Madhu Bazaz Wangu

An exceptionally gifted painter lets his art consume. Buried in work and wealth he trades his creative freedom for popularity and wealth, a jail of sorts, as what once freed him now becomes his cage.His wife, Shanti, suggests a vacation to the picturesque village of Manipur Inside a solitary cabin under a banyan tree, the painter becomes mesmerized by a blackened mirror. But can he accept what that mirror truly reflects?"The Blackened Mirror" is a short story taken from the collection "Chance Meetings" by author Madhu Bazaz Wangu. Here's what the critics say: "The story hangs like a bead on a japa mala - for the reader to touch and be touched by the transformative power of storytelling." -Milczar "A beautiful, lush, lyrical story. The rhythmic language transports and transforms..." -Kathleen Shoop

The Prequel to "The Last Suttee" by Madhu Bazaz Wangu...Nine-year-old Kumud Kuthiyala cannot hide her excitement on Diwali Eve, the festival of lights. But an aunt's visit invites an unexpected and painful understanding of marriage and related rituals. Will Aunt Sau embrace the horrible ritual of suttee and follow it to its "natural" end? Or can Kumud and her mother stop her before it's too late? This novella is the prequel to Wangu's stunning "The Last Suttee." Here's what the critics say: "A haunting, rich narrative on the struggle of faith, custom and social hierarchy in modern times . . . The gorgeous language brings alive the complex world through sounds, smells, colors and tastes." -Hilary Hauck"The Last Suttee is an engaging adventure story well told. It explores many of the cultural obstacles facing girls in India. Kumud, the heroine, shows how one person can be an agent of change." -Professor, Smith College"Madhu Bazaz Wangu's writing is full of rich descriptions that engage the senses and make you feel part of each setting." -Martha Swiss"What woman among us doesn't immediately resonate to varying degrees with the protagonist's remark that '... a woman faces elimination at every stage of her life'? Read this book to sharpen your awareness and to understand the tools for positive change." -Gale Oare"Threads of spirituality, and myth are skillfully woven throughout the tale and make 'The Last Suttee' a wonderful story and an authentic and unique work of art " (Rosemary Hanrahan)

Twelve different people from different walks of life discover how one chance meeting with a stranger can change a person forever.In this eloquent collection of stories, Madhu Bazaz Wangu draws from her own Indian-American heritage and examines the lives of ordinary people facing challenging circumstances-cruelty, prejudiced minds, twisted family relationships, unhappy marriages-and demonstrates how these situations transcend ethnicity and background as interactions with strangers force each character to look deep within themselves, often acknowledging painful truths and long-held secrets, in order to seize control of their own destinies and forge their own paths to independence and happiness.

"You must come at once if you want to stop the suttee from happening again..." This phone message summons Kumud Kuthiyala back to Neela Nagar, the blue town of her youth, and the shackled life she thought she had left behind forever... As a nine-year-old, Kumud witnessed the brutal and horrifying suttee ritual when her beloved aunt immolated herself on the burning pyre of her dead husband. Years later, Kumud summoned the courage to escape the isolated and primitive town of her youth to start a new life in Ambayu, a metropolitan city. She began as office help at Save Girls Soul Orphanage Center and progressed to become its director. At SGSO Center, she becomes a warrior for women's education and equal rights. She teaches young women to protect themselves from outmoded practices and rituals that victimize women. Then a phone call informs Kumud that the suttee of a sixteen-year-old is inevitable. She has vowed that she will never let it happen again. Still haunted by her aunt's suttee, she leaves everything behind, including her love, Shekhar Roy, to end the barbaric custom that scarred her for life, and to save the young bride from committing suttee. As Kumud travels back to the town of her youth, long-buried memories resurface and force her to remember the life from which she fled. The town that greets her is full of contradictions. It has electricity and clean water, and a new school is open to low castes, yet superstition and prejudice abound. How can she convince the town that their centuries-old tradition is cruel and barbaric, that a widowed young woman deserves the right to live? Can she change the minds of the townspeople and the Five Elders before it's too late?

As a girl on the brink of womanhood in 1960s India, Shanti Bamzai has big dreams. Rather than enter into an arranged marriage like her sister, Shanti embarks on a journey into the unknown, leaving her family home behind for an education and a chance to chart her own destiny. While India experiences an upheaval of cultural and societal changes as old-world traditions collide with the modern global era, Shanti navigates college, a marriage of her own choosing, and motherhood, fighting a constant battle between the pressures of traditional expectations and her own burning desire to be an artist and an independent woman. A move to America presents exciting new opportunities, but Shanti is disappointed to find herself still hemmed in by the restrictions of her Indian upbringing. As her children become adults and her marriage becomes a shell of what it once was, Shanti must find the courage to step out of her husband's shadow and into the life she's always dreamed of.

Walking is such a simple thing, but its addition to your creative habits is life-changing. Writing Inspiration Through Mindful Walking was written as an introductory guide to familiarize those attending Mindful Writers Retreats with the walking component of the event. When those ideas helped attendees far beyond the boundaries of the retreat, the content was expanded.Prompts encourage you to add walking into your current writing practice, and to experience the ways walking can fuel writing volume while also raising its quality.Poetry by Madhu Bazaz Wangu serves as the perfect accompaniment, a meditative lure to further inspire your writing life.Take the first step

Buddhism, Fourth Edition tells the story of Buddhism's origins and its development into three major schools of thought - and presents the particular beliefs and practices of those schools of Buddhism that still flourish today. This fascinating title explores the concept of the 'socially engaged Buddhist,' the growth and practice of Buddhism in America, and the recent revival of Buddhism in Asia. Coverage includes: introduction to the modern Buddhist world; the life of the Buddha; the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia, and the world; differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism; the literature of Buddhism; Buddhism and the arts' the year in Buddhism; and Buddhism today and in the future.