Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Bombay Balchao by Jane Borges

BOMBAY BALCHAO by JANE BORGES, Tranquebar Books. Bombay Balchao is rather akin to that tangy relish Goans are so justifiably proud of, the balchao. The interlinked shorts in the book are slice- of- life stories of a section of society with surnames like D`Lima, da Cunha, Crasto, Ferreira, Coutinho, Mascarenhas, Pinto, Gomes; a mix of…

Guest column: Worrywarts or neurotics?

Worrywarts or neurotics, the jury is still out There is absolutely no shame in admitting that the pestiferous pestilence has brought us to our knees, felled some of us, left us bewildered, flailing and crushed under the weight of our helplessness. One side effect is this state of mind the experts are calling `worried wellness.`…

Book review: Cari Mora by Thomas Harris

Thomas Harris might have risen to cult figure status with his maniacal creation Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs, and fallen low when giving Dr Lector a noble backstory in Hannibal, but that`s another story. It was Harris` Red Dragon that I found a terrifying but compelling read. I recall my hands…

Feature: If She`s Malayali, She Loves Gold!

Gold is a Malayali woman’s BFF. But don’t be misled into thinking it’s just an expensive indulgence. The latest scandal down south involves the state of Kerala, a woman named Swapna Suresh and 30kgs of smuggled gold. Not surprisingly, the incident has led to snide comments yet again on Kerala’s gold-love. Actually, we need to…

Feature: Where have all the editors gone?

Where have (all) the editors gone? First a hark-back, to Delhi, circa the late Nineties. At a dinner, I found myself on the receiving end of some trenchant criticism regarding the many errors that appeared daily in the newspaper I worked for, arguably the country`s largest- selling daily. I smartly lobbed the criticism over to…

Guest column: If we must travel…

Even as we clip our wings and stay hunkered down, our imagination is already soaring. In the proofreading manual we editors turn to, we have a term called `stet,` which mean to let things stand, to ignore any attempt to make a change. That stet is what I am afraid of when it comes time…

Photo Feature: Into the Blue

Into the blue: the lovely waterbodies of New Zealand All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright. Lake Te Anau in the inland fjords is a study in cerulean blue. All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright. Related Links: Travel: Seven Things to Marvel at in…

Photo Feature: Bewitching Budapest

Bewitching Budapest All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright. Budapest, comprising the twin cities of Buda and Pest, neatly cut by the River Danube, is simply spectacular. All photos by Sheila Kumar and are subject to copyright. Related Links: Photo Feature: Paths in the Kumaon foothills Photo Feature: China chronicles…

Travel: Palakkad`s agraharams

A Way of Life in Palakkad Huge banyan and peepal trees, rows of close-set, small, tiled houses, a pair of temples on either side of the village, women drawing kolams (rangolis) in front of their houses at dawn, the strains of nadaswaram music from the temples – these are sights and sounds particular to the agraharams of Palakkad, villages, which still…

Book review: In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne

Meanwhile, migrants elsewhere….. In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne, Hachette India. 2018 release. So, in a dreary London Council estate, there lives a set of young people, Selvon, Yusuf and Ardan, `those with elsewhere in their blood,` whose people have come over from places like the West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland. They…