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 July 2005

Fee-vah! In the morning, fee-vah all through the night

It's been a bad couple of weeks for blogging. Nothing of monumental interest has happened, except that I spent some time sick and that's only of monumental interest to me. And we went to this place in Vasant Vihar yesterday, being The Cousin's last night in town and all, called Haze. It looked pretty shady from the outside--a brightly coloured sign with parasols and palm trees on it but the walk up had some nice old movie posters--tasteful ones too, not the Samantha Fox variety. There was this blues band playing, only I don't think they were really playing the blues, it sounded like what I imagine acid jazz must sound like, but I could be totally off because I've never really listened to any acid jazz and have someone tell me, "THIS is acid jazz."

Anyway. After the blues band there was this other rock band from Shillong and there was this woman playing the guitar and dude, I totally wanted to be her. Really. She had this Avril Lavigne thing going on and an excellent smoky voice and she played the guitar. I could be a rock chick too. I could wear loads of silver rings and raccoon-type makeup and leather wristlets and sing smokily and thin bottomed. Only nooooooooooooo I have to have a respectable job. (Though I'm not sure there's much respectability left in journalism anymore.)

We sat on the floor, because there wasn't place anywhere else and it was quite cozy. our backs up against the wall, listening to this woman sing about love and betrayal and chat with Samar's friend from Italy. He told me all about Naples and about his Italian girlfriend and then I asked him to teach me some Italian and he said, "Sure, what do you want to learn?" and all I could think of was "What time is it?" which he taught me and which I have now promptly forgotten. (But it worries me that I've become the sort of person who asks how to say "What time is it?" I mean, hello, I should be asking how to say "I love you" or "You're sensational" not "What time is it?" It's not even like I'm such a punctual person either. What kind of person asks how to say "What time is it?" in one of the world's most romantic languages? The kind of person who KNOWS they're never getting any for the rest of their lives, that's who.) Never mind. Samar tells me I'll be seeing a lot more of him in the weeks to come.

The illness has more or less gone but it has left me with a strange aversion to the idea of alcohol, sex and cigarettes. Now alcohol I can do without for some time, even though it'll be quite boring, the idea of any sex in my life is now entering the realm of the absurd, but please, please whoever's in charge, don't make me lost the cigarettes? Please? I've tried smoking a few but they taste really wierd--of old tea leaves and dried grass and all sorts of unpleasant things. But water tastes sweet.

*Sigh* See, now you know I'm not really as exciting and entertaining as I'd like for you to believe. And I'm definitely going to die alone eaten by alsations. But I try to have a good time till then and that's all I'm going for right now--a good time.

19 comments:

  1. I CANNOT believe I'm the first to comment here.

    It's a good thing that you're not smoking at the moment. Think how much tastier you'll be to the Alsatians.

    Better post this before someone beats me to it.

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  2. i cant help think that cigerettes n the sex life r somehow connected....lol...think abt it...who'd wanna kiss an ash-tray??...lol....hold on girl...

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  3. incid. about the ciggies and the "old tea leaves and dried grass" taste, after you've just recovered from a fever. i know *exactly* what you are talking about..
    throw away the pack and change your brand for a while. it works.

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  4. See, if you were a rock chick, you could have said "Millions", when someone asked you that very professional question regarding your salary.

    But then again, maybe not.

    Anyways, you will never have alsations. Hence none of your fears will come true. You will have a nice furball of a lab, who will go running in the morning, with you. Brisk Delhi air, nipping at your senses, jogging along.

    Hmm.. don't know where that came from. Please to excuse randomness.

    Will talk soon.

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  5. Umm.. they don't play acid jazz, nor do they play blues, in fact we've never managed to come to a consensus as to what they play, it always sounds like a lot of Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam and a couple of other grunge bands thrown in the mixer together. Oh, btw, the band is called menwhopause.

