My latest book is The One Who Swam With The Fishes.

"A mesmerizing account of the well-known story of Matsyagandha ... and her transformation from fisherman’s daughter to Satyavati, Santanu’s royal consort and the Mother/Progenitor of the Kuru clan." - Hindustan Times

"Themes of fate, morality and power overlay a subtle and essential feminism to make this lyrical book a must-read. If this is Madhavan’s first book in the Girls from the Mahabharata series, there is much to look forward to in the months to come." - Open Magazine

"A gleeful dollop of Blytonian magic ... Reddy Madhavan is also able to tackle some fairly sensitive subjects such as identity, the love of and karmic ties with parents, adoption, the first sexual encounter, loneliness, and my favourite, feminist rage." - Scroll



Sign up for my newsletter: The Internet Personified

9 August 2004

The Comfort Four

It's been a while since I posted I know. I'm totally sorry for that. But a strange feeling of not really caring about anything has been looming over my head for the past couple of days. The dark cloud has almost gone now (possibly just PMS) and I'm ready to get cretaive again.
Today, as another blast from the past (Sorry but my life has been really boring the past couple of weeks, I have no present day gossip!), I'm going to tell you about my friend Puja.

But first, some exciting news! I have finally decided to get my life in order and apply for a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. My choices are in the US : Columbia, UMASS, University Of Iowa and Brown. In the UK there's the University Of East Anglia and LSE (I know! I didn't think they offered Creative Writing either!) I'm applying for the September 2005 term, so wish me luck and helpful advice will be much appreciated!

Back to the past. I first met Puja Mukerji in our first year at college. I joined about a week after classes started so everyone already had the basics of their friends and gangs for the next three years. I remember seeing her participate in class, her eyes very bright, her posture excellent and her contributions intellegent and I thought to myself, "I want to be her friend." We were in an all-girls college, so my only option was to scout for girls I thought I could be friendly with. (I was such an appaling snob!) Anyway, I tried my best the next couple of weeks to be friendly with her and finally when I was about to give up on the whole lot of them, when they suddenly decided to take me to their hearts.

The four of us, Little P., Iggy, Puja and me, called each other the 'comfort four'. There were other people we hung out with, sure, but it was in each others company we blossomed, had 'true confession' sessions, had study groups which always ended with vodka and had love. Puja was what bound us together. I never realised that till she died, and slowly I watched my friendships from college disintegrate. Iggy and I, once as thick as theives, had a major fight, from which our friendship never really recovered. Plus she and Little P. were neighbours and they infinitely preferred each others company to mine. The "others" in our extended gang, became "us". Plus they started smoking hash, which I totally couldn't.

Oh reader, don't feel bad for me! I have new friends, and some old ones which I had been sadly neglecting during the reign of the 'comfort four', I have found my soulmate at 22, I have Dee who knows me better than I know myself (but only sometimes). I'm happy. And I'm wiser.

Poo, I miss you though....

4 comments:

  1. Follow this link to see your referrers - the websites are direct links, the searches are the far more interesting links...

    http://counter27.bravenet.com/index.php?id=382751&type=recentvisitors&usernum=2294017141

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ooh.. thanks diego! how did you know how to do that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm nosy, and I like to dig into things! Oh, did I mention that I think your ode to Delhi is very sweet? And go for that Masters! Some of us should be able to do better things with our writing than blogging! =)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Welcome back Hima! A lot of people like that 'ode to delhi' thing.. hey, you know if you're in another country you should do a little thing on what you like about your city. It'll make for good reading. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your feedback! It'll be published once I approve it. Inflammatory/abusive comments will not be posted. Please play nice.