The Internet Personified: More than words

Met friends with a young baby yesterday, and they had to leave early because their baby wakes up at about 5 or 6 am, and I got to thinking how sleeping changes as you age. First, you're a newborn, and you sleep in fits and starts, like a cat, waking up to feed whenever you feel like it, then you're a toddler and you're so excited by the world that you need to be up and about as soon as it's morning. Then you're a young child, and your sleep is pretty much regulated, but you do wake up before your family does, and walk around the house by yourself and watch cartoons till everyone is awake (okay, maybe just me), then you're a teenager, and you sleep ALL. THE. TIME. with your parents banging on your door, urging you to wake up already, it's lunchtime, and this continues through your twenties, when you're not working or staying up late to do god knows what (I wrote my first book through my mid-twenties insomnia), you're asleep. Then you're in your thirties, and suddenly, you need a full eight hours again, or you can't function and the slightest thing wakes you up (for eg: this morning, I was rudely awakened at 6.30 am by a clap of thunder) and then you're old (I have no idea what to expect from the middle decades so I'm leaving them out) and suddenly, you're an infant again, in bed by 8 and awake by three or four am. It's why so many old people turn to prayer--this is my own personal theory--because what else is there to do at three am?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that little reminder that eventually, we all die after going back to how we were when we were born. Here is a poem by ol' Willy Shakespeare to illustrate it. (Enable images to see)

This week in excitement (part one): FIRST, my book came out on the 15th! Well--it was supposed to come out, but since I haven't been to an actual bookstore in ages, I used Amazon. Amazon had it listed as available on the 15th, and then suddenly it vanished, and now it's back to pre-order (releasing on the 21st) so I don't know what happened. If you're going to a bookstore any time soon, could you check and see if it's in stock? Meanwhile, here's the link to buy. DNA did a lovely story on me and the series and what my plans for it are, which you can read here. And here is a non-spoilery excerpt in Scroll. I don't know many people who have actually read it, so if you have, please let me know what you think!

This week in excitement (part two): My visa arrived! Pretty fast too--they were done with processing two days after I submitted it. Then they sent me a very vague email: a decision has been made on your visa. That's it. One very tense day later, the envelope arrived, I opened it with shaking fingers, but thank you, Which means from July 10 to August 10, this newsletter will be like one of those letters Amy March wrote to her family when she stole Jo's holiday.

This week in food and drink: We were taken to Hornbill this week, a tiny hole-in-the-wall North Eastern place near Safdarjung Enclave. Signs on the wall said "Keep calm and eat pork" which is exactly what we did, all washed down with rice beer. Would recommend! But park outside and walk, because it's in a very narrow, very crowded lane.

This week in television: This is just a list of the shows I have given up on:

1) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
2) Riverdale (yes, I KNOW. After all that promise!)

Have begun:
1) The Handmaid's Tale (VEREEEE GOOD)
2) Season three of The Fall. (Hmmm)
3) Nashville (Also hmmm)
4) Brooklyn 99 (Like Scrubs, but in a police station!)

Have binged:
Orange Is The New Black, the new season. (VERY good)

Mostly, I've watched like an hour of TV every night and then I turn back to my book. Currently reading Stephen King's The Stand, which is making me wonder what I would do with all your corpses once a killer flu wiped off all civilisation except for a few people. (I'd burn you all, but separately, and respectfully, not to worry, you can count on me.)

Monday reading list: Great story about a feminist dada-ji. ** What it's like to fly for a whole week as a passenger. ** Related: the small mercies of travelling with your baby. ** How you draw a circle says a lot about you. ** Telegrams between famous writers. **


Have a great week!
xx
m

Where am I? The Internet Personified! A mostly weekly collection of things I did/thought/read/saw that week.

Who are you? Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, writer of internet words (and other things) author of five books (suppport me by buying a book!) and general city-potter-er.

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