Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Humour: A question of pedigree

A question of pedigree He was gifted to us, a week-old bundle of sable brown fur and unfocussed grey eyes. The resident pedigree took one  look at him and a look of sheer horror came into her eyes. Ever since, her only reaction has been a policy of cold ignoring interspersed with occasional snapping. “Definitely traces…

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Humour: The UI goes abroad

    Old Habits?   We’ve all seen the Ugly Indian on his own home turf, says Sheila Kumar. This character takes those characteristics abroad too!                                               CARTOON: OUTLOOKINDIA.COM     Don’t get…

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Humour: After the Jethro Tull concert in Bangalore

                         The visit The ageing rock star smiled. He liked what he saw of the Garden City. Balmy weather, with the plush hotel’s air conditioner taking the biting edge off the heat. Masses of exotic greenery.  Lots of exciting food offered every few minutes by his hospitable hosts. He continued to…

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Humour: Social Media Etiquette

TO `LIKE` OR NOT TO `LIKE`   Sheila Kumar stumbles upon a Word file where the Wired and the Anguished ask,  and Emily Post, a.k.a Em Dot Post, answers.   Q Wassup, Em. I gotta know this: must I click ‘like’ on each and every post a friend puts up, regardless of the fact that…

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Humour: On writing a book

A Suitable Profession   The Book Fair put the idea into Mona’s head. India’s Suitable Boy fuelled the flames. Which is how Mona became a state-of-the-art writer. She acquired a permanent ink smudge on her retrousse nose and tucked a gold-embossed pen behind one shell-shaped ear. The day I went to see her, she was…

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Humour: Yes, this is English, too!

Yes, this is English, too! “In his masterpiece “Leaves of Grass”, Walt Whitman  says: “The English language befriends the grand American expression….it is brawny enough and limber enough and full enough….it is the medium  that shall well nigh express the inexpressible.” One wonders. One really wonders. All the more when one reads sentences that –…

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Humour: Husband`s Nite

A night for the hubby The night itself was balmy, stars twinkling in the sky and a cool breeze blowing. The shamiana in the Officer’s Mess was all lit up, the army wives, dressed in dazzling finery, were lined up to receive the officers. The men walked up the drive, talking in deliberately hearty tones,…

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Humour: Her Kampf

Her Kampf The great author was having a book reading. The great author looked a bit tired but clear-eyed. His wife sat by him, playing protector-comforter-guardian angel to perfection. She liked what she saw, a huge crowd hanging onto her husband’s august words. The great author started reading from his new book in his characteristic…

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Humour: On book launches

Oh, the book launch! Does anyone remember those wine and cheese evenings of another age, usually thrown by the fashion designer du jour at a five or seven-star hotel? The lights blazed down from Murano chandeliers, you sipped indifferent wine masquerading as full-blooded Shiraz, you nibbled cheese lumps juxtaposed with strange veggies, you made meaningless…

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Humour: Travelling with the Paleface

Brownfaces amongst palefaces beside the Tiber Being an Indian in a coach full of foreigners in Italy has its advantages and disadvantages,  discovers Sheila Kumar  To be fair, we had insisted that we tour foreign parts, as it were, with anyone but Indians. Don’t get me wrong, I am as fond of my fellow Indian…

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