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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19 June 2007

Caffeine, nicotine; I just noticed good things end in "ine"

It’s been raining in earnest, and everything looks very pretty and green and freshly washed. Plus, the temperature’s gone down majorly, and now I can actually make it through the entire night without turning over to switch my AC on and off obsessively. That being said, I think the weather might be contributing to my feeling blue. And grumpy. Oh, I’m quite grumpy. Actually, no. I don’t think what I feel is quite so dramatic. It’s more like meh. Yeah, meh, as in “Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?” “Meh.”

Since all this meh-ness is happening, I really don’t have much to say. Oh, I suppose I could talk about my weekend. But I can’t seem to sum up the appropriate enthusiasm about it. This weekend, I walked next to an out-of-fuel bike, I hitchhiked (with appropriate male company), I got very drunk (twice), I watched the sunrise, I got mentioned in the Hindustan Times (link would be much appreciated, because I haven’t seen it yet), I survived two hangovers (phew), I drank Old Monk again with no unusual hangover (yay!), I played DJ twice, on a laptop and an ipod, I got called attention seeking because of aforementioned Djing (once, and I think he was cross because I wasn’t flirting back), I depleted a lot of the minimal funds left in my bank account (so very, very, very broke) and, yes, it was a fun weekend.


Anyway, so today, since I have not much to talk about, I'm going to instead, seize inspiration from what is sitting right in front of me, and talk about coffee mugs. More specifically, all the coffee mugs I have owned. I don't know about you, but for me, I've always had a "special" mug, that belongs to me, and if I don't have that very mug in the morning, I feel sort of odd. Right now, I'm using a Barnie's promotion mug, with a Dali type scene painted on it, of various people drinking coffee and signed by Perizaad Zorabian. (Twice I misspelled that, and finally had to cheat, and turn the mug around to check). This was a free mug, sent with the invite to the opening to a former features editor of mine, who generously handed it over to the person sitting closest, me. I heart freebies.

My first mug that I can remember, was way back when coffee mugs were the shit, and every birthday you could expect one, still in its Archie's Gallery packet with some sort of motto on it. A very popular one was the one with two girls hugging each other, saying, "Best Friends, something something." (Because, of course, it was the girls who gave and recieved these. Boys gave you stuff like The Very Best Of Soft Rock). Around this time, I had sort of decided to cast all the girls in my group in a sort of make-believe band, which I called the Buck Tooths. I had great fun writing about it and drawing little illustrations, and the other girls had fun too, because I mean, who doesn't like to be written about, right? (FYI: This was also the topic of my first ever piece of journalism, done for The Asian Age's kids section, complete with illustration for which I was paid the princely sum of Rs 350. AND it had my byline. I still have those clippings somewhere). So one birthday party, I think it was my thirteenth, I designed computer invitations that said "Please come to my party, blah di blah blah" which ended with "a bear hug to a Bucktoother." One of my friends bought me a coffee mug, with a picture of two hedgehogs hugging each other, with a card saying, "A bear hug to a Bucktoother." Corny, yeah, but we were thirteen. And mugs were cool. (Books, for some strange reason, weren't quite as cool. Other top ranking birthday presents were those kitschy ceramic ornaments you got at Archie's, shaped like little laughing very politically incorrect black babies, or the head of a cocker spaniel or something. Basically, Archie's met all our birthday shopping needs.)

I had that mug for ages, until my dog decided to drink out of it, when I left it unattended and it broke, not being made for snouts. Then I had one with flowers on it, with a matching saucer and coaster, which I still use when I go to my mum's house in Delhi. In my own house in Delhi, I used a Sunil Das mug, with a lovely sketch of a running bull on it, signed by the artist, part of a boxed set from the National Museum. I used to have an orange Barista mug, you know the one with all the writing on it, that says, "The sun is shining, the perfect day, I need some coffee"? Shark Tooth has the blue version now, and when I see it, I feel all full of nostalgia.

At Leela's house, another place where I drink a lot of coffee because her maid does it beautifully, with all this foam, and mmmmm, cinnamon toast to go with it, I miss that cinnamon toast, there were always the same mugs. Hers was a large white Barista one, and I think I got an earthen one, in blue or green. Aww.. just writing that sentence made me homesick, because I'm suddenly conjured back to sitting on her bed, legs crossed, watching TV or reading or jabbering away with a member of her lively family, who practically adopted me. I love people with large families, where every night is like a party. It sucks that things have to change.

I used to have a Phantom Of The Opera mug too, bought from the Broadway show shop, which was so cool, because when you put hot liquid into it, a mask would appear on the side. The dog broke that too. Stupid dog. I bought Iggy something similar when I was in London, an Elvis mug, with The king still lives on it, and when hot liquid went into that, a picture of Elvis appeared with The king still lives in my heart. All this reminds me I haven't taken a nice long holiday in a while. I'm beginning to get wanderlust again. They should make wanderlust vibrators for a quick fix when you're feeling restless.

My coffee is cold now.

26 comments:

  1. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=7c852737-434f-4d7a-8daf-a93cc91fcf75

    HT link .... :)

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  2. hmmm... written well as always, but a wee bit disappointin, you dont mind me saying..
    this is the first really inane and pointless post ive read on your page...

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  3. other nice things ending with ine - mine, wine, urine...errr.. ya why not....

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  4. I Heart coffee mugs too :P

    My current one is of a very cute cat on it that says "In life adorable will get you through anything"

    Love it :)

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  5. you have a book out??? what's it called? can we order it on amazon??

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  6. At the middle of that read I felt hungry. I got myself a muffin and some hot chocolate and continued reading. As I end this comment, I have muffin crumbs on the desk and 3 tiny drops of chocolate on the edge of my shirt pocket.

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  7. I love my kapi and I have a mug which says kapi chai! :D

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  8. congrats on the book!!! When is it hitting the stands???

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  9. You like coffee mugs..then you should envy the collection Karan ('Koffee with Karan' fame)has...all autographed by Bollywood & Hollywood(Richard Gere)stars

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  10. my god pratik.. how can you.. you're either a Bombay boy.. or gay....

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  11. The wanderlust vibrator is available at a book store near you. It goes by the common name of The Lonely Planet!

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  12. Yup. The Archies craze we all went through. Remember those small dark grey shiny stands with inspirational words on them as well. And them, blushing and sighing and waiting for the day to give and get Valentines day stuff :)

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  13. Anonymous: your both assumptions are wrong. I haven't mentioned that I love Karan Johar :-)

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  14. Re: Hindustan Times mention, awesome! Congratulations. Will you use your real name or the same moniker you use in your blog?

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  15. dilli new jork kab ban gya? mai bhi apni chai ki gilasi pe blog likhta lekin saari chai ki gilasiyan ek si hoti hain

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  16. Congratulations on the book! Looking fwd to reading it.. will you plug it here on the blog?

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  17. Chris-anne!! For chis-sake!! :-) :-).. really nice ones .. you're obsessed...

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  18. anon : very Punny
    kits: thanx
    but will stop now...

    PS: eM, I fly back tonight

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  19. geeky: creatine,glucosamine,doctorine,chlorine,betadine(i hated to gargle),iodine,amine...

    eeky: latrine,eewrine

    canine(ca-nine n not can-ine)...chrisann how cld you forget

    o i am bored and borine

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  20. Hi, Go to cybercitycoffee.com, you can order your coffee on line and it is all organic, MORE CAFFEINE for you.... Thanks and it was nice writing to you. marcie@cybercitycoffee.com

    ReplyDelete

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