Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Humour: My life as a romance writer

My Long and Winding Road to Writing a Mills & Boon-Style Romance The romance bug bit me when I was in class eight and it bit hard. I became addicted to Mills and Boons. Back then only M&Bs qualified as true-blue romances. Oh, there was Barbara Cartland, but no self-respecting girl would admit to…

Feature: Andaleeb Wajid and Kite Strings

There is nothing overly sentimental about this girl’s life. This is the young writer Andaleeb Wajid’s first novel and after you read it, your predominant feeling is that Kite Strings deserves a better editor. Mistakes mark the book, ranging from small typos to glaring grammatical errors but here’s the thing: they…

Book review: Loyal Stalkers by Chhimi Tenduf-La

Observing the undertow These stories zoom in on what lurks just beneath; sometimes it`s sweet, sometimes it`s seedy. Chhimi Tenduf-La follows his well-received books, The Amazing Racist and Panther, with this collection of short stories that strap you into the carousel seat, then takes you on a rapid-paced ride through the suburbs of…

Book review: Granta 138/Journeys

Granta`s offering for the yet-to-arrive winter of 2017, Journeys, juxtaposes a fine set of travel writings with brief succint takes on whether travel writing is dead, by the likes of Ian Jack, Colin Thubron, Pico Iyer, Samanth Subramanian, Geoff Dyer, Mohsin Hamid and co. The writings run the gamut of stories, essays, observations, photographs, the…

Book review: White Magic by Arjun Nath

This is more a brief take than review. White Magic by Arjun Nath. A HarperCollins publication. This book works on many levels. It`s an account of a druggie in rehab, his third or fourth stint. It`s the story of a boy trying to subdue the ever-present rage boiling inside him, a boy who grows up…

Book review: Baaz by Anuja Chauhan

Blue skies, eye candy Anuja Chauhan`s latest offering doesn’t stray too far from her template: feisty heroine, gorgeous hero, as much external conflict as internal (maybe more of the former here, given that the backdrop here is the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War), much toe-curling passion, a very interesting gaggle who make up the supporting cast…

Feature: The importance of humour

Laugh your way to joy! As we celebrate World Laughter Day tomorrow, Sheila Kumar explains how humour has indeed become the best panacea of our times Can you do a piece to coincide with World Laughter Day, my editor asks me. Much mystified, I go online to dig up some information about World Laughter Day,…

Book review: Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinsborough

Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes keeps you guessing, and even if you think you know where the story is going, you still want to go down that path,to get there at closure point. Throughout, you relish the mystery and the deliberate holding back of information because you know it’s building up to something big,…

Book review: Adi Parva by Amruta Patil

This is more a brief take than review. Amruta Patil`s marvellous-marvellous-marvellous ADI PARVA is a book I go back to oftentimes. The thought-provoking text and astonishing artwork in this retelling of the Mahabharata meld so seamlessly, so mellifluously, the reader is richly rewarded over and over again. Here, Indra`s ruby-embellished Indrajaal; Ganga entering…

Book review: Bullets and Bylines by Shyam Bhatia

This is more a brief take than review. Bullets and Bylines (Speaking Tiger publications), veteran journalist`s Shyam Bhatia`s accounts from conflict zones, contains one particular story which, for this reader, was worth the price of the book. On a visit to Tehran after Khomeini has consolidated his grip inside the country, Bhatia keeps a low…