write india author of the month for december chitra banerjee divakaruni told a room full of excited audience that to tell good stories all you had to do was imagine the lives of other people on the second day of the seventh edition of the times litfest mumbai at mehboob studios a breezy morning and a hall packed with enthusiastic audience turned witness to a splendid conversation about writing and the art of storytelling between author chitra b divakaruni and write india director vinita dawra nangia chitra with her signature charm and ms nangia with her signature finesse engaged the audience in an enthralling session where they talked about the importance of content and characters in a story ms nangia began the discussion with some interesting write india facts like how the contest had garnered some 25 thousand stories in its first season with stories coming in from more than 2000 cities and how that number might be surpassed this year stories are a great way of sending across a message because they touch the right side of the brain where the messages stay she said stories emanate from communities religion businesses families and individuals we all have stories to tell and when you have it you have to tell it when asked if an author had more stories to tell than most people chitra pointed out that her novel one amazing thing is based on that premise she said each one of us has one amazing story although we dont always recognize it she said as we identify and share stories we become a community ms nangia discussed how across cultures tribes and communities stories may differ but characters are intrinsically the samestorytelling is a uniquely human activity its a way we attain sense of our world chitra addedin the same context ms nangia said how she was overwhelmed to receive stories from an array of different individuals in the country like doctors a yogi engineers a waitress and so on vinita asked how imagination played a part in her creativity chitra identified two different kinds of stories one that is based upon ones own experience the other based on pure imagination she said as one becomes a writer their latter work becomes mostly imaginative ms nangia told the audience her favourite from chitras stories was the palace of illusions a fascinating retelling of the mahabharata from draupadis perspective she said all of chitras novels showed powerful women characters and most dealt with motherdaughter relationships chitra said her own relationship with her mother was very strong and that being a single parent she was a big influence in the authors life the conversation took a compelling turn when ms nangia wondered aloud if such a time could ever come when stories dry out chitra said one may write a story that is autobiographical but at a certain point you are the writer and that is your first job as an artist you are creating a product and so you