My Short Story In DNA Me of 28 June 2009

A short story I had sent to the magazine DNA Me in July 2008 has been published today (Sunday Jun 28 2009) after being in the queue for almost a year.

It is titled Visiting God's Own Country and has been published under the title A Question of Priorities.

Click here to see the story as it was originally written.


The above post will also provide you links to three of my other stories which have been published in the same magazine.

And click here to read it the way it has appeared in print (pdf file):

My Short Story In An Anthology

Sulekha (www.sulekha.com) have published the sixth book using contributions from bloggers. It is titled UNWIND:A Whirlwind of Writings. It is an anthology of 23 entries and one of the entries has been written by me. I am fairly sure that it is my short story titled The Teacher And The Student.

Some background: This is one of 48 shortlisted articles/stories by bloggers on Sulekha. Each entry was given an award of Rs. 10,000. Of these 48 entries 25 were selected for an anthology published by Penguin India. My story did not make it to this list of 25.

I had suggested to Team Sulekha that they must not let the 23 entries vanish. I was pleased when they wrote to me telling me that they are taking up my suggestion.

Well, this book is the result. I have just placed an online order for a copy.

Click here to read the announcement by Team Sulekha.

An Arranged Marriage.... (Short Story)

It took time for Mr. Sadarangani to register the message. His son Vishal was telling him that his girl friend Veena was pregnant. Mr. Sadarangani thought he would have a heart attack. “Hey Ram, what is this world coming to?” he asked his wife Gita, “I couldn’t imagine Vishal and Veena would betray our trust so.” The kids had grown up in the same building in Bandra. They had been classmates at the same school and the same college. Vishal was working now and Veena was doing her MBA. Both sets of parents knew that they were very friendly. Deep down in their hearts they also knew that they were madly in love with each other.

But nobody was willing to admit the truth which had been staring them in the face for so many years. The level of denial was so high that when both had turned sixteen Mr and Mrs Sadarangani had even tried to make Veena tie a rakhi on Vishal’s hand on rakshabandhan day. But they had not insisted when they saw the contempt with which both youngsters dismissed the suggestion. Veena’s parents Mr. and Mrs Menon were also told about Veena’s pregnancy. All hell broke loose in the Menon household too.

Mr. and Mrs. Menon were quiet clear that they didn’t want a Sindhi son-in-law. And the Sadaranganis were clear that they didn’t want a Malayali daughter-in-law. Even if she was as fair complexioned as Veena was. As a matter of fact the friendship between both couples was built on a foundation of intolerance. Mr. and Mrs. Menon were born and brought up in Kerala and they wanted Veena to marry a good Menon boy. This development was a shock for them. They felt that they should have acknowledged the relationship when they saw it clearly many years ago. But the parents of both were praying for it to be a passing infatuation. Since the situation had gone out of hand the parents got together over a cup of coffee. Mrs. Menon made her famous filter coffee and Mrs. Sadarangani brought the papads.

The parents were clear on one thing. The youngsters had let them down. They had not expected such a thing from them. They had brought them up with all the right cultural values and beliefs. They had never been allowed to become westernised. They were allowed to read as many books as they wanted, see movies and listen to music. But they were never allowed to go on dates or spend exorbitant amounts on clothes and cosmetics. Both parents tried to get the young couple agree to an early marriage. But they were adamant that they would marry only after Veena completed her semester in college. The parents were shocked. “What will people say, yende devamme!” wailed Mrs. Menon. “Oh shut up mama,” said Veena, irritated with her mother’s habit of wailing in Malayalam. Vishal also told his mother not to start getting hysterical in Sindhi.

After prolonged discussions it was decided that the young couple must get married the next Sunday. With only five days left to go they decided to invite a few close relatives. The other families living in the same building could become guests from both sides. The marriage went off very well. Mrs. Sadarangani coached Veena on the intricacies of becoming a Sindhi wife. The marriage rituals went off smoothly. After the marriage ceremony, which was attended by a small group of relatives and friends, there was a reception lunch hosted by the bride’s father. The same evening a reception was hosted by the groom’s father. Everything went off very well. Everyone was impressed by the thoroughness with which the ceremony was conducted.

A few days after the marriage Mrs. Sadarangani noted that Veena’s tummy wasn’t growing. Her suspicions became stronger when she realised after a week that Veena's tummy was still just the same. When she asked Veena about it she just smiled. Finally, out of sheer desperation she dragged Veena to a doctor who confirmed that Veena wasn’t pregnant. Both sets of parents had another meeting over a cup of tea in the dining room of the Menons’ house. Both the youngsters were summoned and were asked to stand in front. They stood in front of their parents in semi-attention. They were subjected to another scolding and asked to explain their behaviour.

“Simple,” said Vishal, “we had a good reason to do this.” Both the fathers pounced upon him and asked him to tell them the reason. Vishal looked at Veena. Their eyes met. They smiled at each other nervously and held hands. Veena addressed all the parents, “We had figured out that if we seek permission for marriage all of you would have said no. We calculated that if we were to give you the shocking news of pregnancy you would insist that we get married. And that is exactly what happened. Instead of a love marriage we had an arranged marriage. And all of us are happy. Are we not?”

The parents did not know what to say. They realised that the kids had made fools of them. There was a pregnant silence for a few seconds and then Mr. Menon burst out laughing. His laughter was infectious. He was followed by Mrs. Sadarangani and then Mrs. Menon. The kids also burst out laughing. Finally, a reluctant Mr. Sadarangani who was still recovering from the shock of having lost almost a crore of rupees as dowry in Vishal’s marriage, also joined in. A few months later Veena told her mother-in-law that she was pregnant. Everybody believed her this time.
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(Originally posted in my weblog in Sulekha.com : http://dkvblog.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm )

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