Chapter 1 of Burning Desire By Chris Sutton, Essex, England

“I congratulate you, Michael,” said Dr Shah, stepping aside to allow Nurse Niral Mehta to gently ease the hospital gown back over the patient’s shoulders. “You’ve made remarkable progress. I see no reason to keep you in a moment longer. Is there anyone we can contact for you?” Niral winced. Surely Dr Shah knew the circumstances of the case, that the house fire that had caused those dreadful burns had taken from Michael not just his home but his wife and unborn baby, too?

Chapter 2 of Somewhere the Sun Is Shining By Joy Clarkson, Gurgaon, India

When Khushi was seven years old, she witnessed domestic violence for the first time. Till then she was absolutely unaware of her parents’ bitter fights, which often ended with her mother being slapped. This was because the fights remained inside their bedroom and no one was the wiser. But for some reason her mother decided one day that the children should see “how bad their father was.” The incident left an indelible mark on her tender mind. She could never forget that scene. Although she witnessed many more later on, this was the one that tore her apart.

Chapter 11 of When The Lamps Were Lit' By Indrani Talukdar, Delhi (NCR), India

Surprisingly enough, news regarding Whispering Shadows didn’t create much stir in class. Some boys like Vineet and Atul did say though, that it was time Anglicization was dealt with severely by the Government. “But what can the Prime Minister do? She has a bahu who is Italian,” he’d overheard his father saying at the dinner table.

Chapter 22 of The Wheel Turned By Malathi Ramachandran, Bangalore, India

Ming-lee chopped the offal of beef to put into the bubbling sauce in the cauldron, trying to ignore the sounds coming from the only other room in the little wooden house. Her mother was in there, in bed with yet another man. She wished they would keep the noises down, she hated to think of little Huang and Chong hearing them and knowledge dawning on their innocent faces.

SHORT STORIES

Part I Of Retirement Solution By Gouri Guha, New Delhi, India

Gautam sipped his morning tea, looked around and gulped in the fresh air. The trees that lined up along the street in the colony looked green, birds flew from branch to branch their chirping a consolation from the demonic noise that would soon take over once he travelled along the busy city roads. Malati his dear wife occupied the chair next to him and having emptied the contents of her cup placed it on the little side table.
 

JESSIE'S CORNER

Sexual abuses at home itself! 

The word itself brings out a distastefully picture in your mind. TVs, newspapers and magazines flaunt these stories to increase their TRP! We read such things, going ga-ga about these things happening around us. We are in for a shock when this happens to someone known to us or even in our own homes. Did moi just say—our homes! Yea…moi just said that. The person is ready to go through hell but keep mums.

MOVIE REVIEW BY IRENE

Dostana

Since Welcome to the world of Dharma Productions where opulence rules and even if someone needs to rent out two rooms, the apartment that she lives in even has its private pool! You see she just bought it casually and then realized that there were installments to pay, so….

Dasvidaniya

It could have been, but isn’t The Bucket List or Anand or Ikiru or even Kal Ho Na Ho. It is similar but different enough to merit its own recognition, its own worth. Dasvidaniya, made by debutant director Shashant Shah, is (once again) the story of an ordinary man who suddenly discovers that he has a fatal illness – in this case, it is stomach cancer and he has just three months to live. Our ordinary man, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak) works as an accounts manager in a pharmaceutical company, and has – so far – lived a life of compromises and regrets.

BLOGS

In Food Corner- Fast and Eat By Gouri Guha, New Delhi, India

At times I wonder, “Can we live without food”. O my god rats will start running in my tummy, why me even it is the same with others. Fasting for me is something that comes with mental preparation and determination. After marriage, my mother-in-law insisted I keep fast on certain days—Shivratri, Janmastami and Sheetal Sasti. Seeing my face she would say, “If you can’t stay without food, have sherbet and some sweets. Milk products can be eaten”. Maybe she was sympathetic and for that I love her.

In Food Corner- Sheer(a) Joy By Archana Pande, Pune, India

As the first mouthful of ‘sheera’ (sooji/ semolina halwa) dissolved in my mouth I was overcome with a flood of memories. I had learnt to make this fairly simple dish from my mother and she probably from hers. Yet it is a generally accepted amongst our family that none of us can match my Aaji (maternal grandmother) in making this sweet temptation. She left us long long ago but my strongest memory of Aaji is of the lovely sheera she used to conjure up whenever we visited her.

