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



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18 March 2005

Bubble, bubble

I sink zat Israeli wine is bloody brilliant. No, seriously. Was at Israeli wine tasting session today at the Taj Mansingh and ooh, the reds that flowed. So much for my not drinking on weeknights rule, I think I'm just going to take that and toss it out of the window. (Incidentally, imagine if people could throw physical rules out of the window. There'd be piles on the streets! Kids would play with "No smoking" signs, and dogs would piss on "Thou shalt not fornicate." Ooh and imagine if there were broken rules lying about every time you broke one and didn't admit it. "Did you smoke a cigarette?" "Uh... no." But then crash at your feet would be "DON'T SMOKE" in shatters. I think it'd be kinda cool, actually)

But the evenign actually panned out more interesting than I thought it would be. There was HEAVY security at the entry though, my bag was searched, scanned and turned upside-down. But once I entered the room of the wine, it was very nice. Men in black coats kept coming up to me and offering me tall glasses with wine in them and each tray had some kinda label on it, which I pretended to read very wisely. The first two glasses were just to keep myself occupied, the third was to keep some other people company and the fourth was because this old creepy journo was hitting on me and I was feeling nervous. He kept breathing all over me and I kept backing away all the time wondering, why WHY am I attracting old men? Where are the dapper young 'uns? Why does the universe hate me?

But I met an interesting young man--a sommelier, actually (seriously, his business card read sommelier. He drinks wine for a living!)--and we had quite an animated discussion about wine and things and then since that event was wrapping up, he invited me to his next wine tasting thing at Vasant Continental. I did take a long hard look at him to see whether he was hitting on me or not, and perhaps he was flirting, but it seemed innocent enough and so I said okay, being bored and all. Within me I was filled with a sense of adventure because ooh, this was the most exciting thing I had done for a while, just took off to some place with an interesting conversationalist, when I was technically off-duty. So exciting!

(Relax, he came with credentials, we knew several people, both professionally and personally, in common. I don't just disappear with strangers.) Anyway, so we toddled on by to Tapas at the Vasant Intercontinental, where I drank Italian wine this time and bubbled merrily at people. And though Wine Guy and I were having good times, I made it pretty evident that dating anyone just wasn't in my short-term goal plan. So he flirted and I pretended like I couldn't hear him. Eventually, he got tired of the flirting with the Ice Maiden and proceeded to talk about Spanish music. So that was fun!

I felt like such a different person tonight. Usually, I go, I interview, I feel bad because of all the PYT's miiling around and so evidentally having a life that I feel horrible and like I'm wasting my entire youth talking to people who won't really matter 100 years from now. It's not like I'm doing breaking stories or making a difference, y'know. I'm a reporter for the section people read last, if at all. It's not like my being a journalist is going to afefct anyone's future, or help the poor or you know, expose the underbelly of politics. It's just... stuff. That happens. That entertains. That people spend money on. No I'm not turning into Konkana Whatsherface, and no I don't want to become a crime reporter or something, because hell, I love my job. And I'd probably suck at being a news reporter. It's just very humbling to realise every now and then, that you don't really matter in the larger scheme of things.

Anyway, so it's 1.14 am and Wine Guy has called me a couple of times already :) Nice to be single in the city and be pursued, no?

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. You can make a living drinking wine? Alright then, I resign from my day job today. When can I start and where? Are there similar jobs for beer? What about coffee?

    And you reminded me of an old philosophy of mine which helps me cope with things going wrong -- the theory of futility of everything in life. It is a self explanatory theory. If not, I don't want to explain it to you since every effort is futile.

    mazel tov.

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  3. *bloody pissed that I lost first because of my big fat mouth*
    Hmmm... Israeli wine eh... I know the champagne is good... never had the wine though. I love the snootiness of a wine tasting, walking up to the most uptight looking bugger over there, asking him if I can have some beer to wash the taste of the wine out of my mouth ;) Gets a great reaction each time...

    And yes, Calvin said it the best, "I'M SIGNIFICANT!... screamed the dust speck."

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  4. i love you just for the "konkona whatsherface" :-)

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  5. She gets paid for drinking wine. And writing about it.

    There is, of course, no justice in this world.

    Question - if YOU or your 20-something financially independent friends were in the position of Bridal Beer, would you just agonise about it and go in for an arranged marriage?
    Perhaps this question is politically incorrect. Hmmmm.

    J.A.P.

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  6. Senile old fool. Sorry - that's me. Was blog browsing and posted a comment on the wrong blog.

    Apologies. Though you could address the Bridal Beer question if you so choose.

    J.A.P.

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  7. lucky you, to get paid for wine tasting!

    enjoy it while it lasts.

    have you seen sideways? "a must see" movie..

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  8. > Anurag: Unfortunately, you need a fancy French degree to get that kind of job *sigh* Just not for the people of the masses like you and me, huh?

    > Vignesh: I was going to use exact same Calvin quote. Great minds and all... :)

    > Hello Sunrayz! :)

    > Motheater: Ya, I'm so SICK of her. And of people coming up to me and going, "Oh your job is EXACTLY like that Page 3 reporter, no?" Gah. Why was that movie ever made?

    > Dwarf: That IS a brilliant theory. But it doesn't really fit in with my scheme of eventually being rich and famous.

    > J.A.P: I'm curious, WHAT blog were you going to post that comment on? And I don't think I'd EVER go in for a traditional arranged marriage. Or any arranged marriage.

    > RS: Noooo, but I'm DYING to see it. It should be out in theatres here soon though :) BTW, do you have a blog that I could visit?

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  9. Oh, I'm 22 now, and totally get the whole, "wasting my youth", "dont really matter in the big scheme of things" feeling. Just started work, and just starting to feel all of this, I suppose. it was nice reading this post that had the same feelings in it. And to know that people have felt the same way before, and it all turned out pretty good for them in the end. :)

    Love your blog eM. :)

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