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

2 May 2005

Oh, the randomness of me!

Bye Baby Bunting

Just spent the entire day on a baby fest. We were lunching at a colleague's house and her small son and another colleague's small son were generally being passed around for much admiration. I like babies. Admittedly, not as much as I like puppies, because babies don't lick, don't roll over to have their tummies scratched and don't wag their tails so hard their entire bottoms wiggle. Actually, babies don't even have tails. But writing that, I'm reminded of reading Rosemary's Baby, which I read one night when I used to live alone, when both my flatmates were working late. It got really thrilling and exciting, and I jumped at every night, only just as I got to the last page, I realised three pages were missing. I confronted Flatmate One angrily when she came home, because it was her book and she just said airily, "Oh didn't I tell you? Ya, it's missing a few pages." Hmph.

Anyway, so where was I? Ya, so these babies were adorable all Cerelac-ad-type and all, smiling and laughing on everyone's laps and when it was my turn I took them eagerly, because they looked so cute with the smiles and the bouncing, and I talked to them, one by one and I revelled in the perfect fit their heads made in my palm and their little fingernails and what did they do? They took one look at me and their lower lip started quivering and they bawled. Okay, so it wasn't that dramatic. But they definitely got fussy when I held them, despite the fact that I sat through one of them trying to detach my nose and the other trying to undo the strings that held my top up. I'm going to be a HORRIBLE mother, aren't I? :(


Asides

"There's a story on blogging in today's Hindu," my mother told me, handing me the literary supplement.
And as I started to disappear into my room, paper in hand, she said sadly, "But you're not in it." Clearly the recent newspaper mentions are addictive even for my family!

Home, home on the range
Went for a wine launch/tasting thing the other day and bumped into AB there. We got into a long discussion about Calcutta, and why she likes it so much, only she didn't really give me any reason why she should, aside from, "Ummm.. it's slower there" or "Ummm... it's very Bengali y'know?" and my personal favourite, "The girls dress very.. um... garishly, in like pinks and greens and yellows." All of which made me want to stay firmly in Delhi. I'm sure Cal. is a fantastic city and all, but Delhi just sounds more exciting in a general description, y'know? :)

Na, na, na, na.. Macarena!
Went to TC last night with Priya and all and stayed till the last order. By this time I was practically passing out and then they go, "Ya, so there's this farmhouse party in Mehrauli and we should totally go there."
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo," I protested weakly, but I was overruled, bundled into my car and told to drive to CR Park, where one of the guys we were going with wanted to pick up some grass. (Not us. We don't do drugs. Stupid thing to do, if you ask me).
Anyway, so they made me park my car there and rumbled off into Chattarpur, where all the big, swish farmhouses are. We stopped at one called "Rajpal Ranch", because that was where we were told the party was and honked furiously at the gate. The guard opened it, we whizzed through a huge driveway (and even I could tell it was big, despite the fact that by this time I was asleep against the window) and we couldn't see any other cars. "Where are the other cars?" asked Priya and "Where are the other cars?" we echoed and it turned out we were in the wrong farmhouse.
Luckily, I don't think anyone was home, so we went back to the gate, honked grandly again and were let out. I guess the guards were overwhelmed by the authority with which we honked because they didn't say a word. Rajpal should know about this though.
When we got to the right house and everyone was scanned as a thirtysomething blur, I whispered to the host that I'd like to take a nap, so he kindly ushered me into a large bedroom, with an even larger bed in which I curled up and went to sleep. Yes, alone!

And, zat, ladies and gentlemen, was my weekend. Fun, no?

14 comments:

  1. even I want to read all the other blog stories. where are they, which are they? Please say!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Me too. Wouldn't leave Delhi for anything. Usually pick up fights with people who think Cal, or Bom, or Mds is the best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mangs: Well, one was done by a talented young reporter in the Hindu :)
    Two mentions in Telegraph columns, I think, which have come up in Google searches... woohoo!

    Toe Knee: I know! I still don't see why people persist in LIVING in Delhi and then moaning about how terrible it is!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh i'd read two now i read the third. Nice... Frank, fearless female blogger :-)

    already busy replying to messages just as you finish posting i see!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice.. and here I was thinking that my weekend was exciting... wait... it wasn't. Not by a long shot :(

    Anyway, since we have already discussed the mechanism of host-tiredpartygoer interactions, lets talk about babies. They hate me. The exact same thing you described happens to me, except it WOULD be that dramatic ! My own brother, when he was a bady used to bawl when I came near him...

    Anyhoo, gnite.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ever happened to you that you see part 1 of a rented movie CD and part 2 refuses to run!! Comes close to your experience with Rosemary's Baby. Sympathies.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pleo: Why nostalgiac? Frasier coimes on Monday nights on Star World at 9.30 if I'm not mistaken.

    Mangs: Hehe. Yeah, I felt like a Cosmo chick :)

    Vignesh: Your brother? Hmmm.. I hope it never gets to THAT stage with my future nephews and neices! :)

    Satya: To paraphrase: Goa is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there! And hey, some of my best friends are Punjabi and the least Punju people I know!

    n.a: Yes, that happened to me with Lost In Translation. I was soooooooooo pissed off.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ummmm... maybe AB's not the best person to ask about Cal...? :-) :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Motheater: Why not? She is a representative of the city after all! :)

    Pleo: Ooh, CAS. I remember CAS from waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I had absolutely no idea I've been reading a celebrity blog! And best of all, you even show up on Google searches. I'm not sure if Google knows I exist :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. You know what my brother said when he first saw my newborn daughter? "Didi, she doesn't even stick her tongue out when I blow on her face. Gullu could do that!" So how is this relevant to this post? "Gullu" was our much pampered dog :D My husband took offense (a little - but then he knew what dorks I and my brother are) but I didn't mind a bit :P I remembered this when I read how "...babies don't lick, don't roll over to have their tummies scratched and don't wag their tails so hard their entire bottoms wiggle."

    Nice posts! I am now a frequent visitor.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jay: Yeah, hardly a celebrity blogger! And when you've been blogging as long as I have, you'll be on Google too :)

    GettingThere: Y'know, a lot of people are really touchy when you compare their kids to pets. Understandable too :) But at the newborn to 8 month stage, they're very similar, don't you think?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well, now you will have all Cal people baying after my blood. I guess you should take a trip there and find out for yourself. Barley sugar's a big incentive, aint it?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I visited India last winter and i seriously wish that indians should do something to spruce up their capital new delhi everywhere i could see people barfing, while traveling to agra the scene got even more worse cant spell it here people were actually S-----g by the road side.

    i would have come back with a very bad image of such a great country had i not visited kerala, Goa, Himachal.

    every person loves their hometown but the Indian capital seriously needs a overhaul of sorts

    ReplyDelete

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