Life
b. Madras; worked as copy-writer; moved to Ireland with her husband in 1987 and settled in Straffan, Co. Kildare; issued Paddy Indian (2000), published by BlackAmber and dealing with a young doctor working in Ireland; began writing it at Anam Cara when her husband took two weeks off work to enable her to do so; moved to Dublin on her husband’s appointment as vascular surgeon at St. James’s; issued The Uncoupling (2003), a story of marital separation in a mature Indian couple on coach-tour in Europe; currently working on novel about the mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India in 1916.
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Works
Paddy Indian (London: BlackAmber 2001), 250pp.; The Uncoupling (London: BlackAmber 2003), 239pp.
Commentary
Interview, [Shirley Kelly,] ‘Two weeks That Changed My Life’, in Books Ireland (April 2003), p.77: b. Madras; worked as copy-writer; moved to Ireland with her husband settled in Straffan, Co. Kildare; issued Paddy Indian (2000), published by BlackAmber and dealing with a young doctor working in Ireland; began writing it at Anam Cara when her husband took two weeks off work to enable her to do so; moved to Dublin on her husband’s appointment as vascular surgeon at St. James’s; issued The Uncoupling (2003), a story of marital separation in a mature Indian couple on coach-tour in Europe; currently working on novel about the mutiny of the Connaught Rangers in India in 1916. Madhavan was published by BlackAmber, the black and Asian UK publisher, to whom she was introduced by Sue Booth-Forbes, the manager of Anam Cara. (p.77.)
Sue Leonard, review of The Uncoupling (BlackAmber), in Books Ireland (May 2003): tells the story of Janaki, wife of Balu, a husband who assumes superiority; quotes from passage describing the packing for a European adventure [tour]: ‘From this position he was able to mutely claim a helpless inability to fetch anything,while at the same time vociferously exercising his veto over things that she handed to him.’ Plot deals with gradual liberation of Janaki in company with other non-Indian women, and details the passive sex-life of the Indian wife. Leonard calls it ‘a gem of a novel’ and ‘loved peeking into Indian culture’ with more instruction than any documentary. (pp.116-17.)
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