Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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…

Book review: The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam

The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam, Fourth Estate/HarperCollins Books. 2017 release. So, this is a story you read at one sitting, with something small and hard lodged at the back of your throat, and be warned, that something never dissolves; not while you are reading the book, not for a while after…

Book review: It`s All In Your Head, M by Manjiri Indurkar

Managing the Black Dog A brave account of struggling with a troubled mind and body. If life sometimes looks to be all uphill, never is this more manifest than in Manjiri Indurkar`s It`s All In Your Head, M. Laid low with a bevy of stomach- related ailments, some of the trouble diagnosed to a rotavirus…

Guest column: You Are The Sky

When an attempt to imbibe serenity brings about more confusion. This is a Covid-19 quarantine story. It dates back to early April, a fortnight or so after we were first initiated into the art of hunkering down at home. This was a time when everyone was sending out helpful and useless tips to each other,…

Photo Feature: Baking Bread

All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright. Baking bread is my happy place, happy activity. It`s my favourite destresser, mood-booster, anger-calmer, emo-pacifier centering activity. Here`s a collection of the breads I bake when I`m happy, when I`m sad, when I`m calm, when I`m stressed, when I`m up, when I`m down. Sourdough 2. …

Book review: Rhododendrons in the Mist by Ruskin Bond

There`s a tale called Panther`s Moon in Ruskin Bond`s book RHODODENDRONS IN THE MIST (Aleph Books/2019 release) a collection of the writer`s favourite tales of the Himalaya. And Panther`s Moon is a classic example of why Bond`s popularity amongst the reading public continues to thrive, to flourish, to attract newer readers. The story puts little…

Travel: Bhoganandeeshwara Temple, Bangalore

A treasure trapped in time The entrance gate is old, time-worn and not the most impressive. You step in and green lawns bask lazily in the early morning sun. There are dogs playing about, a magnificent chameleon perched on a chariot wheel, and a couple of women sweeping the perimeter of the complex. The laburnum…

Sangeetha Shinde Tee talks about The Naked Indian Woman

The naked truth Sangeetha Shinde Tee talks about the journey and purpose of her book, The Naked Indian Woman, and the lifetime that went into the making of it. What set you off on this particular quest? For as long back as I can remember, I have been told to be silent. My parents…