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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4 August 2005

Random things that make me happy (subtitled: Wake me up, before you go-go)

> It's been a good couple of days. First of all, not to blow my own trumpet too much (oooh, I so wish I had a trumpet. I'd love to have a trumpet. Sounds a little like a promiscous woman, doesn't it? "Oh her, she's such a trumpet". Does anyone have a trumpet? I have a tabla, but I don't think that counts) Guess who was photographed for the paper the other day? Me, baby, zats who. Only, I didn't want my face to be shown, seeing as we're anonymous and all that, so you can probably just see like a little bit of my profile (Which sucks, because my nose totally looks like a ducks. I'm telling you). Still it's most exciting, and I'm all kicked that I finally got to give that ultimate p3p line, "No pictures please".



> And ooh, I've discovered that I can now totally show you my superhot Yahoo avatar that I spent so long working on. I love her. No, we don't look alike, but dude. She's so hot and so supercool that I want to be her. I want to be my Yahoo avatar. Say that a couple more times and you're close to being the second saddest person in the world. The saddest is me, of course, but everyone here already knows I'm an internet nerd.
Yahoo! Avatars






> Some PR releases make me so happy, I want to cry. This one, especially that I begged my colleague to forward to me so I could share it with you. Observe: August 7th is Friendship Day! What better way to reinforce the bond you enjoy with your friends than giving them an assurance through gifting flowers - which are around, almost forever... That's the thought and gift option The Next Shop gives you for this occasion. Add that extra bit of delicacy to your living room or an office ambience and the best part is they won't whither away like real flowers. So, you can relish their presence and enhance the sensual relaxation, with the addition of a favourite perfume. Also a wonderful gift option, touch the sweet chord of friendship this August 7th on Friendship Day.
Oh the joy of giving my friends flowers that last forever. Oh, the happiness! And sensual relaxation too! Dude, this isn't just a Friendship Day prezzie, this is the Anthem For People Who Have Not Had Any Sex In Many Months. I'm sure my friends will appreciate it waaaay more than a drink. In fact that's exactly what I'm going to do--give them dry flowers so they can "relish their presence". Right along with those fake Livestrong bands that you get in Saket, in bright pink with Best Friends Forever on them. I've been threatening Priya with one of those for years now. I'm totally going to touch the sweet chord of friendship.






> Have I ever mentioned that I heart drinking games? I rule at drinking games, you should know this. At any party, if someone was to say, "Who knows any drinking games?" I would be the one person to lead them from being bored and drunk to being happy and knowing random facts about strangers. There's this one game that I'm particularly good at. It's called "I have never" and basically there's one person toasting and they go, for instance, "I have never kissed someone and fantasised about Govinda" Now anyone who has kissed someone and fantasised about Govinda (ewwwwwwww... please don't!) has to drink. I'm super good at this game primarily because I don't get drunk very easily, so most of my deepest, darkest secrets stay hidden deep within me while others say stuff like, "I've never flirted with my father." (This actually happened to me on Saturday and I was all like, "Toooooooo much information, baby. Waaaay too much.") There's this other very cool drinking game called Think While You Drink, where one person says, oh. let's say, Simon Cowell and the other has to say something with 'C' like Cameron Diaz. But if you can't think of anyone, you have to keep chugging your drink till you do. You get completely blasted with this game, by the way, so it's great fun especially if you want to make out with someone but are too chicken to make a move while they're still sober. Oh and postscript, you can't say people with no last name like Madonna or Cher or Kajol.





> I went to Olive tonight to meet with young filmmaker Ashvin Kumar, who I thought was goign to be totally hot, considering he's Ritu Kumar's son and all and he went to the Oscars and he met Johnny Depp, who is yummy. But sadly, no. He wore thick spectacles and was short and stocky and reminded me kinda of Drew Carey, except he was thinner, slightly. Only the cool part was that at one point he sang, yes actually sang and the song he picked was La Bamba one of my absolute, favourite get-naked-in-front-of-the-mirror-and-stick-out-your-pelvic-girdle type songs. (The others are I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred, You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate and Superstar by Jamelia)




> One thing I totally adore about my job is that I can call people and say, "Hello, I'm eM from so-and-so publication" and then they have to give me whatever information I want. It's so easy! I wonder whether people who are not from the press do that too--get secret information I mean. But I guess it's not that secret if they're telling journalists about it. I mean, hello, it is going to get printed. So I suppose the secret is just in knowing what kind of questions to ask.



> Also what struck me today, thanks to a friend telling me is how different everyone's interviewing styles are. Some people do it surreptitiously, "Do you have any *whisper* suicidal thoughts?" Others do it with informed flair, "So tell me more about your collection, due out in August, with the sequined work." And still others, like me, do it with a personal touch. Like today meeting this filmmaker chappie, I was like, "Oooh, Johnny Depp! You're so lucky!" And you know what? It worked. He smiled at me and then started talking about it and got more and more friendly, to me. And I can bet you anything that the next time I see him, at a party or wherever, he will remember me and say hello. Some of my closest friends are people I've interviewed, so I must be doing something right.

