The Internet Personified: She opens up her eyes and says, "Oh, what a morning"

Mondays somehow don't strike the same amount of dread into me as they do other people. Tuesdays now. Tuesdays are the most useless days of the week, the April or the September of days, no one really needs them, long, laborious waiting days. On the other hand, I work from home, a writer for hire, selling my services to other people so I can call my schedule my own, so what is a Monday, to paraphrase the Dowager Countess. Mondays are also slightly exciting, because everyone you've emailed about work type things over the weekend, usually start to reply by Monday morning, so you wake up to a flurry of "yes we'd like that story" which is always nice. The only thing I don't like about it, is that our house is usually a pigsty by Monday morning--the maid doesn't come in on Sunday and you wouldn't think one day of her absence would lead to SO many dirty dishes (because we have a dishwasher but we're lazy to load it) (or unload it, so we take clean dishes straight from in there. Terrible, I know.) or so much furniture being moved around.

However, in about an hour, we're taking in a pair of foster kittens again! (UPDATE: have arrived! Runty looking white one and less runty but also skinny brown tabby. Apparently rescued from a gutter.) Fostering is necessary and important in the animal welfare world: it means a safe harbour for an animal until it finds its forever home; a sort of halfway house as it were, for it to be fed up and beautified and learn how to be domesticated. It's also a great option for those of you who have always wanted a puppy or a kitten but travel too much or what have you. A temporary pet! We've been Kitten Broody for some time, but we have three full grown cats and cannot, in all good sense, add one more to that lot, so fostering it is. Kittens are slightly mad, and require some amount of supervision but not loads, and generally should be more work than our regular full time cats, so I think one or two sessions of fostering and we'll have gotten them out of our system. (If you'd like to foster a kitten/cat, here's a link to my Facebook page Fans of Cats, Delhi (it's just CALLED "Delhi." We have members from all over the country). For dogs, check the Friendicoes page in Delhi or equivalent animal shelter in your home town.)

I wrote that last sentence one hour ago, and then my mother wanted me to book some train tickets for her. I don't know when the last time you guys used IRCTC was, but it is PAINFUL. Several attempts to login later, I was near tears, but then I remembered that K also has a login, so I just used his and then there were all sorts of hidden things on the page I didn't see to click, and it doesn't let you book a ticket without them so ufff. All in all, why train when you can fly so much easier? (Someone told me once that the IRCTC website actually cost a fuckload to build and maintain but I can't find the corresponding news story.)

This week in democracy: Voted! I actually didn't realise the MCD elections were even a thing--did people get this excited about it last time it happened also and I just missed it? I'm registered in East Delhi, since that is my old permanent address, and mum and I have voted together for the last three things. The particular polling booth we have is a government school, and the marked difference in it from last time I was there to this time was apparent. Beautiful new outdoor assembly space under a shed, lots of shiny chrome and wood desks, nice cool classrooms--it all renewed my faith in AAP a little bit, and justified the vote I cast for them. (Exit polls say they're definitely going to lose, but can't hurt to try.) This time they put the ink mark on your ring finger, which makes selfies awkward.

In our particular polling station, classrooms are divided by locality. So the "society types" (the apartment buildings on that road are called "societies") have a few rooms to themselves which are usually almost always empty. No queue. However, in good news, "posh colonies" actually increased voter turnout this year. (Which reminds me that I should really switch addresses to South Delhi where I live and am actually affected by all the changes.)


This week in stuff I wrote: For The Hindu's food pages, on Narnia and Turkish Delight. (My first draft of this piece was all about the politics of Narnia, so I think I'll put that up on my blog.) ** As Aunty Feminist, what to do when your friend dates your ex. **

This week in food and drink: Tried out two new delivery places nearby. One was Twigly, which has an app and seems to deliver all over South Delhi and Gurgaon. Great sandwiches--or sandwich, since we only had the one tuna one. But I think I'll get lunch from there today as well, AND I downloaded the app, so I think Twigly and I have a future together, you guys. Have I met the one (sandwich)? Time will tell.

Also I make it a point to try out every Mexican place nearby just so I can have the PERFECT Mexican. Alas, Pedro's is not perfect. But not bad. Like: passable, but too much capsicum/onion.Twisted Tacos is actually more interesting, especially their Sriracha chicken taco, which I really liked.

This week in stuff other people wrote about me: Got a GREAT blurb for my book from Karthika Nair! Who wrote that magnificent Mahabharata-in-poetry book Until The Lions, which you should read at once if you have not. I'll share the cover with you as soon as I get the go ahead from publishers, but this has really helped increase my anticipation for June.

This week in books and reading: Greatly enjoyed Rick Riordan's Norse demigod series Magnus Chase, and I'm doing a piece on that and the rise and rise of Norse mythology in literature for Scroll next week so I'll save all my Thoughts for that, but you should read them anyway. (Two books.)

Also very much enjoying Behind Bars by Sunetra Choudhury, about how rich and famous prisoners live within the Indian prison system. (I have a thing for prison books: so far I've read about Russia and Indonesia. I think it's the "this could happen to anyone" feeling of dread you get when you read ghost stories also.)

This week in shopping... sort of: The Rural Women's Fair was on at Pragati Maidan and literally no one went because the people who brought them here forgot to advertise. So for two weeks, they sat in glum air conditioned comfort and had zero visitors. What's worse is that while their stay and transport was taken care of, they didn't have a food allowance, so they had to start spending out of their own pocket, or so they told my mother when she visited.

She took me back the next day, and I think since it was the last weekend it was on, the organisers must have advertised somewhere because there was a fair crowd. Not as huge as normally on a Sunday, but not the worst. I bought lots of things for low low prices, but mostly all food and food related: kokum, banana chips, chilli powder, pickle, and a millet upma mix, of which I can report that the pickle and the banana chips are excellent and I think I fucked up the upma a little by not putting in enough water, because it didn't taste very nice. Also a new wooden dosa spatula, and a clay Dutch oven for my OTG, since the other Dutch oven I have won't go in. Oh and a 25 paisa coin pendant, which is quite pretty. I wish I'd known about it last week to give you all a heads up, but sadly, we only found out just now.

Side note: clay stuff is EVERYWHERE. Just bought a terracotta tava from a roadside vendor too. Here's an article on why we're returning to our granny's


Monday lunch reads: For Charlotte Bronte's 201st birthday, here have my Twitter thread on Jane Eyre and also a list of things you never knew about the Brontes. ** 245 foreigners dead in Goa for the last 12 years. HT is following up on a Guardian story here I think, but it's good that local media is taking notice. ** Zadie Smith on the art of the craft. ** The white woman who wrote a memoir on being black. ** Riddles about gender bias. ** Meta: the rise of the newsletter. ** Surprising cat facts. ** Finding non-veg in Gujarat. ** Why BookmyBai stopped sending maids to celebrities + why you should consider doing more things with your hands if you want India to get ahead. **

Until next time,
Yours truly,
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 (and other things) author of five books (suppport me by buying a book!) and general city-potter-er.

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