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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17 August 2010

Ain’t that mister mister

Here I am, on an absolutely gorgeous monsoon afternoon, back in my spotlessly clean flat (my maid, I think, only gets down to “proper” cleaning when I’m out of town). It is a lovely day for being indoors with a cup of coffee, thinking about absolutely nothing, your new favourite song on repeat. It’s a funny thing about new favourite songs, you never know what trigger they press in your brain, but all of a sudden you’re obsessed, you can’t stop humming it, or thinking about it, or playing it or singing it.

 

It was quite a whirlwind of socialising for me over the last ten days, and coming back has been nice, but you know end of holiday feelings. My friends are all in the same city at the same time, so I had some people over last night, we drank a bottle of wine, ordered Masala Craft and duly caught up. It’s funny how many things can happen in ten days, and how little.

 

I DID go shopping after all, Sarojini was not as plentiful as it usually is, but I did manage to come away with what will now become my new favourite outfit—the Gothic ball dress. It’s got a top made of jersey, the bottom is lots of flouncy black ruffles, and it reaches all the way till my ankles. I’m planning to team them with my new four inch high heels from Zara (marked down, down, down, gotta love the recession for some things, eh?) and feel like a giantess. It’s a lengthening sort of dress, which maxi dresses usually aren’t on short people, but this adds a WAIST and HEIGHT and makes you look like some kind of skinny Amazon. My designer friend informs me that this style is actually called the “parachute” dress, but I find my description a lot more, well, descriptive.

 

Bombay, besides being full of people I really like at the moment, has also decided to ease up on the Bandra Nazi-ing and bring back one of my old favourite haunts—Bonobo. (A quick recap for people who don’t actually live in or around Bandra: So, recently a bunch of old people with sticks up their asses decided to shut down EVERY SINGLE fun place in Bandra. Zenzi’s gone, Escobar is gone, Bonobo was gone and they were planning on targetting the others. They claimed sound pollution or drunk driving, and I thought that was STUPID. Drunk driving can be fixed simply by adding a couple of police checkpoints on the road outside the bar and COME ON. If you live off Linking Road, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOUND. It’s a noisy city. I am kept awake by traffic every single night, even though there’s no nightclub near me, just by kids vrooming past, blasting music so loud it vibrates through my walls and startles the cat. Luckily, the bar owners are keeping their chins up and trying to work around it, and they have my full support.) Anyway, the good news is I don’t have to go back to Elbo Room each time I want something trendy to do in Bandra, because Bonobo is MUCH cooler.

 

Oh, Hyderabad! You never told me how much fun your nightlife was! I was on a mission this time to find something else to do in that city that didn’t involve just eating large meals and sitting around talking about people I barely know. So, when a blog reader and her ADORABLE baby and husband came up to me after the launch, I begged them to take me far, far away. (Er, this is also the bit where I eat my words about the things I might have said earlier about babies in bars. Because we tried to go to Dublin and weren’t allowed in because of the little person and I was all, “But he’s quiet! And cute! And fun! And he won’t even drink!” But no go.) So we trundled on over to a place called Coco’s, a three floored place, with, I believe, a different thing to do on each floor. Rio, the club, was right under our feet and began to throb with music around 9.30. But we were at Shikar, the terrace place, where parents and I chatted and baby had a good time playing with my scrunchie, a cocktail stirrer and the stones on the ground.

 

And then, when he got fussy and they had to take him home, my super cool cousin and his friend (who is also my friend’s sister) came to get me. “Where shall we go?” I asked. “How about Syn?” he asked. “Sin sounds shady,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “It’s not! It’s Syn! With a ‘Y’!” (Note to self: Ys add trendiness.) But first we went to 'N. What is N, you ask? It’s short for Nagarjuna. And this made me both crack up and expect a B-list Tollywood background for the whole place. But it was actually quite nice (if a little crowded) and the only B-list Tollywood background were some actors who milled around.

 

Sadly, the next day, being the anniversary of our independence was a dry day. (Which just bugs me, because instead of it being an historic occasion, it turns into a bunch of people unable to celebrate a long weekend and just bitching about the lack of alcohol. I think people would be a lot more likely to feel patriotic or whatever if you let them do what they wanted and not shove a passing, puritan message down their throats.) Svennyway, we didn’t get to go to the famous Syn-With-A-Y, and I was taken home.

 

All in all, I think it was a trip about seeing new things in old places. A nice little bar/coffee shop called Indian Accent in a new boutique hotel in Delhi, Defence Colony getting quite a cool new bar (Red Monkey), chilling in one of Saket’s many new malls, getting a cup of coffee and a snack at Latitude in Khan Market. Same faces, different stomping grounds, I guess. Life goes on.

14 comments:

  1. They shut Zenzi?!!! ::does the whole Bollywood "NAHIII" with the echoes and all too:: I hate hate hate all these people with sticks up their asses! :( ::sniff::

    and puritanical or any messages really shoved down your throats NEVER work. These people should read some psychology. hmph.

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  2. Holy shit, I JUST got the same dress from Sarojini a week ago. Mine has tiered ruffles and lace on the shoulders and the hem, though.

    It's more bad ass than it sounds, really.

    I'd do it with red nails, red heels, dark beads and dark eyes a la, well, Morticia Addams.

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  3. dry day before ID sucks coz the whole point of independence/freedom/free will is lost. idiots. loved the post.

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  4. you're back to writing like your life depended on it.

    for a long time inbetween it seemed like your heart warnt innit. you were writing just to keep the traffic coming.

    now I can read your blog with interest again.

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  5. Before reading the article, i was amazed to see a wikipedia account with the words, she is a well known blogger. Reading about the Great N S Madhavan showed me the path to this great blog. Congratulations on the successes.

    A Journey to the Unknown Spaces - Naveen

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  6. I have heard Hyd is happening these days...check out Liquids next time you are there

    And Delhi too is catching up with many new joints coming up...malls in Saket and new hangouts in Def Col are minblowing. Have you ever been to Mafia Town in East Kailash?Not sure if it is still there but used to go there in student days, one finds many school chicks really letting their hair down

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  7. That song is a big favorite in these parts. The boy demands it be played and refers to it as the 'Hey hey' song and it has been added to his playlist on my iPod along with other eclectic favorites like Waka Waka and Suno Aisha :)

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  8. 'Same faces, different stomping grounds'

    Ah!! Hits a note. Love it!

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  9. Hey, this is nothing about this article, though its nice. I just wanted to say, that i loved your first book. I keep re-reading it. Haven't got my hand on your second book yet, but it'll soon get it.

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  10. damnit - gurgaon is so far from sarojini that i havent shopped their in ages.

    and you met a bloggy mommy with a baby in hyd? who?!

    and hyd does have some nice party spots. not very wild, but its just such a lovely city

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  11. ps: hey soul sister is the Bean's favourite song. Except that she sings it as Hey Hole sister. *shudder*

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  12. @ Mad Momma: hehehe!! Sry, I'm sure it must be traumatic for you but it's a funny story! :P

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