    We were sp'sed to go to Haze on Friday, the band is made of friends/now-ex-colleague (the lead guitar chap), but called it off for a coupla reasons and headed off to TC where, as usual, we hooked up with another bunch of people and were easily the rowdiest bunch around till they closed the place down at 2 and god help me from ever remembering the bill we ran up for the night.

    Del weather sucks so much these days that I've been walking around for the past two week+ being tortured by numerous attacks of the sinus. It's never been this bad out here. Anyway, get well soon.

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  6. jay: *hands over the first commenter badge* I think alsations might actually LIKE the taste of smoke, don't you? Like a smoked eM... hmmm :)

    lost in trance: I suppose.. but that doesn't explain why I'm averse to BOTH of them.

    fingeek: I've changed my brand! I've tried everything! It's not working!

    tama: You see? My romantic notions clearly are not working!

    vignesh: Nah... not a lab. Spaniels are what always have my heart.

    codey: Thank you! Menwhopause, huh? I've heard of them a bunch of times..but are you sure you're talking about the instrumental band that played BEFORE the band with the rock chick? And I hope your sinus gets better :)

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  7. i guess you should be happy then... unless you still crave for nicotine...

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  8. Um.. methinks it is them wonly, just checked with the chaps, yes, you were listening to menwhopause at Haze on Friday, unless we are talking about saturday, then pardonne moi... for i know not who you are talking about.

    I hold no hope for sinus or any other ailment in this weather.

    Feels like I am being doled out the worst of the weather from back home and del at the same time.

    Ugh. Yes, I am in hyper crib mode.

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  9. Child, re: Italian. Try this on Samir (Samar? whatever)

    "Signor, dovete scusarmi. Ma sono molto lento nell'imparare l'Italiano, ..."
    (and I forget the rest, it's nearly a year since I tried that out, but it raised a laugh when I completed it which obviously I can't now ... but "anche de sono soto nell vostro" came into it)

    J.A.P.

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  10. See, as long as you have your blog, you have NOTHING to worry about (re. the Italian lessons). You could probably get a nice post out of the being eaten by Alsatians as well!

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  11. alcohol sex and cigarettes toh theek hai, no pot? thats the most important.

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  12. Dont worry theres a whole breed of us with unfulfilled rock star dreams. When I was small I would pretend i was Cyndi Lauper.

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  13. Hello eMmie.
    Am back. For ennui, I always feel best after I legalise orgon donation, or ban religious groups in my country. Nothing beats despotism as a pic-me-up. (Goto www.nationstates.net)
    Also, remember last year, me switching to menthols? Twas coz of my cold. (Stay away from wardrobes!!!!)
    And if you want to meet MenWhoPause, I work with/am friends with one of the guitars.
    cheerio
    D

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  14. I meant guitarists. Sorry. multitasking with imminent 'flu makes me a little insane. As you well know.
    love,
    Me.

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  15. evil overlord: I do, which is the whole problem :(

    codey: Ahhh.. see, I knew it wasn't them coz we were there on Saturday :)

    J.A.P: Okay, noooooooo idea what that means or even how to pronounce it! And it was Samar's italian friend who was teaching me this stuff :)

    vibhu: Excellent! Thank you :)

    motheater: Ha ha. Very funny :) But when I AM getting mauled by those alsations, you'll be the first to hear the story.

    nish: No I don't do drugs. :)

    rat: Cyndi Lauper? Seriously? I always thought she was an old persons icon!

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  16. dee: You're so cool for knowing all these rock star types. However DO you do it? :)
    And I've been thinking of switching to menthols too! :)

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  17. We went to Italy on our honeymoon and the only phrase I mastered was "where's the bathroom".

    Your post reminded me of the Friend's episode where Phoebe gets a cold and her voice gets all hoarse and sexy when she sings Smelly Cat.

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  18. Alsation? (Just to show that I read your writing carefully)

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  19. Where is Mangs? She needs to post another 24 hour deadline here.

    I hope you are OK, eM.

    ReplyDelete

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