Short Stories from DNA-Me

Short stories published in DNA- ME. These are links which will enable fiction lovers to see the stories in pdf format. Wanted to do it for myself but posting it as an entry in my blog will enable more pople to read these stories. DNA Me accepts these stories through sulekha. One can email a story (within a 1000 words) to dname@sulekha.net. I will keep updating this blog entry with links to more stories. Number of stories now: 49.
Links to all entries available here.

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1) 4 December 2005: Stranger on the doormat by Akshaya Kumar

2) 11 December 2005: Tito and the Call Girls by Akshaya Kumar

3) 25 December 2005: Almost an affair by Heena Karekar

4) 1 January 2006: The Wanderer by Alex Royo

5) 8 January 2006: A new pair of glasses by Suniti Joshi

6) 15 Jan 2006: Pebbles by Maninder Cheema

7) 22 Jan 2006: In Agony by Sugandha Jain

8) 29 Jan 2006: The Bigger Bang by John P Mathew

9) 5 Feb 2006: Dear Daddy by Aparna Pendse

10) 12 Feb 2006: Relationship by A Thiagarajan

11) 19 Feb 2006: The Bed by Roli Bhushan-Malhotra

12) 26 Feb 2006: "You always..." by Ram Keswani

13) 5 Mar 2006: Stolen Moments by Gillian Da Costa

14) 12 Mar 2006: One track mind by Shoma Narayana

15) 19 Mar 2006: Sparkle in a closet by Vidhya Sridhar

16) 26 Mar 2006: The One by K.A.Anand

17) 02 Apr 2006: The Pink Hairdryer by Hema Raman

18) 09 Apr 2006: A Common Girl by Ghazala Mughal

19) 16 Apr 2006: The Weekly Magazine by P. Gitanjali

20) 23 Apr 2006: Link removed on author's request.

21) 30 Apr 2006: The priest at Ooty by Sourabh De

22) 7 May 2006: Waiting by Gayatri Lobo Gajiwala

23) 14 May 2006: Equations by Vikram Karve

24) 21 May 2006: Fragrances by Shefali

25) 28 May 2006: The Muse by Razvin Ramdarain

26)04 Jun 2006:How the wives got pregnant by Govindraj S

27) 11 Jun 2006: The last wish by Akash Mohimen

28) 18 June 2006: The Rain by Ishita Marwah

29) 25 Jun 2006: The Guest by Tarun Durga

30) 02 Jul 2006: Love Thy Neighbour byPayal Shah-Karwa

31) 09 Jul 2006: The World of Raja by Raghu Vamsi

32) 16 Jul 2006 : The Choice by Ramya Sethuraman

33) 23 Jul 2006: No Medals For Me by Dev Kumar Vasudevan

34) 6 Aug 2006: The Meeting by Sheela Jayawant

35) 13 Aug 2006: The Sniper by Shrikant Dash

36) 20 Aug 2006: The Train Sweeper by Pritika Pradhan

37) 27 Aug 2006: Dogs, Cats & Su by Arunachalam Kumar

38) 3 Sep 2006 First Kiss by Piyush

39) 10 Sep 2006 Dear Diary by Sameer Shah

40) 17 Sep 2006 Friends in High Places by Jyotsna

41) 24 Sep 2006 By Pass by Anjana Jha

42) 01 Oct 2006 Gitopadesha by Srinath Perur

43) 08 Oct 2006 The Vanishing by R Joshi

44) 22 Oct 2006: Cats by Daksha Hathi

45) 29 Oct 2006: What Did My Son Do? by Anil Thadathil

46) 5 Nov 2006: Of Likes and Dislikes by Nargis Natarajan

47) 12 Nov 2006: When Understanding Fails by Nasreen Modak

48) 19 Nov 2006: Sister Amrita, Ward No. 6 by Manjul Bajaj

49) 26 Nov 2006: The Place of Many Doors by Sourav Mohapatra

My idea of heaven is watching Ella Fitzgerald singing

Sharing an accidental discovery. A video on Download.com.
The Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie number "Flyin' Home". 6 minutes and 22 seconds of heavenly stuff. Ella at the height of her musical powers in 1979. Singing at the Montreux Jazz Festival with the Count Basie Orchestra.



Well dear reader why don't you stop reading and start listening? Click here please.

And this link will allow you to watch Ella and Count Basie singing "A-Tisket, A-Tasket". 10 minutes and 33 seconds of heaven. These numbers are from Ella&Basie: 'The Perfect Match' '79.






Thanks cnet.

