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Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Bimbisar`s Curse by Tanushree Podder

Burden of a king When we first meet the great king of the Magadh Empire, Bimbisar, he is weak and infirm, imprisoned by his son in a cold dark dungeon. As he reflects on the circumstances that brought him to this sorry pass, history unfolds before us. Early on in the narrative, Bimbisar vows to…

Not quite haiku, not quite senryu…

I was requested to write a piece by the editors of PRERNA, the annual magazine brought out by the Shri Ram College of Commerce`s National Service Scheme.The topic was Life in Progress: From an Anxious Generation. I started off writing an essay on this wired and already weary lot of Gen Z youngsters made famous…

Book review: Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer

When silence speaks Pico Iyer`s companion volume to his iconic The Art Of Stillness (2014) is out, titled Learning from Silence, as also Aflame. The second title seems to be derived from a Desert Father (an early Christian hermit) who said, `If you so wish, you can become aflame.` Picking up from where the first…

Book review: Rhapsody Road by Ravi Shankar Etteth

RHAPSODY ROAD Poems by Ravi Shankar Etteth, Om Books. This slim volume of poetry is conclusive proof that the author, who I`ve known since forever, is still one of the most consummate word-wielders that I have read in my long reading life. Rhapsody Road is a slim anthology containing poetry of love, longing, celebration and…

Book review: The Kidnapping of Mark Twain by Anuradha Kumar

The mystery of the missing writer First, the good news. Indian detective fiction is alive, well, and flourishing. Period detective fiction, a sub-genre of the same, has seen some wonderful books being published, the period detail adding a special texture to the whole whodunit genre. The Kidnapping of Mark Twain traverses the same space. Set…

Photo feature: Out and about in Vietnam

All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright.

Book review: Hotel Adventures with the Stars by L. Aruna Dhir

Just finished reading my friend L. Aruna Dhir`s sparkling memoir-of-sorts, HOTEL ADVENTURES WITH THE STARS, Vishwakarma Publications. Dhir has had a long and memorable career, first as a Media Relations officer in the Australian High Commission, then as a hotel PR strategist at some of Delhi`s top-rated hotels, a career which put her straight in…

Book review: Onam in a Nightie by Anjana Menon

A Malayali in lockdown Anjana Menon`s lockdown anecdotes make for a diverting read for Keralites and non-Keralites alike. The author, a media professional, just happens to be in the right place at the right time: Thrissur during a Covid lockdown. To begin with, she isn’t exactly thrilled about lockdown rules, the isolation, the attendant boredom….

Feature: The Book Cupboard

The book cupboard A coming- of- age story featuring the writer and a cupboard. To all intents and purposes, it was an ordinary cupboard. Made of some indeterminate wood, maybe teak, given a light varnish, adorned with an incongruous bright blue doorknob, the cupboard sat in a corner of the formal drawing room in my…

Book review: Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Driori

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 TREES by Jonathan Driori. Illustrations by Lucille Clerc. Laurence King Books. Sometimes I send out for books purely on impulse, entranced by a description, by a jacket photo, by the illustrations. I`ll confess I have regretted the buy only a very few times; the rest of the time, I`ve struck…