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CHOSENDhivya Arasappan

Anjali glanced at the calendar hangingon the kitchen door.

Today's date was circled in red- June20th.

Just then, her phone rang.

"Happy Chosen Day, Anju! HappyChosen day!" both her brothersscreamed on the phone.

"Thank you. Hey, I'm getting ready forwork. I'll see you this evening, ok?"Anjali asked.

"Ok. Amma is making all your favorites,so come early. We'll see you tonight. "

Anjali hung up and smiled to herself.She remembered what her mother usedto say to her when she was little -"Maybe you weren't born into thisfamily, Anju. But you were chosen...because you complete this family!"That had always made her feel specialand celebrating her chosen day still did.

.

P'()45'45+!A#2+$!

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Meet Manasa ...

The writer of the very popular Draupadi series, Manasa hasbeen with TheBanyanTrees since day one. It is clear thatshe can spin tales that have readers hanging to her everyword, but who is Manasa and what is Draupadi all about?

Manasa, in her ownwords, is ...I am somebody who thinks all of us have multiple personalities, Manasa isone of mine. I don't know much about Manasa - she is the one who is artisticand intellectual and all of that, and when she wants me to write, I humor her.My other alter-egos dabble in other things - one of them has a day job as aresearcher where she seeks to understand how the brain works. One of thethings she is working on at the moment is how the brain can look at series ofalphabets in specific orders, process them visually and make sense of theirmeaning. It is pretty exciting because it involves attempting to teach animalsto do something like rudimentary reading. There's the 'I-think-I-am-a-dancer'alter ego (about whom the lesser said the better) and then there is theRevolver Rita alter-ego who robs from the rich and gives to the poor andhomeless. OK, kidding about the last part :)

And her series, Draupadi is ...Draupadi was always known as the victim, as a powerless woman. This is anattempt to show how powerful she really was and some really powerfulchoices she makes.

How about a little sneak peak on what to expect with Draupadinext...It pretty much follows the storyline of the mahabharata with a few criticaltwists and turns, which of course, I can't reveal right now. I can say that in acouple of months we will get to know who Draupadi is waiting for when sheis dying.

Apart from 'Draupadi', any other theme she would love to write on ?My favourite theme so far (for which I had loads of ideas) was the one called'7'. It was stark, but there was so much you could do with it. Humor wouldalso be challenging and fun to write.

And what's on Manasa's bookshelf these days...

P GWodehouse's 'The Mating Season' (highly recommended)R K Narayan 'The Mahabharata' (re-read, worth it)Kandel, 'Principles of Neural Science' (brilliant book, if you are interested inneuroscience or if you don't have a good pillow)

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Meet Priya Giribalan ...

Priya Giribalan, sometimes writing as Priya Venkat, always bringsnew and innovative pieces to the magazine. Her stories haveranged from the conversations of a bunch of suitcases to mostrecently one told in reverse chronological order. We know we canalways expect something different from Priya. Let's meet thiscreative writer:

Priya, in her ownwords, is ...

I am someone who loves expressing myself through my words. Dealing withmedia and communications is my interest. Professionally, I have worked withdifferent kinds of writing- jounalistic, copy and corporate writing. Basically,my life has always revolved around penning something or the other. Rightnow, I live in Austin and am interning at The University of Texas, Austin inPublic Relations. In my spare time, I love listening to music and watching talkshows. Check out my blogs for more : http://priyagiribalan.blogspot.com/

Why does Priya write about what she does ...

I mostly write about things I am convinced about or something thatimpacted me personally. I basically draw from experiences. Honestly, myrecent story about rats....is an expression of my phobia...of pests, insects etc. Ijust gave it a screen play treatment. That's all.I definitely have to be believe inwhat i write. But I don't believe in moral policing or advicing through mystories or words. My words.... just an expression of my opinons.

Now, it seems to us like whatever crazy theme we throw atPriya, she can handle! But, does she have any favorites?

Empty Box - It was most challenging!

-'$.,!

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SPA HEAVEN

Spa treatments are as coveted as brandname hand bags, shoes and designerwear.

Miki, my spa-fanatic friend, informed me of yet another new experience. I saidto her that all her experiences at spas were the same, they all reeked of exoticfruits, vegetables, milk and marine products. This one is different, sheexclaimed over the phone. Previously, Miki had mentioned about the bittermelon rub, the chilli lemon peel massage and her favourite: caviar facial. Tellme about it, I said tapping away on the keyboard, and chatting with her atthe same time.

