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 2010

Why I love my friends

A little while after we announced our engagement on Facebook (yes, we're new age like that), I got a series of mysterious emails from my friends. The emails said things like, "Keep yourself free on Saturday, the 13th" and "Pick one: Tote, Olive, Zenzi Mills, Shiro". Very excitedly, I replied to the emails, confirming the free-ness and what place I liked best. Any questions I asked were politely but firmly discouraged. Of course, this whipped me up into a wild state of excitement, where I got practically no work done in the last week, because I was looking forward to Saturday so much.

THEN, Monday last week, an invite rolled into my email, sending me to a link called 'She bites the dust!" (Which was then changed, amidst much giggling to 'eM and JC: They Are There". Because of the book, get it? get it? Well, it was funny for US.) BB, Ira and Bulbul had pulled the whole thing off. There were invites to EVERYONE I knew and had been or was close to, I mean, I even looked through the thing intending to ask some people and I didn't have to! It was excellent. There was a random picture of me and JC, from our trip to England, sitting in the British Museum, there were some other pictures of us, and me and Ira and BB. It was beautiful. The location was Tote, but I was told to come over to BB's a little earlier for a 'girl's only' drinks and dinner. I couldn't believe how well they had organised it all.

Of course, giggles took over my stalwart planning crew and soon enough all sorts of random pictures started appearing on the event page, like one of KJO and SRK and another of two little animated chimpanzees hugging each other. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Their hearts are in the right place though.

On Thursday, JC and I were taking a little shopping trip for him to get himself a new hard drive, and the rickshaw broke down in front of a (whaddayaknow?) line of jewellery shops. And he looked at me and I looked at him and we said, "FATE, BABY!" and picked out the most gorgeous ring, a picture of which I am posting here and I swear, I'm not going to descend into Bridezilla and only post wedding related madness, but there are two things you should know a) I'm a junk jewellery person And b) I have never owned diamonds in my entire life (except for some earrings once, which I lost). So all this while, I've been like, meh, what's the big deal, cats are a girl's best friend not diamonds but then I got it and OHMYGOD I have never loved a piece of jewellery so much. It's like I've morphed into the kind of girl you love to hate in chick flicks who sticks out her left hand so everyone can admire the rock she has on her finger and what has happened to me? Anyhoo, female instincts intact, I can safely admit that this ring now explains everything I have never understood about the whole women + jewellery cliche.




Saturday came, and I had absolutely nothing to wear. I was going to go with this pink dress I bought on Hill Road and can I say how glad I am that the whole empire waistline debacle has gone out of style? Everywhere I look now, instead of ghastly maternity type outfits are beautiful creations with fitted waists and plunging backs and now we can finally move on. My pink dress is very pretty with a cutaway back, but you know, everyone else was going to get dressed up and I was the only one going to be wearing something Hill Road-esque. So, I went shopping to my absolutely favourite place for 'special occasion dresses', a tiny shop called Wardrobe in Pali Naka (opposite Da Vinci) and picked up a cowl neck jersey dress, which is SOOOOOOOOOOOO hot. Then, off to Linking Road to get a chain metal belt, plus tangerine heels, hair up, dangly earrings and I was all set.
 
The girls really outdid themselves for that dinner. People had been delegated to get food and drinks and there was champagne! (which I still can't drink) and everyone made toasts to me (awwww) and we got quite drunk and danced to Bollywood and now I'm quite looking forward to the bachelorette party. Tote had some strange rules about reservations (paying a certain amount of money up front) so we decided to take our chances and go somewhere none of us had been before, Escobar in Bandra. Which, by the way? Is BEAUTIFUL. I swear, it's huge, it's seriously awesome, only they have some strange dress code rules, so a friend of mine had to go back and hunt through Bandra for a shirt. Weird.
 
At Escobar, we got even drunker, some of us more so than others and then teeter-tottered back to our house, where the party went on till the wee hours. I have a bottle of tequila hidden away for emergencies, so I had a couple of shots and danced around and I'm pretty sure our neighbours hate us, but hell, you only get engaged once, right? It was also a really good mix of people, from all over the place, so I think the vibe was quite interactive-y, even though there were some people there I certainly had never seen before (and might not ever again.)
 
Of course, Valentine's Day was spent in Hungoverville, me and JC both too ill to do anything, let alone romantic plans. But still, I spent the day reading in bed, and managed to emerge later and we had some quiet time, which is always good.
 
But can I just say? My friends? They are brilliant and I love them, and oh, everyone deserves to be surrounded by people who they love and who love them and the feelings of pure goodwill and LUCK are just pouring out of me. It was just the most perfect, no tension night, and one of the best parties yet.
 

17 comments:

  1. Good stuff....lucky you...all the best for the road ahead !!

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  2. You are one lucky girl!!! Congrats on ur engagement :)

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  3. Hi been reading your blog for some time and at this point I just had to de-lurk and say congratulations! It is an all so exciting and romantic engagement, ring and engagement party! So happy for you.

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  4. awsmmmnessss...
    congratulations!!!

    P.S: the ring is pretty :)
    i wish it was a picture of the ring on ur finger though :)

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  5. Congratulations! Were you with Soniya (among others) at Escobar. Anyway, I was also at escobar and it is fullllll of aunties. Its been a while since i felt young at a nightclub! But then u wouldve been with a huge group, so it wouldnt have mattered.

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  6. I've never commented before but I've read your blog for quite a while now. And I can't tell you how glad I am that you're getting your happy ending. Congrats!

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  7. forget your neighbours, I hate you. thank christ I don't live next to you. I would have napalmed the building.

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  8. I'm jealous... gr8 post... but i'm still jealous.. how do u get to be so lucky..

    http://theparanormalguy.blogspot.com/

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  9. Hi there!!!

    I really do like your ring... :) I wanted to tell u this because even I have never been able to figure out women+ jewellery cliche... The only piece of jewellery I wear is my silver ring... no junk etc.... just my silver ring... so after I had a look at the ring (in the pic), I was really tempted to tell u that it is INDEED very beautiful... :)

    Ridhima
    (from Delhi)

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  10. I have followed your blog for the longest time. :)

    Congratulations on this brilliant news!

    Give me a shout if u're popping by Singapore sometime. I live here.
    Would be awesome to meet up!

    Cheers,
    Saira.

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  11. Good friends make for a good life...and you are the privellege class to have them

    Amen

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  12. you got engaged?!!! wow!!! congratulations :) the ring seriously rocks. did i mention i've not received my diamond ring yet? :-/

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