The First Flame

By Madhu Bazaz Wangu

The Prequel to my novel THE LAST SUTTEE...

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?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Madhu Bazaz Wangu
• Release date: Sep 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781646493647

Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Madhu B. Wangu is an award-winning author and the founder of Mindful Writers Groups and Retreats. She has a doctorate in the phenomenology of Religion from the University of Pittsburgh (1988) and a post-doctoral Fellowship from Harvard University (1989-1991). For fifteen years she taught Hindu and Buddhist art history at the University of Pittsburgh, Rhode Island College and Wheaton College. She joined Pennwriters Organization in 2005 and served as a Board member from 2007-2012. In 2020 she won Pennwriters Meritorious Award for being “a valuable asset to the writing and publishing world.” Dr. Wangu has also serves as a board member for Books Bridge Hope, the non-profit organization with a mission to promote reading, writing and literacy to community members residing in shelters and on the streets of Pittsburgh.More than three decades of meditating and journaling led Dr. Wangu to teach meditation and to journal. The work resulted in a practice she calls Writing Meditation Practice. You are welcome to join her every morning at Online Mindful Writers Group.Madhu Wangu’s CDs, Meditations for Mindful Writers I, II & III, inspire professional as well as novice writers to improve focus, remove blocks, and increase writing flow and productivity. Her CDs include: Meditations for Mindful Writers: Body, Heart, Mind (2011), Meditations for Mindful Writers II: Sensations, Feelings, Thoughts (2017), and Meditations for Mindful Writers III: Generosity, Gratitude, Self-Compassion and Trust (2019)Dr. Wangu has written books about Hindu and Buddhist goddesses: Images of Indian Goddesses: Myths, Meanings and Models, (Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 2003) and A Goddess Is Born, (Spark Publishers, 2002). Her illustrated books for young adults are, Hinduism (Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1991) and Buddhism (Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1993). Madhu has also held five one-person shows of oil paintings and prints and has exhibited with art groups in India as well as USA.Dr. Madhu Bazaz Wangu's fiction includes Chance Meetings: Stories About Cross-Cultural Karmic Collisions and Compassion (2015), two novels, The Immigrant Wife: Her Spiritual Journey (2016) and The Last Suttee (2017), and a second collection of short stories, The Other Shore: Ordinary People Grappling with Extraordinary Challenges (2021).This year, 2023 she published her magnum opus, Unblock Your Creative Flow: 12 Months of Mindfulness for Writers and Artists. Currently, she is writing her third novel, Meaning of My Life.Read the daily posts about meditation, journaling, reading, writing, walking in nature and related topics Online Mindful Writers Group at facebook.com/groups/706933849506291/

Book preview

A black letter on a white background Description automatically generated

Fiction

The Last Suttee

The Other Shore

The Immigrant Wife

Chance Meetings

Non-Fiction

Unblock Your Creative Flow

Images of Indian Goddesses

A Goddess is Born

Hinduism

Buddhism

CDs

Mindful Meditation for Writers: Body, Heart, Mind

Mindful Meditation for Writers II: Walking Through the Forest, Awakening the Senses, Mountain and Lotus,

Animating Seven Energy Chakra

Meditations for Mindful Writers III: Generosity, Gratitude, Self-Compassion and Trust

Contents

The First Flame

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Kumud Kuthiyala could not hide her excitement at the thought of Saubhagya Massi’s visit on Diwali Eve, the festival of lights. Sau Massi was her honorary aunt and her mother’s best friend. Since that morning at the beginning of her school’s weeklong vacation, Kumud had been Ma’s cooking assistant and helped ready Sau’s room. Now they were making cotton wicks for diyas to be lit on Diwali Eve.

To avoid accidental burns, Kumud’s mother Geeta knotted her own long silken hair into a low bun, and instead of wearing a sari, she donned a churidar and shirt. She had also left her long scarf on the back of a kitchen chair.

After Kumud placed the final wick in its earthenware lamp, Ma carefully filled them all halfway with sesame oil. The diyas would be lit and burn as long as the oil lasted.

Ma loaded one tray with lamps and was about to carry it when Kumud said, Ma, I can take these.

Are you sure?

I’m ten, Ma. Let me do this.

Not yet, Ma replied. After tying Kumud’s two braids in a knot behind her back, Ma’s beautiful black eyes shined with pride. "Okay take it, but be careful, bitiya rani! These thirteen diyas are for the puja room upstairs. Arrange them on the windowsill so they are visible from afar."

"Tell me again, why thirteen?"

"Today is the thirteenth day of the lunar fortnight, Triyodashi, one of the three auspicious days of Diwali, Ma answered. On this day Lord Shiva bestows long life, peace, and good fortune, and Laxmi, the goddess of prosperity, visits us."

Kumud gingerly picked up the tray and was about to leave when her mother repeated, Be careful! Should I come with you?

No Ma, I can do this!

After a few minutes, Kumud returned triumph­mant. Where do I go next?

You’re back already. Good girl! Together they arranged lamps on the windowsills and the front porch. Out of the blue Ma said, Let’s light them before your father and Sau arrive.

But the sun hasn’t set yet.

It will be dark when they get here. Besides, that will leave us more time to sit with Sau before dinner. Ma struck a matchstick and used it to light two candles. She handed one taper to Kumud and kept one for herself. Go, big girl. Light the ones in the courtyard and I will do the rest. Be careful!

"You keep