Miki has tried and tested many potions and her experience is worth its valuein eye gel. She does the spas, I write about them. We have our compatiblemoments. And we catch up for drinks, usually after one of her treatments,Miki breezes in looking like a fresh summer day, orders a mojito, and offersprincess-like smiles at the admiring glances.

"This is the most exciting treatment yet. Are you sitting down?"

"Yes, Miki. I’m sitting.’‘Chocolate!" She says. "The spa provides a chocolatewhile you have a massage?"

"Yes, and no. It’s a double chocolate pedicure, where guests get a hotchocolate soak, a sugar scrub for the feet and chocolate mask for the hands.Isn’t that great? I’m going to try it out today."

Shobha Nihalani :

On The Lighter Side Of Things...

"Ha, ha that’s a good one! The spa ran out of fruits and vegetables and lookedin the fridge and thought, 'hey, let’s use chocolate!' Next thing you know,insects will follow you like bees to honey. See, that’s why spas are not reallymy kind of thing. You pay a bomb for melted cadbury’s on your feet. Andwhat’s with the fancy French names, anyway? Why can’t they call a spa – aspa. Why do they have to call it La Maison de Thermes de Monte-Carlo dewhatever?"

"You’re such a cynic. You wait and see, by the end of next Wednesday, I’llmake a believer out of you, if that’s the last thing I do." And she hung up witha determined humph. I recalled that I had agreed to go for a spa treatmentwith her.

I didn’t care to admit to Miki, that she had a point to all this spa stuff. After acertain age, and despite adequate doses of calcium and various vitamins thatspell the alphabet, combined with a cocktail of herbal roots and the kind,time is a race that soon catches up. Spa treatments have become a lifestylechoice. Spas promise a dose of eternity. It’s a temple for the body. When Mikireturns from a treatment, I swear, I’ve seen this halo of white glowing aroundher body. And then she tells me about the intense electrocellulolipolysis, atreatment that is difficult enough to spell, let alone pronounce, and how itremoves all the toxins from her body. Of course she would look magnificent.

Wednesday arrived and I reluctantly made my contribution to the spaindustry. Miki was excited about us doing this together. We arrived at theAmore Bellagio De Beaute Spa, located on the top floors of one of the officebuildings. As soon as we stepped off the lifts, onto plush carpet, there was acocooned effect and the sounds of citylife had disappeared. Miki gave meknowing glances and looked comfortable, whereas I felt awkward and gawkyin my sneakers. The consultant, Miss Flawless Skin with a snooty attitude,offered us a menu and recommended the red carpet facial. I caught a hint ofaversion when she glanced at me. Yet she gave me a perfect Christian Diorsmile. Miki patted my arm as a warning, aware that I had a tendency torespond sarcastically.

"What about the green carpet facial? Don’t you have something like that, youknow support the cause, global warming?" I asked her. Miki smacked mywrist. The consultant flicked her attention back to Miki.

"Why can’t they call a spa – a spa. Why do

they have to call it La Maison de Thermes de

Monte-Carlo de whatever?"

"Madam, there is another very special treatment, developed in Russia byGalino’s grandmother," the woman stopped for effect, and I saw Miki’s eyesopen wide.

"What? Who is Galino? And what did her grandmother do?" I demanded lloudly.

"Shush,’ Miki said and nodded at the consultant, who gave me a triumphantlook. ‘It’s one of the most sought-after treatments, the Grand Luxe Facial,takes three hours to complete and includes a silver dust salve and diamondpeel microdermabrasion."

"Sounds like something you’d do to decorate an apartment," I remarked.

They both glared at me. So, I sat quietly and waited for them to decide on mysimpleton massage and for Miki’s red carpet star treatment.

"Please follow me. I have arranged a special suite for the two of you," the ladyoffered, smiling at Miki only.

She led us through a maze of corridors- the walls were lined with mini-chandeliers and suede European wallpaper and lots of ornately framedmirrors. She opened a door with a flourish, and presented the area withpride, as if she had personally created the ambience. And what a beautifulroom it was! Fit for a princess. We were wrapped in green silk tea robes,enjoyed a tea ceremony, a green tea back scrub, a heated basalt stones andgreen tea massage oil and clay mask treatments. After that there was nolooking back. I was hooked.

Six hours later, I met Miki in the lobby.

"You look gorgeous" she said. Miki looked like a goddess herself. ‘So how wasit?’ She asked breathlessly.

"I feel like a whole different person.You are my spa guru." I said with sincerity.She gave me a heavenly smile and a warm hug.

