Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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…

Book review: A Death in Shonagachchi by Rijula Das

Murder and murk in the City of Joy With such a straightforward title, what the reader expects is a Shonagachchi crime, and that is indeed what the reader gets. To unravel the backstory to the deed, we are taken to South Asia`s largest red-light district, with all its murk, heartbreak, violence, and unexpected pockets of…

Feature: Best Fiction of 2021

LISTICLE: BEST OF 2021 FICTION The year had its fair share of good, even very good fiction, with historical fiction gaining a slight edge over the others. These are the books that made an impression on my twin avatars of reviewer and reader. The Heart Asks Pleasure First. Karuna Ezara Parikh, in her remarkable debut…

Book review: Ancient India, Culture of Contradictions by Upinder Singh

In what is easily one of the best non-fiction works to release this year, Upinder Singh’s Ancient India is aimed at a reading audience with an interest in history, the curiosity to compare ancient and modern, or to just read more about India’s backstories. It throws a clear light on its point of focus: the…

Book review: Orienting, an Indian in japan by Pallavi Aiyar

Nippon under the lens Pallavi Aiyar, peripatetic traveller and charming chronicler of Things She Sees, delivers once again. Orienting is her Japan book, a montage she has collated for the edification of her readers, culled from her experiences in that country. It`s an easy read, filled with gently offered insights, where the things to be…

Book review: The House Next to the Factory by Sonal Kohli

The lives of others It`s a quiet gaze that is turned on the tales in The House Next To The Factory. This book of short stories is author Sonal Kohli’s debut and it`s an assured debut. Set in Delhi, spanning timelines between 1980 and 2010, the stories are inter-linked, with some characters in one story…

Opinion: Is suppression of memories the best way to move on?

Is suppression of memories the best way to move on? The other day, I read an article that made me sit up startled. It was written by a neuroscientist and the topic was how to cleanse one`s mind of all past-thought baggage. To cut to the chase, this neuroscientist felt that that best way to…

Guest column: A day in the life

A day in the life of a troll Morning: Woke up at 11 am, totally exhausted. Busy night, sending short, pithy missives to various offenders across the country. So okay, the tweets were all off a set format but let me tell you, it still calls for some effort to key the message out and…