Tulsi Vivah

By Anna Kaling

The festival of Tulsi Vivah ushers in the Hindu wedding season and tears away the love of Kristopher’s life. Three years of passion and tenderness are reduced to a shameful skeleton in the closet as Arjuna submits to the marriage his parents have arranged for him. His family has never even heard Kristopher’s name. 

The festival, a ritualistic wedding between the holy basil plant, Tulsi, and her eternal lover, Vishnu, is as much of a play-act as Arjuna’s upcoming nuptials, but he believes the wedding will honor his parents and please Vishnu. So why is his Tulsi plant—whose leaves heal and bless the devout, who is Vishnu's representative on earth—dying? Arjuna tends to her with all the care of a concerned parent, but it might take more than his devotion to save her. She might need Kris, with his clever green-fingers—and maybe a revived Tulsi can heal two hearts.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2018 Advent Calendar "Warmest Wishes."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781644050484

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By Anna Kaling

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Tulsi Vivah

By Anna Kaling

The festival of Tulsi Vivah ushers in the Hindu wedding season and tears away the love of Kristopher’s life. Three years of passion and tenderness are reduced to a shameful skeleton in the closet as Arjuna submits to the marriage his parents have arranged for him. His family has never even heard Kristopher’s name.

The festival, a ritualistic wedding between the holy basil plant, Tulsi, and her eternal lover, Vishnu, is as much of a play-act as Arjuna’s upcoming nuptials, but he believes the wedding will honor his parents and please Vishnu. So why is his Tulsi plant—whose leaves heal and bless the devout, who is Vishnu’s representative on earth—dying? Arjuna tends to her with all the care of a concerned parent, but it might take more than his devotion to save her. She might need Kris, with his clever green-fingers—and maybe a revived Tulsi can heal two hearts.

To my mum, even though she’ll never read my work because Too much sex and swearing.

Acknowledgments

THANK YOU to Jackee, Kate, Kim, and Matthew for your help and encouragement while I was writing this. Thanks to Charlie and Pepper for sitting on me while I was writing this and for meowing loudly when I needed to concentrate.

KRISTOPHER PACED the corridor outside his boyfriend’s flat and muttered, Come on, come on, come on.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot and tried to think of dry things. The Sahara. Cracked earth. His Aunt Margaret.

It wasn’t working. His gaze drifted to a potted flamingo lily underneath the window, and he bit his lip. The soil did look a little dry….

No. The resulting pH imbalance could be fatal, and the plant had been a gift from him to Arjuna.

So he carried on pacing and tried to channel his desperation into telepathy. Come home… come home… open the damn door.

He really should have answered Nature’s call before he left work, but he wanted to catch the early TrainLink. Apparently, everybody else in New South Wales had the same idea. The train, so overcrowded he could barely breathe in the humid November air, had stood still on the tracks for an hour while a fallen tree was removed from the line and Kris’s bladder expanded like an overfilled condom.

Bad train of thought. Dust, sand, Aunt Margaret….

Why won’t you give me a key? he groaned and pressed his palms on Arjuna’s door as if the wood would bend to his will like some kind of Harry Potter portal that led to a realm of bathrooms.

Footsteps sounded from the stairs at the end of the hall. Magic was real.

Arjuna emerged from the stairwell, wearing so many layers he looked like the Hulk after a crash diet. He had a metal tin jammed under one arm as he tried to maneuver a gloved hand into his pocket.

Kris danced on the spot and watched Arjuna fumble, with a mixture of frustration and fondness. Australia’s weather was one of the reasons Kris had deserted England a decade ago, but Arjuna, whose parents had settled when he was a toddler, seemed to think he’d been exiled to the Arctic. You know it’s nearly summer, right?

Arjuna’s head snapped up and he dropped the tin. It landed with a thump and rolled across the carpet to nudge Kris’s shoe.

Ghee? Kris picked up the tin and felt his mood lift. Does this mean you’re cooking something bad for my arteries?

Arjuna slapped his forehead. I forgot you’d be waiting. I was halfway through dinner prep when I realized I’d forgotten to buy ghee, so I went out for some.

Kris stopped dancing and stared. What?

What what?

"You forgot?"

Yes. Stop staring. I said I forgot, not that I’d slept with your sister.

You wouldn’t joke about that if you’d seen my sister. Kris frowned. You don’t forget things, Arjuna. I forget things. Are you feeling okay?

Don’t be silly. I’m only human. Arjuna retrieved his keys and moved toward the door. Under the fluorescent light, a streak of white powder glinted in his hair. Kris would’ve been worried if he hadn’t caught the faint scent of dough. No, scratch that, he was worried. Arjuna, forgetful and not pristine?

Something’s up.

Arjuna turned as Kris ruffled the flour out of his hair, and a fine mist floated past his deep brown eyes.

Kris leaned in for a kiss, but then a lock clicked in the background, and suddenly he was kissing the air, and Arjuna was backing away like Kris was a Venus flytrap. Kris stumbled across the hall as Arjuna’s neighbor opened her door. He grabbed the frame to stop himself lurching into her flat and shouted, Shit!

Two small children inside the flat gaped at him in wide-eyed horror. Their mother threw out an arm and pushed them behind her.

Sorry. Kris shot a glare at Arjuna, but those brown eyes were round in a deer-in-the-headlights sort of way. How could Kris be angry with a deer? He gritted his teeth and turned back to the neighbor. Don’t be scared. I’m not trying to break in. Just, uh, had too much to drink.

She made a point of looking at a clock mounted on the wall and pressed her lips together.

As you were. Kris stepped out of the doorway and gestured for her to