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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26 April 2006

World was on fire, no one could save me but you

* (A little note before I begin, about a blog I discovered recently: Hooray For Bollywood. I'm a big fan of Television Without Pity, so when I saw the Bollywood recaps on this blog, I was reeled right in. An excerpt, from Kal Ho Naa Ho: Naina says that Sweetu’s two problems are the weight that she never loses and the fact that she doesn’t care. I think that Sweetu’s main problem is the fact that her best friend is a judgmental bitch.

And from Koi Mil Gaya: Rekha sits outside her house and knits. I'm pretty sure she's pregnant, but I'm not going to assume anything. Because if it turns out she's just carrying a few extra pounds? Awk. Ward. Meanwhile, Rakesh Roshan plays upstairs with his Fisher Price Activity Center. He presses some of the red buttons, and the machine plays a goofy “Booop Booop BOOOOP BOOOOP!!” tune. He leaves the room for a split second, during which time the screen flashes mysteriously, and the enormous satellite dishes send out huge bolts of electricity. I hope Rakesh Roshan remembered to use a surge protector. As he comes back in again, he hears the “Booop Booop BOOOOP BOOOOP!!” tune being echoed back to him. He plays the tune again on the Activity Center, and the sound is repeated. Then he plays it faster, and the faster pattern is repeated back to him. Excited, he calls his wife, Rekha/Sonia, upstairs, and explains that someone is finally responding to his groovy musical stylings. She asks him what the sounds are, and he explains that he used his “octopad” and his PET computer to convert the word “Om” into musical notes. So apparently The Musical Embodiment of All That Has Been Created sounds kind of like a prog rock version of “Hot Cross Buns.” Rakesh Roshan tells her that he’s achieved a breakthrough, and that he must inform the Space Centre immediately!

Brilliant. Why isn't this blog getting more attention? And why hasn't the owner updated since 2005? Go out there and pester her, good people, or just read the recaps she has done. (Actually, I'm not sure why I'm assuming this blogger is a woman. She could very well be a he. The username is androgynous. Hmmm.)

Oh, but. There's a second blog, updated more frequently here. Why, ads, do you not have a Blogger profile? Profiles are good things, it helps other people figure out whether you're male or female and how to email you and tell you how fabulous you are. That's why I have a profile. Not because it looks so pretty or anything.) (So, if you have a bracket within a bracket, you're supposed to have a square bracket outside right?)




* The number of people who have told me about bomb blasts in Eygpt: Um, seven? Ten?
The number of people who have emailed me about bomb blasts in Eygpt: Three
The number of people who have asked me whether i'm still going: Either ten or thirteen.
The answer I have given to them all: Hell, yeah.


* Subtle product placement time in big bold letters while one is still left wondering why the companies aren't paying me. Turquoise Cottage, Boots, Lakme, Funky Monkey and Dove, you'll be getting my bill shortly. Dove (aha! AHA! Again! Now you totally have to pay me) has this new green soap, I've forgotten the name, but it has the goodness of aloe vera and cucumber and it smells yummy, even though it's not miraculously transforming me into this shiny skinned, gleaming haired chick, it makes me smell pretty for five entire minutes after I hit the big bad hot outdoors. Oh wait, found it. It's called the Cool Moisture bar and it EXFOLIATES. Exfoliates is such a pretty word. It's like abracadabra.

* Went to Aqua last weekend with two friends from work. Aqua is well, meh, not that great. It has possibilities to be great, what with the fact that it's poolside and all, but the crowd there was either over forty or under twenty. We got ourselves a little cabana thing and I had this great cocktail called Mexican Wave with tequila and contreau (Ya, I know that's not how you spell it but I don't feel like looking it up). Consequently got a little buzzed. I love tequila.

* Ooh and I saw Ice Age 2 on Friday. Good movie. Some bits are a little done, but it kept me giggling for a while after that. It won't stay in my heart like Madagascar (I like to move it, move it, you like to... MOVE IT!) but the mammoths are so sweet. There was this one bit where the mammoths vanish into the grove together and this dude behind me goes, "Oye, yeh toh Discovery Channel ban gaya!" Sadly, no mammoth humping. None at all. No any kind of humping for that matter. Humping is no longer done in movies, it seems.

