The Internet Personified: Everything's gonna be all right, rock-a-bye

The biggest news I have for you this week--the biggest news I can SHARE--is that I'm almost done with my Goodreads reading challenge. 200 books in 2016. It would've been done a lot sooner, and also over the goal, if I didn't keep re-reading old books.

Oh, all right, I'll tell you about the other thing as well, it's this: Amazon Prime Video has come to India, and they're commissioning a bunch of new original content, and one of them is a show I'm writing for Pritish Nandy Communications. It began as 15 minute per episode web series, and is now a full on 45 minute dramedy called 4 More Shots Please. Four girls, Bombay, a bar, exciting adventures. It should be super fun, but it's also a LOT of work, because one minute of a script is one page, so that's 45 pages per episode for 10 episodes. A LOT of work. Have I said that already? However, always exciting to experiment with new mediums. Amazon officially announced it at their event, so I guess it's a go, but these things are hard to predict till they're actually on the air, but you heard it here first! (Haven't even mentioned on Facebook or Twitter for fear of jinxing.) We'll get in some Hindi writers to help eventually, but for now it's just me.

So that's me ending 2016 with a bang. Despite the fact that it was a pretty shitty year for world events, mine has actually been pretty great. More about this in my year-end post, which I hope will be all about the positive! And light! And so on!

Gif of the week 1: My writing process

This week in the #GoanWay: After much hectic socialising on the lead up to my birthday which was on Tuesday, we spent most of this week being quiet and doing quiet things also writing furiously, which means not much to report. We've stayed in, or we do little excursions not far from home. But this week was also birthday week (partly) so the night before, as I mentioned in my last newsletter, we went to my friends Matt and Meghana's restaurant in Mandrem. It's called Verandah and it's absolutely lovely--Matt does all the cooking (which is insanely good) and Meghana bartends and waits tables. I had a drink they call a Cucumber Sandwich, essentially a souped up gin and tonic (very proud to have introduced them to my beloved Black Jewel gin) with one of Matt's homemade dill pickles in it. Yum, yum, YUM. Too bad I was still so zonked from the party two nights before to be able to really let my hair down, but I've promised myself a repeat visit very soon.

For the actual birthday, we went to a Japanese place called Sakana which was okay--nothing compared to the places I've eaten at in Delhi and Bombay. (Fuji in Connaught Place and Kofuku in Bandra, but coming soon to Delhi!) But very pretty and Japanese, so I liked the ambience of it at least. Also had a very nice red snapper sashimi.

Also checked out the Saturday Night Market in Arpora yesterday which was like an overpriced Sarojini Nagar with a few original crafts people who were mostly all Russian or English and refused to bargain or whatever, and really, who has cash these days to spend on a glittery flower crown thing? However, bought two pairs of sleeping shorts for 100 each: one with lace and one with pugs all over it so pleased with purchase.

This week in second hand bookshops: On someone's recommendation, went off to Broadway bookstore, where K promised to buy me all the paperbacks my heart desired. It desired about 11, which came to a very reasonable sum of money, but all were mass market paperbacks, not really anything out of the ordinary. Was pleased to come across some recent hits I'd been meaning to read, and now I have a whole pile (and growing!) on my dressing table.

THEN, we went to another set of friends' house for dinner and they also have a second hand bookstore called Lotus Eaters, which is all curated and loved and shelves everywhere and a crazy kitten running across the floor (kitten has since been adopted, but they have two adult cats who both look like Hitler. Kitlers.) I collected about five books before I realised that it was probably very anti social behaviour to come to a dinner party and sit among the books, so I had to stop there, but it was a very superior store indeed. Again, if you're in Goa and jonesing for a second hand fix, must visit.

So I've been reading a lot. Here's a photo of me from my birthday holding a pile of books at Broadway.

This week in stuff I wrote: As Aunty Feminist, on whether a man has an equal say in whether to abort a foetus.


Sunday link list: The top viral videos of 2016 reviewed by GQ is a good time suck. ** Very fitting for current mood, how saas-bahu sagas get written. Also, after I read this piece, I read the same journalist's cancer diaries, and realised very sadly that she had died. Read that too, very well written. ** Talking to the dude who hacked all of India's rich and famous. (Also, he's right and Vijay Mallya DOES sound like a tech-cretin.) ** Snigdha hangs out with gau rakshaks and tries to get into their heads a bit. ** This cat didn't like the new baby so he turned into a Cat Mayor and goes around greeting everyone every day. ** Zac O'Yeah on the book lover's guide to Bengaluru, which is always useful. ** Memoirist Mary Karr on having the guy who grabbed her crotch arrested and how powerful that made her feel. **

Gif of the week 2: Miss my Squish.

And that's it from me this week. Have a great weekend!
xx
m