Shobha Nihalani is a Hong Kong-based writer, author of The SilentMonument (published by Tara Press Delhi). She is also a housewife,mother, book-keeper, aunt and grand-aunt, necessarily in that order. Shesounds busy, and she is. But above all, she absolutely has to write, orelse pre-menopausal hormones would get the better of her and she wouldscare people! Check out her musings on the lighter side of life...

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G5+&B!]1#!

The Anniversary

-- Nivethitha Kumar

"Gift wrap ma'am?"

"Yes, of course. Can you use thisblue sheet instead of the pink oneyou are holding? Thank you."Shilpa said to the man behind thecounter. Her manicured fingerswere busy picking out the perfectlittle gift card to go on top of hernicely wrapped gift.

As she watched the man behindthe counter wrapping her gift, shethought about Saket andwondered if he would like her gift."But of course he will, he has beeneyeing this rayban for a long timenow, he will love this" - she toldherself. It had been a whole yearsince Saket and Shilpa startedgoing out. This was their one yearanniversary and like all first timethings, she was hoping this onewould be very special, for sakethad quickly become the mostimportant thing in her life in thepast one year. Just like that.

She chose to walk the shortdistance back home though therewere a dozen auto rickshawsspawning in front of her,requesting her to let them dropher home. Walking in the nearlybrutal heat of madras in april,

Shilpa could not help but wonderabout Saket and their conversationa week before. Shilpa had broughtup marriage and talking to parents.Saket had seemed a littleapprehensive mostly because hehad been worried about his familyaccepting Shilpa.

'They are too traditional Shilpa.' Hehad said. 'They might not like theidea of me finding my own bride.So I have to approach this carefully.Give me some time to figure it out.'He said while looking lustfully in toher eyes.

Shilpa was going to bring up thetopic again tonight at dinner. Notbecause she was in a hurry to getsettled down, but she wanted toknow if Saket felt the same wayabout her, if he wanted to take thenext big step like she did. She justneed to know that - a sense ofreassurance, thats how shethought about it. It was too hard tolet someone have the kind ofpower that Saket had over her. Shehad let her whole world slowly slipaway and revolve around Saket.

Shilpa reached Saket's apartmentand removed the key from underthe door mat. She entered thehouse and entered his room to

Dear Saket,

You should know that as of today,on our first anniversary, you gofrom being a player to being theplayed. Yes, you currently holdneither Shilpa nor Sherene as yourpawns.

It is a pity your traditional parentswon't accept a Shilpa, but willwelcome a Sherene with openarms. It is a pity that in the one yearyou were with me, you fell in lovewith Sherene. I made sure she gotthe ring you had so beautifullypicked out and wrapped. Oh, alongwith a nice note of course aboutyou and I. You will find anothernote inside your gift from her aswell. Dont bother reading that one,mine is way nicer, I tell you.

Either ways, today marks animportant day for you. It is yourone year anniversary of being aschmuck. And much more for me, Iwill celebrate this day next year asgood riddance day.

Happy Anniversary. Shmuck.-Shilpa

Saket searched for the other notefrom Sherene. He banged his headon the dinner table a couple oftimes before heading out of therestaurant. Meanwhile Shilpa hadsettled in front of her TV with a bigbowl of mango ice cream. She hadto get her world back to revolvingaround her.

to place her gift on his table nearhis laptop. If there was one placehe would never miss, it was hiswork table. She carefully placedthe gift card, making sure her littlecard was visible. As she turned toleave, she saw a small wrapped gifton his bedside table.

Shilpa was torn between waitingfor the actual surprise and peekinga little to find out what her giftwas. Curiosity won her over andshe hopped over to look at the gift.Beneath the beautifully wrappedgift was a small peice of paper. Sheopened and read it. She thenrealized she should have waited forthe surprise.

Saket walked over to their dinnertable in the restaurant Shilpa hadchosen for their one yearanniversary. He wondered whattook Shilpa so long. He sat downand pored over the menu whenthe waiter brought and placed asmall gift wrapped box. Saket,smiling to himself, opened the boxto find a pair of Rayban sunglassesand a gift card.

What Our Readers Say ...

What would a magazine be without readers? Absolutely nothing! So we aredefinitely very thankful to our wonderful readers, all 3000 of them. For ouranniversary issue, we wanted to hear from you, our readers, so we sent outsome fun questions... and here are some of the things you had to say.

We've racked our brains to come up with a new and different theme everyissue. So, we wondered which your favorites were. And you told us that:

1. TheDial M forMurder issue kept you guessing2. You had to read The Colors of aWomen issue in its entirety3. You enjoyed abstract themes like Seven and The Empty Box

"I really liked the issue where writers were given the prompt that their story has tobe about an empty box. This kind of excercise really produces awesome results asyou never knowwhat people will come upwith. "-- Sowmya Arasappan

In a big cry of unison, the column/author that you all seem turn tofirst every issue is ....

