Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Guest column: Prisoners of the Algorithm

Prisoners of the Algorithm A quick question: What`s to stop us even as we hurtle to hell with our fingers poised to click? The answer is: nothing but our self-control/willpower/ self-discipline. And if you are rolling your eyes at that answer, well, so am I. I came deliberately late to two docudramas fast acquiring cult…

Book review: Girl in White Cotton by Avni Doshi

Of mothers and daughters A troubled and troubling look at this primary relationship gone awry. There`s a whole pantheon of literature on the topic of troubled mother-daughter relationships which features works like Nancy Friday`s My Mother, Myself, Christina Crawford`s ` Mommie Dearest, Alice Sebold`s The Almost Moon, Sarah Haywood`s Cactus, Jodi Picoult`s Leaving Time, Maya…

Book review: Coming Out As Dalit by Yashica Dutt

COMING OUT AS DALIT by Yashica Dutt, Aleph Books. I have just one word to describe this book: eviscerating. Dutt`s account of going through her early life hiding the fact that she belonged to the Bhangi caste, adopting a non-specific surname like Dutt, learning to quickly cover any traceable trace of her origins with a…

Photo Feature: The Buddha, Hereabouts

Of calm composure, soothing serenity and peaceful placidity: The Enlightened One in our subcontinent…and a bit farther north! All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright. The Holy Feet in Dambulla, Sri Lanka. Related Links: Travel: Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh Photo Feature: China Chronicles Travel: The Lantau Buddha Travel: Dambulla Caves, Sri Lanka Travel:…

Travel: SwaSwara 2.0 in Gokarna

The jewel in Gokarna`s crown SwaSwara in Gokarna, is a wonderful way to run away from the pandemic for a while. It`s been an open secret for ages now: SwaSwara, the CGHEarth property in Karnataka`s coastal town of Gokarna, is quite the gold standard for Ayurvedic resorts. Now, the wildly popular resort has revamped itself…

Book review: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Barack Obama`s A PROMISED LAND is a terrific read, all 700 pages of the text, with some terrific photographs tucked away at the end of the tome. The point is, the 44th President of the United States is one heck of a writer. Written in a very reader-friendly style, the prose practically soaring when he…

Guest column: Stardust on the console table

Stardust on the console table I read about the Khans, Shah Rukh and Gauri, entering into a collab with Airbnb, to throw open the doors of their Delhi house to all and sundry. All and sundry of the paying population, of course, and the partnership begins with winners of a contest being selected…

Book review: Blood Brothers by Chandini Santosh

Blood Brothers, A Story of Separation and Loss by Chandini Santosh. Dhauli Books. Chandini Santosh takes up the twin strands of a little village by a river and of the communal politics ravaging it, entwines the two, and offers up a compelling story that warms the cockles of your heart even as it fills you…

Book review: Girls and the City by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

Revenge of the city A romance, some sleaze and a deluge impact the lives of three girls in Bangalore. Manreet Sodhi Someshwar puts her character development skills up front in this story of how three women, from Unnao/ Mumbai/Chandigarh, try to hack a living in Bangalore. By the time the racy, pacy tale winds down…

Book review: Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane

Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane. Granta Books/2003 release. A history of a fascination, the tagline reads and indeed, the redoubtable Macfarlane demystifies much of the intrinsic, intense, often fatal, fascination that mountains hold for human beings. The most poignant part of this wonderful book for me, was Macfarlane`s recounting of the legend of…