Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway. Penguin Books. Hemingway wrote this classic a little over seven decades ago. I first read it a little over four decades ago. Now, thanks to my book club, I did a re-read, and OMG, was blown away – again – by the powerful story. For those…

Book review: Teen Couple Have Fun Outdoors

TEEN COUPLE HAVE FUN OUTDOORS by Aravind Jayan. Serpent`s Tail Books. September 2022 release. Think Holden Caulfield. Think a slightly older Holden Caulfield transplanted to Trivandrum, living in a regular middle class locality with his father, mother and elder brother. Then, one not-so-fine day, said brother Sreenath`s sex tape with his girlfriend Anita goes viral….

Book review: Wayel Kati by Linthoi Chanu

Guardians of the realm First the good news. The story of the Divine Scissors of Justice, Wayel Kati, is a composite of various folk tales from Manipur that combines all the hero/villain/monsters/protectors/desecrators tropes, and produces a very interesting tale. The list of protagonists is headed by Atingkok, the Father God in the form of an…

Book review: Soft Animal by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

Love in the time of lockdown Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan spins a most readable tale of how a woman in her late thirties, married to Mukund, who seems to be quite a nice guy, jobless and facing an endless number of lockdown days back when Covid-19 raged, is forced to take a close, grim look at…

Book review: Digesting India by Zac O`Yeah

When food and literature mix….. Travel-writer Zac O`Yeah has travelled the length and breadth of India, stopping for double breakfasts, a handful of lunches, many a bottle of stuff that ranges from grog to branded liquor at many a pub or what passes for a pub in the hinterlands, as well as several dinners, all…

Column: On the Sanitisation of Well-loved Books

Throwing the baby out with the bathwater I recently watched Roger Waters, former Pink Floyd songwriter and bassist, the man who wrote the most scathing lyrics that shone a spotlight on war, violence, twisted men and women, twisted politics, defending himself against charges of anti-Semitism. After I intently searched Waters` monologue for any signs of…

Book review: The Amur River by Colin Thubron

The Amur River by Colin Thubron. Penguin Random House Books. Yet another wonderful travelogue by veteran travel writer Colin Thubron, the wow factor in this work is two-pronged. One of course, is his travel trajectory, the long and winding River Amur that flows between China and Russia. The other is the jaw-dropping fact that…

Book review: The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane. Penguin Books. Yet another classic I have come late to, this part travelogue, part meditation on life is a classic from a master writer. The book celebrates the act of walking down old paths, tracks, holloways, drove roads, water paths, across the British Isles, with detours in Ramallah and…

Book review: The Last Courtesan by Manish Gaekwad

This woman`s life It cannot be the easiest of things, to write your mother`s memoir. All the more when your mother happened to be India`s last tawaif or courtesan. Manish Gaekwad, though, has turned a steady gaze on his mother`s colourful life and written up the account with unflinching honesty. Ultimately, what comes through is…

Book review: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Breaking the curse Best-selling author Dr Abraham Verghese has delivered an epic work of fiction spanning several generations, with his new book The Covenant of Water. The book is a veritable tome spanning 724 pages, the act of reading which is quite an immersive experience. Readers are pulled into the liquid depths of the tale…