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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15 February 2005

You Live, You Learn

I am a serial time waster. Look at me now, for instance. It's 12.10 and I should be frantically getting ready for work, but instead I'm sitting around in tracks and a sweatshirt and blogging. My flu is clearing up, I think, but I still have this horrible old-man cough, which is very unappealing. And sinusitis, which is a pretty harmless word for THE MOST PAINFUL HEADACHE IN THE WORLD. No shit, really. Because everytime I turn my head or bend over the keyboard or something my head is filled with the most agonising pain and I feel like pulling out bits of hair and shouting, "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

I know so many people these days, by sheer chance, who have had babies recently, that I am now an expert on baby care. The other day I was showing off my belly ring to one of them and instead of looking at the belly ring she looked at the down underneath it. "See that?" she said. Having seen it before, you know, since it IS my body and all, I nodded. "That's going to get sooooo much darker when you're pregnant," she said ominously. Quickly I pulled down my sweater and quickly announced that since there were so many kids in India already, I was going to adopt. Other things I know about babies include 1) They get sick when they've just been vaccinated 2) At four or five months, they really have no clue who the woman who labouriously and painstakingly pushed them out of their vaginas is as long as they're clean and dry and fed and 3) They have the weeniest hands with little-little fingernails which make me feel very old and haggard.

I'm also learning other things, like the other day, I had this long discussion about Economics and the Law of Supply etc. I quite liked the opening line of the Law Of Supply, if I remember it correctly, something about "All things being equal.." it sounded a bit like Animal Farm, all products are equal, but some products are more equal than others.

And, the other night, working late, I had a conversation with a colleague about ringtones and he really likes Western Classical stuff, so he played me some things, and I learned that the American Army tune that they sing in most Hollywood movies (you know, the one that goes Da-da, Da-da-da-daaaaaaa-da) was composed by someone famous--Wagner, I think.

Damn. Now that tune is stuck in my head. (Lisa/her teeth are biggggg and green/Lisa/she smells like gasoooooooooline)

5 comments:

  1. The nice way of saying it, as any economist will tell you, is ceteris paribusAlternatively, you can say "all things change so that nothing changes" aka mutatis mutandis

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  2. Ah.. bring on the Latin, my friend! And I do like that last one, though it takes away from my whole Animal Farm analogy. But, BUT, I can still use it as a motto for my own life where it seems to apply. More like literature than eco, really.

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  3. How come you know latin pple? That's so cool!

    BTW I love chicks with belly rings, huge turn on. Show me a pic of yours sometime? Please?

    I'm not too crazy about babies either, but I don't mind making them.

    Haven't seen you online for quite a while. I miss you.

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  4. The martial tune you describe is "Colonel Boogie's March', made famous in David Lean's Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Wagner is a bit more complex, I think.

    The lyrics I know feature Hitler in the first verse and Goering in the second, and it's not teeth they are about!

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  5. hey u still don't get it why you have been sicker than a street slut all this tym - coz youve got atleast 300 different variations of the HIV virus

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