Hello London. The Moth is returning to Union Chapel on Thursday, September 28th for a night of vibrant true stories.

The main stage is the quintessential Moth experience, a two-act show featuring a musical act, where the storytellers and a notable host share true personal tales without notes.

Experience a night of unforgettable Moth tales as they're recorded for future episodes of the Moth podcast and radio hour.

Doors open at 7 and doors begin at 8. Get your tickets now at the Moth.org Bowerslash London.

From PRX, this is the Moth radio hour. I'm Sarah Austin-Geness. When you're mining your past for stories, one way to start is to think of an object that has meaning.

In this hour, the object is food. In our four stories, we'll hear about pumpkin pie, beans, New York City pizza, and a suitcase filled with smoked salmon.

Our first storyteller, Riteja Gupta, has always been close to her mother's mother. The story you're about to hear involves a quest she was assigned by her grandmother.

We were introduced to Riteja by our friends at Story District in Washington, DC. Riteja shared the story on their stage and then told a version with us at the Moth.

Here's Riteja Gupta, live in Ithaca, New York.

I thought my life was going pretty well until my grandmother called me and said, Riteja, I know you've been having a hard time finding a man.

I think it's time you talk to God. I've been paying my bills and I have a decent job. I didn't realize that my life was in need of divine intervention.

But okay, Nani, please tell me how do I talk to God? She said, well, there's Lord Shiva and he's a very good man and God to help single women find their husbands.

And I was like, Nani, Lord Shiva, the God of destruction. Lord Shiva, you want him to be my wingman.

And she said, yes, so every Monday, if you fast, he will find you a husband.

So I thought about this and I had a couple of issues. The first is that I'm actually not Hindu.

So I was like, is Shiva even going to take my calls? No, he's going to listen to me.

But then the other issue was I kind of didn't feel like I wanted to give up food just to get a man.

But I did really want to make my grandmother happy. I loved her so much and she loves me so much.

And you know, okay, maybe let's just see what happens and when this inevitably fails, we can go back to talking about what I like to talk about like Game of Thrones or cartoons.

So the next Monday, I went into the office, walked right by the break room donuts like no donuts for me because Shiva's going to find me a man.

I did great until about after lunch. And then I think my coworkers kind of saw like a look on my face and started to disengage with me.

And I realized that by dinner time, I needed to just put myself to bed so I could wake up the next morning and have a meal because I was starving.

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