Madhu Bazaz Wangu

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I am delighted to share the complete list of the honored guest-hosts (writers, artists, poets, film makers, editors) who are leading OMWG in 2022! Jennifer D. Diamond (January) Deborah Catanese (February) Lorraine Bonzelet (March) Gloria Muhly Baer Bostic (April) Stephanie Keyes (May) Lisa Hering (June) Shahrukh Husain (July) Madhu Bazaz Wangu (August) Hilary Hauck (September) Wende Dikec (October) Jennifer D. Diamond (November) Fritze Roberts (December) 2022 will the most fascinating year to date. If you are interested in leading the group for a month in 2023 please email or message me. Thank you so much in advance! With love, Madhu ...

Volunteers Needed to Lead Online Mindful Writers Group

Posted on March 8, 2022

Good Morning Writer Friends! You may or may not be familiar with my Online Mindful Writers Group (OMWG) where I and my guests post inspiring and motivating piece each morning. Check it out at: https://tinyurl.com/MindfulWriters For the previous years weekly guest-hosts and I have been taking turns to write daily posts but this year, our fifth we have a different format. Talented mindful writers from different genres are hosting and posting for one month each. Would you like to host a month at OMWG? Let me know. In the book, Powers of Two, Joshua Wolf Shenk banishes the idea of solitary genius and demonstrates that our richest works comes from collaboration. At OMWG it is not power of just one or two but power of many that is the real driver of creativity...

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)

Posted on January 22, 2022

in Meditation

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Obeisance to the Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) whom I consider as one of my spiritual teachers. His works introduced me to mindful walking, mindful thinking and how to live mindfully in my day to day life. What better way to pay my deepest admiration and reverence than with his own words. Thay On Death"Even when the cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is impossible for the cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death.I will continue, always." Excerpts from the...

Heals and Fulfills: The Other Shore

Posted on January 6, 2022

The Other Shore by Author Madhu Bazaz Wangu is a collection of liminal stories which surprise you even as they make you soar. If Mother Nature had chosen to be a writer and not the painter who composed the Universe, she would be Madhu Wangu. Each story shines a light on what has become dark not because one was ignorant but because one chose to ignore. Like a mirror blackened by time. Madhu makes one see the interlocking roots of trees beneath the earth tied in a tight embrace, she turns one into a bird whisperer as the cardinal who revives her spirit. She makes one smell the fetid life of the sister of the protagonist, Jyoti. The characters are honest and shock one - “I hate to hold knives without...

Happy New Year 2022

Posted on January 2, 2022

in Meditation

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Happy and Healthy New Year! May these Navreh Thaals (Plates to welcome the New Year) from our and our daughters' homes usher good look and shower you and your families with delight, wonder and joy! The plates (thaals) show traditional ingredients of bowls of milk and yogurt, sugar and salt, fresh and dry fruit, book and notebook, pen and pencil, gold jewelry and a mirror. The items are placed over uncooked rice. Modern items added are red chili, pods of tamarind or similar items. At the end of the day each ingredient is transferred back to their containers to bless the household and its dwellers. Rice symbolizes sustenance and gold abundance. The transformative process of milk turning into yogurt signifies skill, method, duration and patience it requires for a task to begin, jell,...

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 25, 2021

Each Story a Gem

Posted on November 15, 2021

"Each story is a gem," says Eileen Hodgetts in her review for THE OTHER SHORE, a collection of twenty stories. Here is her complete review: "Madhu Wangu writes from a unique perspective reflecting her current life in United States and her roots in India. Her new book of short stories is a treasure trove of thought provoking ideas. The stories are grouped beginning with a collection of tales that are deeply mythic and calming to the spirit . The later stories move through tales of life in India to tales of life in the United States. For me the most moving stories were gathered in the section of Dowry Brides and the shock of finding that even highly educated Indian women can be held captive by tradition and become domestic slaves...

Gorgeous Offering for Short Story Fans

Posted on September 27, 2021

THE OTHER SHORE Reviewed By Christian Sia for Readers’ Favorite The Other Shore: Ordinary People Grappling with Extraordinary Challenges by Madhu Bazaz Wangu is an anthology of short stories, an engaging collection, indeed. Readers will encounter well-developed characters as they navigate the challenges of life, trying to understand the world around them and how it works, like Mohini in “The Other Shore.” There is the story of Man and Woman in which Woman follows Man on his wanderlust and wonderment in “Magic Box,” watched and commented on by the gods. “Cadmium and Crimson” is the tale of a dream that would change the community. In “Silence Heard,” Madhuri wants to befriend silence and surround himself with noiselessness, but her journey is one that will surprise her and readers. Each story is...

V. Dublado Gives 5 Stars to The Other Shore

Posted on September 26, 2021

Reviewed By Vincent Dublado for Readers’ Favorite Twenty stories are told under six different themes that fuse art, spirituality, and existential angst. Madhu Bazaz Wangu, by her own account, reveals that she has written The Other Shore: Ordinary People Grappling with Extraordinary Challenges because she wants you, as the reader, to grow intellectually and be emotionally touched by her tales. Her stories bridge inner and outer realities: the reality of what we say and what we think and feel. The women in this book are remarkably spirited and the men exist to find out more about themselves. The Other Shore tells the story of Mohini and how the seasons she spent with her grandparents have filled her heart with their love. In Dowry Brides, a feature story about a dowry demand...

New Five-Star Review for The Other Shore

Posted on September 25, 2021