Chance Meetings: Stories About Cross-Cultural Karmic Collisions and Compassion In this eloquent collection of stories, twelve different people from different walks of life discover how one chance meeting with a stranger can change a person forever. Drawing from her own Indian-American heritage, Madhu Bazaz Wangu 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. Madhu Bazaz Wangu poignantly weaves a universal message that ties the characters in these stories together, one that applies to anyone who has experienced poverty, jealousy, fear, prejudice, disillusionment, and above all, the feeling of being a foreigner, even within one's own family. Story Summaries: Secret Healer: One small town boy's journey from the innocence of childhood to the injustices of servitude before finding shelter with an old man. Cadmium and Crimson: Two sculptors, one goal-to make masterpieces in three dimensions. The older dedicates his life to art and his younger contemporary to success. Where do their intentions lead them? Blackened Mirror: A successful artist discovers his authentic self. A Chance Meeting: A young man treats a total stranger the way he wants to be treated without expecting anything in return to amazing effect. Yellow Jacket: The protagonist is unable to resolve the guilt caused by the jealousy toward his younger brother as a result of his sudden death. The Thug: In an intense, frightful hour, a woman realizes the folly of gossip. A Precious Gift: After her son's death, a distraught woman learns from her old mother how to cope with loss. An American Dialogue A synchronic event changes a prejudiced woman's beliefs about a man from a religion other than her own. Darkness Behind Eyes: At the age of seventy-two, the deep driving desire of a woman who has wanted to learn to read since her teen years helps her achieve her goal. Gauri's Freedom: An arranged marriage dramatically alters a young woman's plans for her life until she meets another woman by chance who inspires her to take her life into her own hands through determination and self-sufficiency. Cycle of Life: A young, idealistic woman learns why and how life goes on despite suffering, anguish and physical pain. Portable Shrine: A writer discovers she is capable of more than she thought through the life lessons learned by the characters in her novel.