* I have been meeting with very many Young Writers this past month, youths with shining eyes who talk about "creative integrity" and how passion should rule life, no matter whether you have to as a consequence, starve in an attic. Nothing like Young Writers (mostly boys, age 19 to 22) to make you feel ancient and crabbed and jaded. I felt almost guilty for caring about how much money I make, when really, it should all be about the Love For Writing Itself. When they speak, like that girl in the fairy tale, who spoke diamonds and pearls, I see italics and capital letters. I used to be one of those people, but what annoys me, is that everyone's just getting younger dude. Oh, twenty four is an old and wise age, but it makes you feel sad also, because, as I sung to Small the other day when she asked me why on earth I would boil milk in a steel box, "Every hour of every day, I'm learning more, the more I learn, the less I know about before, the less I know the more I want to look around, digging deep for blues on higher ground." Small's the kind of person who, if you even suggest a song to her, she starts obsessively singing it, so Higher Ground was all I heard for the next couple of hours.

10 comments:

  1. You are age-ist. I feel discriminated against.
    You are also deluded. 24 is "old and wise"?

    Perhaps I should just go away and grow turnips in the Himalayas before kids your age start calling me "Gramps" instead of "Uncle". (The first few times it was gratifying, then I got to thinking ... )
    Gah!

    J.A.P.

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  2. If you like TWOP, try www.tvgasm.com - they have screen caps. writing is better overall on TWOP, but tvgasm iss pretty snappy.

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  3. Guess this blog is a little way to hold on to that idealistic writer's integrity--you do this for the Love, not the Money.

    Hey, don't feel bad about getting paid to do something you also love. But, on the other hand, it's strange how getting paid to do what you love turns it into just a job sometimes, isn't it.

    24?! I'm going with J.A.P. on this one. I ain't much past that, but I'm old and wise enough to know that really, I don't know a heck of a lot, yet.

    (Btw, J.A.P.--when I was in India, I had people twice my age calling me "Auntie", so I don't know if age has a whole lot to do with that one! Although it did feel pretty weird.)

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  4. Hi! Thanks for the kind comments about my blog! I've really been meaning to update the site; I went on vacation, then became busy at work, then just sort of lost momentum. But I like to think that the site's not dead, just resting.

    (The reason I don't have a profile is because I had a dumb secret blog that I didn't want anyone to find. But I am indeed a woman, and my email address is bollyhooATgmailDOTcom if you'd like to tell me more about my fabulousness.)

    Nice blog you've got here!

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  5. Ah yes, but where you in Aqua the day the glass bar thingy broke. I was. HA!
    Now I have higher ground running thru my head. And finally, STOP being mean to my friend 'Tango' who has seen thrice at TC now, and you keep ignoring. What's the deal?

    Meanie.

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  6. I loved Madagascar too! My favourites were the Penguins- "where are the humans?" "we killed them and ate their livers."
    ( I sound a bit disturbed don't I?)

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  7. ha ha ha .. i was refered to this blog by someone i know

    anyway
    "
    Oh, but. There's a second blog, updated more frequently here. Why, ads, do you not have a Blogger profile? Profiles are good things, it helps other people figure out whether you're male or female and how to email you and tell you how fabulous you are. That's why I have a profile. Not because it looks so pretty or anything.) (So, if you have a bracket within a bracket, you're supposed to have a square bracket outside right?)
    "


    you talk a lot - drift a lot - but nice.

    -- yours babe

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  8. You're not truly old till you quote song lines to people and they go 'huh'?

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  9. *gulp* I thought 18 was old; and am happy that I'm 17. Not for very long though.

    I'll run before I get the rest of the brickbats.

    Oh, just delurking btw.

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  10. i have my profile all set up. but no one ever see's it. :(

    ReplyDelete

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