21 comments:

  1. wow! first to post!

    FUNDU avtaar, I must confess there have been days when I have been so kicked by my avtaar, I have looked at potential haircuts and shopping sessions to mimic it! Talk about being sad!

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  2. I think the word you're looking for is strumpet.

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  3. what do you call an extract where you play ur own trumpet??
    - tararam-para

    *sorry for inflicting that joke on the civilized society*

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  4. You know, I came into this comment section ready to say "I think the word you're looking for is strumpet" - and found that gamesmaster had ALREADY said it, in exactly the same words.

    Hmph.

    I think your avatar is very cool, but uh, doesn't it defeat the purpose of having one if it doesn't look anything like you?

    Not even the hair?

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  5. sml: *gives out first commenter cape* I know EXACTLY what you mean. I tried to buy the exact same outfit mine is wearing :)

    gamesmaster: STRUMPET! Thank you! It's been driving me crazy! :)

    sagnik: Hehehehehe.. I wish I had a trumpet joke too, all I had was my crack about promiscous women which *hmph* SOME people were quick to point out was incorrect. Oh well. You keep your jokes coming! :)

    jay: Okay, yeah the hair. And the basic body structure. Ooh and the skin tone. Happy, now? ;)

    tama: The point of the game is both to get very drunk and to see what other people will admit to having done. So if I say, "I have never kissed a boy", I WANT everyone to drink because it's an easy one and almost everyone there will have kissed someone. Ya see?

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  7. "I thought he was goign to be totally hot, considering he's Ritu Kumar's son "

    Ritu Kumar is hot ???

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  8. oh I absolutely love Think and Drink. My all time favourite, and I am supposed to ROCK at it, especially saving the alliteration ones...:). Fuzzy Duck is good fun as well...

    echo rat: ritu kumar's son,....so......?

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  9. So does the one who's toasting drink as well? If the idea is to get everyone drunk, then why would you say the bit where you're fantasising about Govinda when you're kissing someone?
    *still scratching head*

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  10. That's a great avatar!

    We used to play "I've Never" in college. It was something of an obsession among the theatre majors. As they got more and more inebriated they'd try to outdo each other with as much dramatic flair as possible. Good times!

    My current favorite drinking game is based on the Iron Chef tv show. There are various versions online, but it ends up making the show the best 60 minutes of programming ever.

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  11. eM, you're closer than you think with "trumpets".
    The collective noun for strumpets is a 'flourish', hence 'a flourish of strumpets'.

    Sounds nice, dunnit?

    J.A.P.

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  12. I wanted to comment yesterday, but something came up and I didn't.

    I shall resist the urge to tell you that I thought of strumpets too. But then again, I did hear some references to blow that I thought was the promiscous part.

    Oooh.. do linky love. I want to see faceless photo.

    Yes yes, the avatar is back. I tried to make one, looking at how cool yours is. But failed miserably. Mine looked like NSync. All of em, rolled into one.

    You think you rule at drinking games. Thats only coz you haven't tested your mettle against me. Just you wait, young grasshopper.

    Yes, and we get secret information too. Why else have journo friends, no ?

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  13. rat: Well, okay, so I thought Ritu Kumar was going to be hot. I thought as a designer's SON he'd look all dapper and pretty. So sue me :)

    vague: Ooh, what's Fuzzy Duck? Explain!

    braindead: Why thank you! I'm assuming by "form" you mean chipper and happy, which, yeah, I haven't been for a while :)

    chamique: Okay, it's really very simple. You can lie when you're playing, so that everyone gets very drunk. Or you can rig it so NO ONE gets to drink, as in Govinda example. :)

    amandarama: What's the Iron Chef TV show? And I'm confused, how does a cooking show make for a good drinking game? Hmmmm

    J.A.P: Thanks for that. I love it. A "flourish" of strumpets! I have this mental image of a bunch of women walking around flashing everything in sight. :)

    vignesh: Hehehehehe, yeah, I see how "blow" the trumpet might be a leetle dirty! Actually my avatar looks a little like N'Sync also, if you sorta take away the figure. I think it's a Yahoo thing :)

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  14. This has nothing to do with the post but what happened to Silversurfer dude???

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  15. I so hope poor Shalini Pahwa doesn't come to know how you are making fun of her poor sad little press release.

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  16. Haha I was going to say just that marauder.

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  17. i used to play trumpets for the school orchestra and trust me, it does not look hot, you're better off not playing it, which is why i switched to the violin, now that makes a woman look hot ;)

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  18. lavi: Silversurfer has been indisposed. And busy with lots of stuff, but he should be posting soon :)

    maurauder, ab: :P And I wasn't making FUN of her, I was merely being appreciative of something that gave me great joy :)

    vibhu: Thanks for the link! Will most definitely check it out!

    ashanka: Musical instruments are beyond me! I attempted a piano, a guitar and a flute on many occassions, only to fail miserably. Oh well, I'm more groupie material anyway :)

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  19. Post the picture eM!

    Regards from the Queen of Posting Profile Shots.

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