Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan's Blog, page 129

Today in Photo

Just finished reading Eating India by Chitrita Banerjee which I had very high hopes for and which turned out to be.. okay. Everything she ate through India as an NRI had to be turned into a paean on Bengali food, which I have nothing against but then the book should have been described as "eating India as a Bengali." no surprises that the author is a Bengali food expert but I wish she had dug deeper. Now going very very far away with The Once And Future King which is based on the legend of King Arthur and which I scored this gorgeous hardbound collector's edition of. It features among its delightful characters, a talking owl named Achilles so I'm already fathoms deep in love with it even though it's hard on the wrists when you're lying down in bed. #nowreading #250in2016 #readingchallenge #bookstagram

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Pottering around the city: St+Art Festival in Photos

On Valentine's Day, the Good Thing and I decided to get out of the house and go do Cultural Shit. This time of the year, there's lots of fun things to do in our vast and sprawling city, and we chose two: a curated walk around Okhla's shipping container yard transformed into a street art show by St+Art (Details here, definitely choose the walk option because they go into a lot of detail about each piece which you might otherwise miss.) 

At the end of the walk, some Young Folks from some performance poetry group put up some spoken word which was pretty terrible as spoken word tends to be more often than not, unless you're a genius, and not a Very Angry Nineteen Year Old, but it was a nice day, so we watched them for a bit, and after a while got drawn into their enthusiasm for their Causes. 
After, we went to the U/A festival organised by OML, which had such terrible signage that we wound up walking round and round in circles for an hour around the venue before we realised it was the first gate we passed after all. (D'oh.) Which was quite fun, but also, eh. It was meant to be "family friendly" and we were afraid at first we'd run into a thousand screaming children, but it was mostly couples and groups in their twenties. My friends were in the "immersive theatre" thing called the Magical Floating Market, where everyone stays in character and is a little like fairyland, and that was the best part. Oh, plus I decided what I really need is a ukelele. (I realise this might need some clarification: the festival was basically a space where you could do a bunch of things from take workshops in solar car making (mine was rubbish, but the Good Thing's actually ran) to ukelele playing or walk through The Floating Market, or listen to music or whatever.) 
Anyway, I took loads of photos at the street art festival, and decided to make them all into one post. For people interested in specs: shot on my One Plus One, edited on Snapseed for colour correction and contrast. 

Today in Photo

Day well spent at the @startindia WIP. Go, go, go while it's still on and take advantage of something very cool being on in our usually not-so-cool city. Loads more photos to come. #graffiti #streetart #delhidiary

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Today in Photo

Secretly posting this photo because if you think you're anti-mush, you haven't met the man in these photos yet. I too am not huge on Valentine's, but I'm experiencing a mellow revival towards the day this year. Even singing a bit. The night we met I knew I, Needed you so And if I had a chance I'd Never let you go #valentine #tbt

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Bitesize: Ask The Author: Twitter Chat

Did a live Twitter q&a for Westland's #VDayWithWestland series. Some great questions.

Storified by Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 10:59:47

Hi guys, let's get started! #VDayAtWestland @WestlandBooks

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:03:12

LOVE poetry. Wendy Cope my absolute favourite. https://t.co/4HEQYLDMRc

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:03:36

YES. But to be fair, so was being a sanctuary keeper/vet/Hollywood scriptwriter. Last one still hopeful. :) https://t.co/c6uWAqC44p

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:04:21

Not a huge Valentine's person. More into every day things. Ideal? Movie/day spent out/reading. https://t.co/qXEgyT7ZEJ

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:05:11

V. loaded q. Actually less than there was in many ways. But always some writers forging ahead. https://t.co/51Q80VpJ4L

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:06:49

Any time. I am a 90s pop junkie. https://t.co/Zd85ocYo73

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:07:19

Some books do. Some books SHOULD. But some reading also just for entertainment which is ok, https://t.co/lilPRBsqUp

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:07:56

Getting down to work every day is tough unless you're super disciplined. Plus the money sucks. https://t.co/Cwbb7Bmqk4

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:08:34

I have such a weakness for murder mysteries! I'd love to do one one day. Lots of ideas already. :) https://t.co/4VlS3SojKO

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:09:15

I think you write what you want to write eventually. Message-driven writing often boring. https://t.co/xvetlWz3LA

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:09:52

Definitely @MargaretAtwood and @judyblume https://t.co/pv5G67tDM8

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:10:23

Hah. Some reputations. https://t.co/W3E596P4X1

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:11:09

Almost everything hated on some level or another. :) A Little Life which I loved, was hated by loads. https://t.co/LG4HGiMZkF

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:12:12

One word is hard! So I'm going to go with "wordy." https://t.co/zB9AmbNpsT

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:12:41

A lot of people weren't okay with my writing about sex & things which always surprised me. https://t.co/7wUbNaBs8b

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:13:15

All adages to be had with a generous pinch of salt. https://t.co/MfcEA2ewas

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:13:45

Used to be the case. But they tell me the blog is dead now. https://t.co/6ahSCVjr4t

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:14:51

No, but I do believe in good circumstances. https://t.co/mVtcAPrSxr

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:14:27

Hardly can tell you my plans for this year! Although working on 3 more books. :) https://t.co/m9d9Bs7Nlg

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:15:24

Wow. Let's see, so many but Handmaid's Tale was REVOLUTIONARY. https://t.co/yJKCGRbIhi

— Meenakshi Madhavan · Fri, Feb 12 2016 09:16:15

Today in Photo

Oh man, it's Squishversary! Aww I can't believe it's been only a year, I feel like we've had him forever. He's seriously the world's most affectionate cat. Which other one flops in front of you and asks to be picked up and cuddled? Look at how dinky he was when he first entered our lives. #tbt #catsagram

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Today in Photo

Olga only comes home sporadically for meals, but we're trying to break her of the habit. After a morning confined inside, she settled down to sleep on my desk, and Squishy who loves her more than he loves anyone in the whole world has come to find a willing pillow. "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone," he thinks. #catsagram #cuddlebugs #truelove

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Today in Photo

One nice thing about cleaning out your books for an impending move is that your old ones resurface. My childhood books used to live in my mother's house but she had it redone with no space so she sent them back to me. Stacking then away I found my little house books, read, as you can see when I was a young and tender nine years old. Still has me instantly absorbed a million years later. Chilli cheese toast as accompaniment because that's how we roll. #tbt #nowreading #bookstagram

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Today in Photo

"[...] I just hate the way architects and city planners and everyone else responsible for urban life seems to have lost sight of what cities are for. They are for people. That seems obvious enough, but for half a century we have been building cities that are for almost anything else: for cars, for businesses, for developers, for people with money and bold visions who refuse to see cities from ground level, as places where people must live and function and get around. Why should I have to walk through a damp tunnel and negotiate two sets of stairs to get across a busy street? Why should cars be given priority over me? How can we be so rich and so stupid at the same time?" #nowreading #250in2016 #readingchallenge #bookstagram #billbryson

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Today in Photo

Piccolo Puggsley and I getting wild and crazy on Saturday night. #pugstagram

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