Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan Livres

'Retellings of the Mahabharata often succumb to the temptation of reversing the gaze and providing a noble patina to their protagonists. Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, though, bravely reimagines the story and the inner life of the fisher-maiden Satyavati before her arrival into the epic, before she changes the future of the Kuru dynasty. Madhavan humanizes Satyavati, and reminds us that the passage through adolescence is in itself a heroic odyssey.' - Karthika Nair Who is Satyavati? Truth-teller. Daughter of water. Child of apsara and king. Cursed from birth. Fish-smell girl. Growing up as a girl in the Vedic age is anything but easy - and even harder for the future Queen of Hastinapur, the kingdom of all kingdoms. She must contend with magic islands, difficult sages, calculating foster parents, sexual awakening and loneliness. Even when she is at the threshold of the capital, King Shantanu, smitten though he is with her, already has a crown prince from his marriage with a goddess. Young Satyavati must walk on thorns to reach her destiny in a world ruled by men.

At twenty-five, life's innumerable entanglements are getting to Arshi. Her blonde American step-mom's trying too hard (she's taken to welcoming guests with a traditional aarti ). The gorgeous guy who has Arshi all flushed and dreamy doesn't seem to be trying at all (he's the Ice Prince who thaws at his own convenience). Her best friend Deeksha's going to be married in a few months (Arshi's still in the process of finding the correct labels for the men in her life). And, her otherwise unruffled, cocktail-concocting flatmate Topsy's getting testier by the day because her conservative family will never approve of the darling guy she's in love with. What's more, there's a cheating ex-boyfriend, a weepy neighbour and a heinous boss who need to be told where to get off. Her head spinning wildly with the sheer gravity of her life's quandaries, Arshi realizes what she needs most now (besides a barrelful of alcohol and some serious post coital cuddling) are just a few epiphanies of the right kind. When it first came out in 2008, You Are Here was a game unexpectedly candid, surprisingly wise, audaciously explicit. Now, ten years and five books later, it has never been out of print, and this anniversary edition is a reminder of how much, and how little, has changed in the life of a single woman in India.

People have been telling their love stories for thousands of years. It is the greatest common human experience. And yet, love stories coach us to believe that love is selective, somehow, that it can be boxed in and easily defined. This is a collection of eleven remarkable essays that widen the frame of reference: transgender romance; body image issues; race relations; disability; polyamory; class differences; queer love; long distance; caste; loneliness; the single life; the bad boy syndrome . . . and so much more. Pieced together with a dash of poetry and a whole lot of love, featuring a multiplicity of voices and a cast of unlikely heroes and heroines, this is a book of essays that show us, with empathy, humour and wisdom, that there is no such thing as the love that dare not speak its name.