In Current Events - India's economy in the aftermath of the financial crisis By Chandra Nageswaran, Berkeley, USA

India has come into its own in the last few years thanks to her hard-working, English speaking, intellectual reasonably priced labour force. India has been soaring on the wings of the software boom and outsourcing. Now with the financial crunch and Obama coming into power, there is a certain feeling of uncertainty in the air. Obama has spoken of reining in outsourcing. How will this affect India?
Outsourcing contracts that are not well on their way are unraveling in certain cases. We’ve seen the wild dance of the various stock exchanges. Money that was flowing free for investments in land seem to be freezing now. What does the future hold?

In True Incidents - Moon  And Earth By Gagandeep Sohal, Ludhiana, India

I woke up in the morning and the first thing I did was to check the 4indianwoman.com. I was sure that this week my name would be there....As my tiny mouse scrolled down the page, my high hopes and enthusiasm touched the ground too. Dejected and Disinterested, I tried to distract myself by surfing the TV channels. Since no good movie was showing, so I tuned in to the news channel. The news reporter was excitedly talking about how important that day was for the mission

In True Incidents - Marvel of Life By Eva Bell, Bangalore, India

Many years ago when I was newly married, my husband a pilot with the Indian Air Force, was posted to Tezpur in Assam. This was a non-family station, so I went there under my own steam, to work in a Mission Hospital and be near my husband. But life was not what I had envisaged. It was work around the clock among a predominantly tribal people.

In Mother’s Corner - The Exam Obsession By Shail Raghuvanshi, Salem, India

“Huh!” I heaved a welcome sigh of relief. My son’s exams were over. I was free once again to do all that I wanted. No need of yelling until I got hoarse. No need of restricting my television programmes. No need of trying hard to stay away from the computer. Wow! It has been ages since I felt this wonderful feeling of freedom! I was free!

In Mother's Corner - When Children Are Allowed To Play By Lesley D. Biswas, Kolkata, India

My six year old girl is all excited about going to school on the 14th of November, Children’s Day because she not only gets to wear coloured clothes but they will be free to play on that day. Last year she ran about in their children’s park, got a shade darker and came home filthy and exhausted. After a hearty lunch I didn’t  have to coax her to take her afternoon nap and she fell off into a deep peaceful sleep that was natural after all that physical exercise.

In Family - Four Walls By Parul Yadav, Aligarh, India

Vidhi dropped her two year old, Sarika, at the crèche and hurried to the college. Even in the small town of Dadri traffic was growing to be a nuisance. A few minutes more of this jam and she would be late for the class. Ever since her daughter was born life had been one big rush. With no parental support, no kindly ayahs, not even an understanding husband Vidhi had been running around for the past two years – managing her job, her house and her kid.

In Family - Home is where the heart is… By Chandana Banerjee, Chennai, India

I’m in the midst of packing - not packing a valise for a much-awaited holiday, but packing up my entire house. From utensils to curtains, linen to decoration pieces, books to gadgets, every little item that went into changing just another MES (typical military accommodation) house to home, is being meticulously wrapped and stuffed into rows of black trunks. We started with the living room – the bright red embroidered wall hanging was the first casualty in ‘Operation Packing’.

In Perspective - TRASH COLLECTOR ?! B Nandini Ratnaparkhi, Srinagar, India

Since childhood I have this habit. I always un- wrapped the gifts very carefully and preserved the colourful beautiful papers. I would neatly straighten them and keep in a safe place. Later I would use them for making beautiful art pieces, collages etc. I loved collecting these colourful beautifully designed papers. I found it sheer unmindful waste that people tear apart the gift wrappers so- ‘greedily’- if I may say so, destroy the decorative sheets within seconds and throw them away.

In Social Issues - Tradition speaks it all By Subhankari Singh, Bhubaneswar, India

People living in the towns and cities are somewhat regarded as more modern in their thoughts attitudes and behavior. I have been living in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Orissa past 15 years and in this period of time have accumulated many moments that I would always cherish throughout my life. Bhubaneswar is separated from Cuttack by around 23 km and river Mahanadi passes through these two cities. In the past years I have well carried out with my friends and our group includes people from all parts of India.