is released, one starts suspecting that the film will not be too great. Particularly since its trailers have been singularly chauvinistic and offensive. Yet there is always a moment of weakness, when the lights dim, and you hope that the film that you are about to watch will not be as bad as you fear it will be. My hopes led to naught but my worst fears came true.

The Hangover

The Hangover is based on a rather whacky premise – that four friends wake up the night after a pre-wedding bachelor party, with no memories of the excesses of the night before – and is whacky enough at times. The foursome that leave for a road trip to Vegas two days before the wedding of one of them are Phil (Bradley) the school teacher, Stu (Ed Helms) the dentist, Alan (Zach Galifianakis) the bride’s brother and Doug (Justin Bartha) the groom. Tracy is the bride to whom the news is broken at the film’s beginning, on her wedding day, that the wedding is not likely to happen.

BLOGS

In Perspective - Pop Goes The World With Jackson By Shail Raghuvanshi, Chennai, India 

Why is it that most creative people suddenly pop off? History is proof of the fact that many people like artists, singers, dancers and other people related to the arts field tend to live full lives and then, suddenly crack under pressure. Why is it that you need extreme emotion and all kinds of paraphernalia to live a globally fulfilling life only to be cruelly snatched away from it all?

In Female Issue - In defense of offence By Indrani Talukdar, Delhi (NCR), India 

I, for one, jumped for joy when girls in Kanpur came out in a discernibly vocal protest against colleges trying to ban jeans and western clothes in campuses. Such a far cry from the early 80s when I was a student of Psychology at Allahabad University. The ‘ban’ had been internal, actually internalized. Having studied at so-called elitist schools in Dehradun I found the ban oppressive, to say the least. But did the ‘modest’ salwar kameez with a six-yard-long dupatta stop the eve teasers in their tracks?

In Female Issue - Menstrual Bias By Gagan Sohal, Mumbai, India 

“Since you were having your periods, so I didn’t ask you to accompany me. Otherwise I would have taken you to the temple.” I merely nodded after listening to the polite explanation given by my innocent mother-in-law for excluding me from worshipping in the temple that morning. Not that I was sad by it, rather I was happy to be in the cosy comfort of my bed to catch up on the precious morning hours of sleep.

In True Incidents - Scrabbling for Words By Gargi Mehra, Pune, India 

One fine sunny morning when I was fifteen, I came across a huge advertisement in the newspaper touting a Scrabble competition in the city. I had just given my tenth standard Board Exams and was generally spending my days at home massaging my wrist and applying ice to it, as the pressure of filling twenty pages with my handwriting every day for a month had taken its toll.

In True Incidents - Net(ting) the Teenager By Sudha H Sharma, Bangalore, India 

Sometime back we had gone to Palakkad in Kerala to attend my sister in law’s son’s Upanayanam (sacred thread ceremony). Since it was an important family function many of my Mother-in-law’s brothers and sisters and their families had also travelled to Palakkad. We were all put up in one of the service apartments run by a relative of my sister-in-law. The relative a young dynamic woman of 45 yrs also runs a catering service. She took care of all of us and her two children pitched in whenever their mother or father needed help.

In Food Corner - A Real “Pressure” Cooker Situation! By Chandrima Roy, Mumbai, India

When I first moved to Hyderabad 7 years ago I hardly knew how to cook. In fact, I was staying away from home for the first time in my life. I was sharing an apartment with three girls. Back at home there was nothing I needed to do, no cooking, no cleaning up, no washing, so I learnt nothing at all! When I reached this new home of mine I appeared like one pampered spoilt fool. At this point I must tell you all that my flat mates were really sweet people; especially, my room mate. She would cook and I would eat!

In Food Corner - Romancing The Rains With Chai And Pakoras By Neelam Lamba, Hyderabad, India

The monsoons finally seem to be setting in. When the heavy showers pour down and we are forced to remain indoors, enjoying the sound of the rain and its torrent through our windows and doors, it’s a different feeling altogather.While some may hate the sight of the rains and the damage they do, romancing the rains is a trait most of us have knowingly or unknowingly cultivated!