Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The Town That Laughed by Manu Bhattathiri

THE TOWN THAT LAUGHED, ALEPH BOOK COMPANY. Manu Bhattathiri`s debut novel is so steeped in a kind of malayalitvam, that if you are from God`s Own…., you start to substitute Malayalam words for English ones, as you read! People remembered the times when unemployment was quite a pleasure. The times when young men woke up…

Travel: Travel Travails

Who wants my passport? Or why anyone who wants to break the travel jinx must travel more. Put simply, something not-so-good happens on every trip I take abroad, which quickly turns the vacation into a not-so-good trip. It took a while for me to see the pattern; now I brace myself for the jinx. Circa…

Book review: Eating Wasps by Anita Nair

Heartbreak Hotel All the goings-on in Anita Nair`s new book Eating Wasps is situated in a riverside resort in Kerala, and the reader will find the state arches over the story with its topography in all shades of green, its pazham poris/idiyappams/ela adas, its people with and without pathras, the last loosely translated as…

Book review: Left From the Nameless Shop by Adithi Rao

Heart-warming tales of small-town life These are stories suffused with nostalgia for a quieter way of life. Lives intersect in manifold ways in Adithi Rao’s debut book of short stories, lives lived in the fictional small town of Rudrapura in Karnataka. And a leitmotif runs all through the narrative: a sense of nostalgia for a…

Feature: The Kanjeevaram Sari

FABRIC OF INDIA / THE SOUTH INDIA EDIT The Body and Soul of the Kanjeevaram Sari What’s changing, what never will, and why the Kanjeevaram is a power weave Sabita Radhakrishna has worked with textiles for well over 30 years now. An active member of the Crafts Council of India, she was senior consultant for…

Book review: The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony

I did this the wrong way around. I read An Elephant in my Kitchen by Françoise Malby-Anthony first. Less than a quarter of the way into that book, we read about the death of Francoise’s amazing husband, the south African conservationists legend Lawrence Anthony. Françoise tells us how the herd of elephants Lawrence had saved…

Feature: Down with Brown!

Fashion in Dune, Tan, Walnut, Cinnamon? No, Thank You I`m anti-brown. Not where terra firma is concerned. Not in furniture, though brown sofas invariably give me a nagging headache. Not on footwear and handbags, though I did bin my LV Neverfull tote for a Michael Kors bag the colour of blood on the dance floor….

Travel: Thotlakonda, Andhra Pradesh

History on a hill Thotlakonda in Andhra Pradesh is today a hazy hark-back to its glorious Buddhist traditions It’s a hot day, a very hot day in fact. The sun glares down mercilessly and I`m glad of the foresight to have carried a hat. There is a strong breeze blowing, though, carrying…

Book review: Where the Indus is Young by Dervla Murphy

I agree that this book was written back when times were less complicated, when people generally minded their own business and didn’t waste time or energy in trolling others. However. Where the Indus is Young is Dervla Murphy`s 1977 account of three months spent in the wilderness of Baltistan, living the rough life, subsisting on apricots…

Feature: In conversation with Andaleeb Wajid

‘I write constantly, consistently’: Andaleeb Wajid Andaleeb Wajid is a household name in Bengaluru, with a large oeuvre —18 novels and counting — that spans genres like Young Adult, romance, sci-fi and horror. Recently, a couple of her books have been optioned by film production houses. Wajid started off with slice-of-life stories about…