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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25 September 2004

About Goddesses

Nothing is so good it lasts eternally

Perfect situations must go wrong

But this has never yet prevented me

From wanting far too much, for far too long....

No one in your life is with you constantly

No one in completely on your side,

And though I move my world to be with him

Still the gap between us is too wide...

I was singing this song to myself this morning (I Know Him So Well, Chess Soundtrack) and then shook myself and switched to Oh Maria from the Sister Act soundtrack. Let me make one thing clear--- I'm an agnostic. I don't believe in any kind of God whatsoever.

I wish I believed in God, I wish I believed in a blessed holy mother of all.

Salve, salve-salve, salve Regina!

Life is so much easier when you have a faith, something you believe is looking out for you. Think of the Virgin Mary for a moment. There she was, unmarried, pregnant and to top it all off, her child was the son was the Destined One. That's got to be tough.

But think about her as the ultimate 'girl power' image, someone independant enough to say, "Yeah, y'know, I'd rather carry this baby of god than have a normal life like the rest of my peer group even though it means I'm going to have to watch him die."

That Mary was a powerful woman. Like Durga, like Kali. Women who knew their minds and didn't need a man to let them know what their destinies should be.

It's tough to be a goddess. It's even tougher to live up to that image all the time, look at all the people depending on you, worshipping you to make everything okay.

Why do we like the goddesses? I think it's because they are like the ultimate mother images. God, sure, there's this universal force, etc etc. But that's so ... impersonal.

God bless Mother Nature, she's a single woman too

She took on a heaven and she did what she had to do

The image that every woman has these days, and for centuries is to live up to these counterparts of ours. I mean we're supposed to be goddesses as well, the shakti, the driving force behind our households. The gatherers and nurturers to the caveman hunters. And these days, the hunters as well.

How to do it all? How does any woman manage to do it all? Take my mom for instance. She has a successful career and still manages to look after the house and when I was growing up I never felt neglected for a minute. I'm sure your moms do the same.

This wasn't supposed to be a whole schpiel on goddesses, it just turned out that way.

May all you women be powerful earth mothers!


2 comments:

  1. Hima: Yes it is rather "different" from the rest of my posts, I thought I'd take a break from the me, me, me posts all the time...!
    April: Hey! Welcome back, I did miss your comments and I'm glad you finally made it :)

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  2. Hi there! I thouroughly enjoyed your post. I was thinking -'yay! she seems to be moving on':-)

    Have felt pretty much the same feelings and had similar thoughts regarding this topic.Especially when I had to deal with battered women (when I was working in a hospital).The whole emphasis is on,'no matter what her husband does, she must go thru it.All women go through it.The running of the household depends on her blah,blah',as if to say the men just 'deserve' to have such a patient woman in their lives.And on most occassions women themselves (having heard it repeatedly I guess)decided to take on the super-woman role.Ofcourse,there are many reasons for that but the influence of other women asking her to hold on seemed to be the most potent.

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