Manasa's Draupadi

"The first thing I do when you sendme the link is to read Manasa'sDraupadi article. I understand thepiece well maybe because it is awomen's (Draupadi's) perspective ofhandling husbands. Here I complainabout one but, she had to deal withfive."-- Bharath Ananthanarayanan

"I read Draupadi, to constantly seehow I can counter it."-- Srihari Sridharan

We asked you to tell us what youwant next and you were loud andclear!

Music! and Humor!

"Always make sure you havesomething or the other that is wittyin your script Humor always bringsout a smile inmost!"-- Aishwarya Ramachandran

"Music, of course!"-- Prathap Chandran

Awww, aren't our readers the best? We really couldn't have made it one yearwithout all of you who read through the magazine every month and helpspread the word! So, here's a big shout out to TheBanyanTrees readers!!Keep reading and keep telling us what you think!

And of course, a great big TBT thanks to everyone who replied to our manyquestions. We really appreciate it!

So we wanted to know, what else tickles your fancy, apartfrom this magazine, of course?

One of our loyal regulars (Archana Kannan) even said, thatwhen she's not reading the magazine, she spends time'making TheBanyanTrees discoverable by its readers.! ' Andwe so appreciate that!

And of course we always love to get a few pats on ourback, and you guys were in a generous mood. Some ofyou just made our day!

"TheBanyanTrees is in the business of adding colorto people's lives"-- Somasundaram G

"I like the fact that by creating this magazine, youare encouraging people to discover their hiddentalent. The Banyan Trees is a perfect landing placefor novice writers to gain a footing while you guyspromote their writing."-- Shirish Kandekar

Everything from watching TED, trying differentcuisines, painting, and traveling to exotic placeslike Puerto Rico. Boy, are we jealous!

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The Other Son of Ganges

Chapter 5: "THE BIRTH"

-- -- Matangi Mawley

Sinha looked at him- smiling to himself as he said, “For a few months fromnow on, you will not be Shravan. Your name would be Bhanupratap. And youwill remain here, in the lock-up…"

Ganges was flowing all over his mind and body. There can be no place wherehe would stay forever. He would go on. On. Not knowing where it would leadhim to. The flow was not a path he chose. It was there. He would only flowalong. The choice was not his. There was no choice. The destination was nothis. The Ganges- would lead his way…

Sinha continued, “No one would question you. You can remain anywherewithin this prison. But you would not go out of this place. Understood?”

His mother would lead him. “Yes saab,” replied Shravan.

Sinha looked satisfied. He said, “Good. I’ll get you `1000 by the end of fourmonths."

“Yes saab.” And that was their contract.

The Gangotri sees her in a form so different. The child about to enter into anew world- a world that would worship her. A world that would depend onher to wash away its blackness. No more the soft infant touch- but the roughwrath over the ever mounting human sins! That was how she was- washingaway the sins of sinners. Only- the prison was no holy Kashi! He was in hismother’s lap- but there were other prisoners- foster children of his mother.

It took him a while to get used to his new identity. Bhanupratap. He was now,officially, a criminal. But what crime? He wouldn’t know, would he? Sinhachecked on – every day. Was he friendly? May be. But the new Bhanupratapunderstood that “food never comes free.” Sometimes, there were smallpackets of white powder to be given to a certain Motilal. Brown covers, heavyat times, to be given to Sinha. Powder- Motilal’s food. And food- never comesfree. Bhanupratap was learning…

Soon, the sinners within the walls became people with names. And everyoneknew him as Bhanupratap. There were thieves, rapists, fraudulent geniuses,may be a few murderers even. But they were the ones who could not afford a`1000 every four months!

And slowly, the people with names were people with stories. Husbands whomurdered wives who had made a cuckold out of them. Or young boys- whohad been offensive about rich girls. There was a certain 496 that was mostcommon. These numbers became more familiar to him than their names. Hemade friends with 446s, 489Cs, 463-464s. He was often asked what hisnumber was? He might have mentioned it to Sinha once. He had replied

“Bhanupratapji, tell them that you are the King of all that. Tell them- you areGovernment!” And shooed him away- laughing to himself…

Four months- and he was almost Bhanupratap. A man with just a name. Nobirth. No life. No death. Somewhere amidst everywhere. Sinha called him thatnight. He held a `1000 in hand. Smiling as he spoke, “Would you like to earnmore, Bhanupratapji?"

(..To be continued., Part 6: “He and I…”)

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