Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES by Hiro Arikawa. Penguin Books. For someone who doesn`t have a cat at home — or outside — I have an inordinate interest in them, fascinated by their self-containment, their attitude and their activities. So of course I had to pick up the 2017 bestseller that, just as the title says,…

Book review: Why Don`t You Write Something I Might Read by Suresh Menon

Why Don`t You Write Something I Might Read? By Suresh Menon. Westland Context. There are two important reasons you should get this book asap and settle in for a jolly good read. One, it`s a Westland book, so, show them some book-love. Two, Suresh Menon is a gifted writer, as those of us who have…

Book review: Names of the Women by Jeet Thayil

Names of the Women by Jeet Thayil, Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House UK. Thayil`s book is an interesting round-up of the forgotten women who formed the cohort that marched up the Mount of Calvary with the Christ and later, sat on vigil under the Cross he was nailed to, long after his disciples had fled…

Book review: The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy by Kafeel Khan

Lessons From a Crisis Consider this: the disbursement of funds under any budget follows a sequence. In Uttar Pradesh, it was as follows. The Finance Minister allotted the budget to the Medical Education department. The Principal Secretary of Medical Education sent it to the Director General of Medical Education. It was then sent to the…

Guest column: The Covid fear factor

The Afraid vs the Unafraid Since the past two years, ever since the pestilence hit, society has divided itself sharply into the Afraid vs the Unafraid. One or the other invariably takes centre-stage at different times. Let`s take the first lot first. Whatever they believe, do, ingest/absorb/practice, it`s all driven by their intimations of mortality,…

Photo Feature: Kashmir through my father`s eyes

Kashmir through my father’s camera lens. He was an army engineer and carried his Adox camera around with him on all his postings, the result of which are albums full of wonderful b/w pics. (All photographs are the property of Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright)

Feature: Into the feminiverse, women in Kdramas

Into the feminiverse Given that most of the hit Korean dramas (Kdramas) are written by women, the feminist gaze trained on both characters and stories comes as no surprise I began to watch Kdramas just this January. Fifty-six Kdramas down, my one major takeaway is that it`s a world full of women. Sweet women, nasty…

Opinion: Confused and confounded

Confused and confounded The new year has slunk in, bringing fresh tumult and trauma in its wake. And the one prevailing emotion across the world at this moment in time is confusion. Utter, total, complete confusion. What`s more, Omicron is where the confusion buck stops. When the Covid-19 pestilence first hit us, we were undoubtedly…

Book review: This Life at Play by Girish Karnad

This Life At Play, the English translation of Karnad`s Aadaadtha Aayushya, translated from Kannada by Girish Karnad and Srinath Perur (HarperCollins Books), gives readers a clear glimpse of a man of formidable intellect, a man who wrote plays that were sheer genius (some of them at least), a good actor, a very good writer, and…

Opinion: 21 Things that Got Me Good and Mad in 2021

Twenty-one things that got me good and mad in 2021 The anti-conversion Bill, with its implicit threat to religious freedoms, looking for passage in the Karnataka Assembly, on the ominous lines of similar laws passed in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Consistent spurts of vandalism in places of worship, usually of the minority…