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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28 March 2014

Today In Longreads: Windows XP will kill you, why must you hate on porn and/or clickbait, who can write about Bandra? (Everyone)

Loved reading these four things recently.


First, the mister in Yahoo Originals on Windows XP & how it's being phased out and what you should do (instead of panic.)

Photo courtesy Google Images/Live Mint
My first personal brush with computer 'hacking' came in the late 1990s, when a friend sent me an email attachment containing Back Orifice. An appropriate but rudely-monikered little piece of software, BO was ridiculously user-friendly and enabled anyone to completely take control of their Windows 98 computer over the Internet (also known as “backdooring”, in computer security speak). My friend, gleefully, opened up my CD drive while he was sitting at home and proceeded to flash teenage-taunting messages on my screen.

 Read the whole story here. 

Why do you hate porn stars, asks Conner Habib in The Stranger. He dated a guy who loved him, sometimes, but didn't love the fact that Conner was in the porn industry. Fair enough, you say? Here's why it's not.

I spoke at a college in Maine about porn and culture. The talk was mostly about the blurry lines between "pornography" and other forms of art. As soon as the Q&A started, a student said: What about sex trafficking?
What about it? I asked.
Well, he said, I know it's going on.
But that doesn't have anything to do with my talk. The two things aren't related.
Women are being enslaved, he said.
Why are you focusing on that after my talk? I asked.
And to the student at the other lecture, I said the same thing.
Out of everything I spoke about, why is that your question? I don't talk about the bad stuff as much because the rest of the public conversation is so focused on it.
Oh, he said. Maybe in academia, but not in the rest of the world. You just think that because you're in academia.
I had no idea what he was talking about. You're the one in academia, I said. I'm talking from my perspective as someone who's been in the porn industry for six years.
He kept talking.

The whole story here. 

While we're speaking about hating stuff, what about the word "clickbait"? Why is it derogatory? Why can't you WANT people to click on your stories? Tim Marchman asks relevant questions in Deadspin.

If journalism were as easy as tricking people into pushing buttons, it would have been automated by now. It's a trade, and the art is in satisfying a bewildering variety of competing interests by working not only in service of all the impossibly interesting stories in the world—some of them very important, some not very important at all—but also the impossibly busy people who might read them.

And finally, Diksha Basu in Outlook talks about the reactions to her earlier article on Bandra, which stirred up a lot of anger (read that one here) and why we hate people talking about the old thing we used to love like it's a new thing.

Even if I return to the same town and live in the same apartment on the same street, like Holden Caulfield discovers, nothing will actually be the same. And that is a frightening idea that forces us to cede control. It is hard to live knowing that we cannot claim sole expertise on a place we like to call home. So much of our identities is braided in with our surroundings. Knowing that nothing remains the same forces us to face a certain darkness. We know that we are being replaced, slowly but constantly.

Read the whole story here.



I'm not sure what you all think about this new links and news section that I've introduced, so tell me about it. What do you want to see more of? The long, thoughtful blog posts take time, they will still appear, of course, but this is a quick way of me giving you updates. Would you like more? Less? Suggested articles? Debate? Tell me EVERYTHING in the comments!



3 comments:

  1. I wanna read more of this too.. Here's the logic, as it exists in my mind.

    I like what you post about varied topics, especially relationships. And I believe that you think the way you do because of what you read. So, getting recommendations from you about stuff you read and liked is a very welcome addition.

    Looking forward to reading more of your blog...

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  2. I am enjoying some of these quick bites as much as I enjoy your lengthier personal posts.

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  3. I hadn’t come across any of these articles so I’m quite happy to see this compilation of links from you. Do keep this as a regular feature!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your feedback! It'll be published once I approve it. Inflammatory/abusive comments will not be posted. Please play nice.