Newsletter: Rainy days and Mondays

I have been lax about cross-posting my newsletter here but no longer! Here's my edition from Monday--subscribe and read all the archives here. 

It has rained in the night, and outside on the balcony, birds are chirping, the temperature has dropped and green abounds. All quite idyllic, except the cats have killed a squirrel in the night and are now playing a very macabre game of catch with its corpse, so I've had to draw the curtains. (Cats are sociopaths.)

This is my all time favourite cat gif

Speaking of cats, Squishy, our big black tom, has taken to mothering the two foster kittens in a way that's quite sweet to see. Mack, especially, thinks Squishy is his hero and has even begun to walk a little bit like him, while the Hobgoblin occasionally has her bum licked or her face smacked, and even dared to jump on his twitching tail the other day. (Mack and the Hobster have new names now, because of their new owners* but that would be confusing in this newsletter, so they'll stay M & H till the end of this chapter.) (*Owners is a weird word for a cat person. We're definitely not "owners." "Mummies" is too twee, and cat slaves not entirely accurate, so I'm going with "cohabiters")

Anyway. Onward!

This week in food and drink:  Our favourite place to eat lunch outside the house is Little Saigon in Hauz Khas Enclave. Everything about it is amazing. But sadly, we're going to have to start calling before we go, because it was CLOSED last time we checked, so sadly, we drove away and towards this other thing called Cravity that was at the head of the road. Before we reached Cravity though (Cavity + Craving? Horrible name) we saw a very understated grey sign marked with Big Fat Sandwich. Now, we had somewhat cooled off our BFS love, because of how long they took to deliver and so on, but the sandwiches themselves were quite good, so we decided to go in. A revelation! Cool warehouse-y inside, a Blue Tokai coffee counter, lovely art everywhere. Plus eating there made us realise how much the sandwiches were losing in delivery. Very nice for a coffee/lunch meeting if you're in the area.

Went to Lady Baga in Connaught Place for Anuja Chauhan's booklaunch over the weekend. I was curious about it because it's the Olive group, and their stuff is usually good. However--meh. I mean, it was a launch, so launch food, but paneer in what looked like rechado paste? Some random lamb balls? Plus the sand on the floor seems like a good idea until you trail sand everywhere. And the stairwell smelt faintly of garbage, probably because there's a Subway on the ground floor, nyuk nyuk. (No hate though, I love Subway.) So, after some launching, my friend Sam and I went off to Nando's where our meal was v satisfactory.

This week in stuff I wrote: MANY things. A happy side result of that stress I alluded to in my last newsletter (I wish I could tell you all about it, but not yet) is that I became super motivated to do some freelance writing again and pitched to everyone and lots of people responded with "yes!" so I wrote everything. Mostly book stuff though because that is my favourite: Two pieces in Scroll: On The Handmaid's Tale and how it's happening right now in India. (Margaret Atwood retweeted this piece so how's that for endorsement?) ** A review of Paula Hawkins' newest book Into The Water which suffers from a case of too many unreliable narrators (plus reminded me of Rebecca.) ** As Aunty Feminist, trying a new op-ed, less Q&A approach, so here's my thoughts on fairy tales and what would happen if the prince didn't turn up at the last moment? ** In The Indian Express, talking about my girl Anne Shirley and her mother figure Marilla Cuthbert, who totally doesn't get enough credit. ** In Mint a review of Sri Lankan author Chhimi Tenduf-La's newest collection of short stories, which I enjoyed greatly. ** And finally, restarting my F Word column for the Week with this piece on body hair and why my arms are so hairy. ** (Related:  was quoted in this piece on the millennial writer as well, so look at me being young and restless.)

This week in stuff I didn't write but you should read anyway: The engineer behind demonetisation. ** My father was Hindi medium, I was English, I left him behind. Gorgeous piece in Arre. ** The secret life of urban crows. ** The personal essay boom is over (but not in India yet because how else would I make my money, right?) ** The Goya City Food Guides are lovely, so you should read them all: Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai. ** Every rom com's female bff to the protagonist. ** Schadenfreude is this bitchy review of Ekta Kapoor's ALT Balaji shows, their new web streaming content channel. ** How posh young Indians look for love. ** And.. on owls, because if you're going to stick them everywhere, you may as well learn about them too. **



Woop, woop, until next week!
xx
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