Ganesha in Central Street Mhow (MP), India

Sept 4 2006. Monday. A day before Onam. I was passing through Central Street Mhow when I saw this clay idol of Ganesha. It looked very attractive. The evening puja was yet to start so there were only a few boys sitting at the pandal. A photographer's studio opposite the pandal attracted my attention. I asked the owner if he could click my picture with Ganesha in the background. He was only too happy to oblige me. Two days later the festival of Anant Chaturdashi was held. And all the idols were taken for immersion. Not far away in Indore the number of Ganeshas which were collected for joint immersion at the Narmada came to a staggering 25,000. I personally feel that the time has come for us to seriously consider making Ganeshas in a more eco-friendly and bidegradable manner so that water bodies are not polluted with paints and other toxic materials. Ganesha would be happy if we could achieve that.
p.s.I did a google search for eco-friendly Ganeshas and I found this article from The Hindu dated 29 Aug 2006. It is fascinating to read about some of the items used in making Ganesha idols in Vishakhapatnam. Ganga clay, water colours from Kolkatta, black grapes, nails, `navadhanyalu', coconuts, terracota... and here is another article, also from The Hindu.
Kalpavriksh and its efforts towards making Ganesh puja ecosensitive.
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The Ganeshas of Mumbai (from rediff.com)

A quiet Onam at home in Mhow (MP); India

Niraparayum...Nilavilakkum...Pinne orupidi thumpapoovum, manasil nirachu orupadu snehavumayi veendum onam varavayi... Orayiram Onashamsakal... An SMS sent by a dear friend.

The day before yesterday was Onam. Telephone calls and sms messages. Emails. I missed my brothers, my sisters-in-law and my nieces. And also my uncles, aunts, cousins and my maternal grandmother in our village in Kerala. A retired soldier who belongs to Kerala came home but I was sad to see that he was drunk. I accepted his greetings and greeted him too. Told him that I didn't have the fifty rupees he wanted for 'emergency work'. He came down to ten rupees but I stood my ground. He left with some embarassment on his face. I am sure it wasn't Mahabali testing my ability to recognize him in any form. An ex-classmate landed up at home unannounced. We were meeting after 26 years. Unfortunately he arrived well before any dish was cooked so all I could offer him was a cup of tea. Just before lunch another guest dropped in unannounced. He was lucky enough to sample some of the lovely payasam my mother had made. As he had cycled down he relished every spoonful.

I and my parents celebrated Onam quietly. My mother didn't have the time to do all that she wanted to. So I helped her make a simple floral design on the floor of the verandah. I used a piece of chalk and drew a simple design. Used small green leaves as a base. My mother allowed the maid to help me. I asked her to help me pluck the flowers of the lantana bush from the hedge and then I used that to fill in the petals of the design. Nothing great. But it looked nice. The garden is a profusion of green. Different shades of green. But very few flowers. Because of a bandh I could not go to Phool Chowk and buy marigold flowers as I do every year. We didnt have enough plantain leaves in the garden to use as plates. It is very rare that this happens. We live in a semi-dry area so I must make sure that this doesn't happen next year. I cut a piece off a small one to serve Onam food to the gods in the puja room. We decided to eat the Onam meal in stainless steel plates.

Lunch was a tasty affair. My mother had ordered vegetables the previous day from Qadir bhai in the vegetable market. Qadir bhai knows the malayalam names of almost all vegetables. We had parripu (daal, lentils- for my malayalam-challenged friends), Sambar, Aviyal, Toran made of finely shredded cabbage, Inji curry (also known as inji puli - a tasty curry made of ginger), Pachchadi made with lauki (bottle gourd) in curd, Sharkara Verrati (fried banana pieces dipped in jaggery), Naranga curry (a very tasty pickle of lemons in brine along with pieces of ginger and green chillies, really yum!) and ada prathaman payasam. Now, if you don't know what payasam is then you'd better stop reading this blog post. :)))

My Dad tried to walk with me till the dining table. But he was too weak to walk the full distance so he sat down on a chair in front of the study table in his room and we served him his Onam lunch there. In 1948 he had walked from Leh to Kargil. And then a year later from Kargil to Srinagar. He was a young armyman then. He has so far refused to use a wheel chair. Maybe I should convince him to start using one. In the evening I cycled down to the house of a Kannadiga family with some payasam and bay leaves (curry patta) in a bag. A small gesture full of love and affection which is almot impossible to make during a normal day in our hyperactive lives. A few friends came home in the evening and tasted the lovely payasam. One of them stayed back and had dinner too. He had tasted the Onam food last year too. "The thing I like about your mother's cooking is that the food doesn't feel heavy, no matter how much I eat," he has often commented. I agree. Anyone who hasn't eaten the vegetarian food of Kerala has missed something great. The dishes made for Onam lunch will last another two days. And they get tastier. Or is that my imagination?

A very special friend who lives far away kept in touch with me throughout the day by sms and chat. And that made the day even more special. Here's wishing peace, prosperity and happiness to all of you. Happy Onam.