Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's Blog, page 11
March 28, 2022
Today in Photo
Deep in the caverns of Noida is Indira Market, a warren of stalls selling export surplus kurtas, crockery, random things for the house as well as an outing for people who live next door. It's also home to several fabric shops, and a favourite of my mum's friend who lives next door and told her all about it. I also wanted to go so we made a date and there like Aladdin's cave, vast quantities of fabric piled up to the ceiling and me deciding what I needed to get made over the next few weeks. Shorts definitely. Co-ords. A shift dress. A tank top. Shopping for fabric is in many ways more fun than regular shopping because it exercises your creative brain but obvs there's delayed gratification and you have to wait and see if the tailor can pull off your ambitions. Also bought some ₹100 t-shirts for days like yesterday, going to local markets and exploring new things. #fabricshopping #tailormade #diyclothes #handloom #exportsurplus #indiramarket #noida
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March 27, 2022
Today in Photo
Worth leaving to come home to reunions, in my humble opinion. Nice Sunday in GK2. #femalefriendships #delhidiary #sundayafternoons #happyhour
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March 25, 2022
Today in Photo
Same dress from my profile picture (which is the only time I've worn it before!) Didn't bring any clothes from Berlin because I want to make the most of my luggage allowance on the way back. But left a bunch of clothes with my mum and honestly, after an entire winter of layers and leggings and snoods, I'm happy to see anythingggggg that lets me have bare skin. Quite pleased with this dress though, worn to a party last night, shoes are my new Birkenstocks, which also I love but the cork sole takes a little getting used to before it stops being hard against your feet. That being said, I was standing for a large part of the evening and my feet feel fine this morning so hurrah for arch support! The pandemic made me realise I'm never even going to PRETEND to wear heels again. #whatiworetoday
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What I'm Reading
I promised you a review of the best book I've read in a long time and dun dun dun: here it is! Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski has a terrible title and a vague photo-of-someone's-feet book jacket and would've been a pretty overlooked book if a famous gut hadn't just randomly picked it up off a bookshelf (this is why we need bookstores). Said Famous Guy is Stephen King who loved it so much he wrote a scorching letter to Publisher's Weekly saying it was criminal how little the publishers were doing to promote this book because it had, as he put it, "a mother of a story." This is what made me pick it up last year and I never got around to reading it until I was travelling recently and was looking for something new. It was so incredible I've had a book hangover ever since, but sadly I think it's one of its kind. What's it about? Well, there's a woman - - an American - - who dies in a jail in Thailand and she's this anthropologist see? And she's been doing research into this tribe and living with them for years. And then relatedly, there's this American family of missionaries, who have been missionaries for GENERATIONS. And then there's this young journalist (also called Mischa but the book is a novel) who lives in Thailand with his girlfriend and is investigating the story. Broad strokes but you'll get so pulled in. Read it! I wished I was an anthropologist after I finished. #mrmbookclub #100in2022 #bookstagram #fieldwork #mischaberlinski
March 21, 2022
Today in Photo
Went partying to the Asian side of Istanbul yesterday, this neighbourhood called Kadikoy which is super hip. We were at a coffee shop a few days ago & saw a little poster with DJ events at a venue that looked cool but was across the sea, so we headed there slowly. The DJ was terrible, all pretentious minimal techno but later they got out another DJ who played some nice things and we were drunk by then so we danced, caught the last ferry home and walked up such a steep hill that my thighs literally cannot move this morning. Photos from a coffee shop on the ferry station, a view of Asia from the boat and an unrelated breakfast cat. Delhi day after. #istanbul #traveldiaries #turkey #catsofistanbul
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March 18, 2022
Today in Photo
Snowing again today and K is working so here's a colour coordinated cat against Louis Vuitton bags and a street scene from yesterday. Went for SUCH a long walk, and it was also the second day of my period, proving conclusively that I could've joined in PT class when I was bleeding, I just didn't want to. 🤫🤫Had a gorgeous lunch (not pictured) at a cafe we just stumbled unto with a daily changing menu and super small seating space. Getting a little tired of Turkish food (I know! Blasphemy!) so seeking out new things. Will I succumb to my desi food craving before I return to the motherland next week? Probably. #istanbul #catsofistanbul #traveldiaries
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March 16, 2022
Today in Photo
Vintage clothes (and second hand books, natch) are the best souvenirs. And now I live in a city where I can kinda wear a coat all year round (light summer jacket, hoodie, autumn coat to wear over a thin sweater etc etc) I've been longing for a trench. My Uniqlo heattech down jacket is GREAT, it's ridonkulously warm and has saved my life on many occasions but it's not what you'd call stylish. This old lady trench is from the 60s and I love everything about it, how I feel like Sherlock Holmes off on a mission or like Meg Ryan with her tiny curvy body under huge coats in When Harry Met Sally. It needs some TLC, seams are loose and linings are slightly ripped and there's a stain on the pocket which I hope will come out with dry cleaning but the shop girl gave us a 50% discount (K bought an ancient corduroy jacket too) so it was really a BARGAIN. #bargainhunting #vintageclothes #houndstoothtrench #traveldiaries #istanbul
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March 15, 2022
What I'm Reading
Of course I stopped at the second hand book lane in Istanbul, of course I bought this book. #bookstagram #mrmbookclub #shortstories
Today in Photo
Isn't the Hagia Sofia BEAUTIFUL? my photos absolutely do not do it justice but I think it's the most majestic place of worship I've ever been to (formerly in first place was the Golden Temple which is gorgeous but lacks the soaring roof, the sense of vastness.) Ir used to be a cathedral during Constantine's time, then the Ottomans turned it into a mosque, then the old secular Turkish government turned it into a museum then the new religious government turned it into a mosque so now you have to shoes off but it's so beautiful I gasped, like literally. The other photo is just seagulls, my favourite bird. I realise I have a favourite bird now. What's yours? (this is not an engagement metrics kind of question, I'm just curious.) #hagiasophia #istanbul #seagulls
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