Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Travel: The places and pottery connect

As I pottered about A milk jug, a saucer, ordinary pieces of earthenware but each carrying the memory of a place visited, a friendship made….. Each piece of pottery is an interesting chip in the mosaic of my travel history. I’ve been at it for so many peripatetic years now it no longer…

Humour: Is my obsession with martial arts movies normal?

My Unladylike Obsession With Martial Arts Films I don`t know if I can call myself a man`s woman, but I can safely say I’m ladylike, for the most part. I mean, I’m quite typically feminine in my appearance; I love fripperies and fuchsia lipstick; I can giggle with the best of…

Book review: Upon An Old Wall, Dreaming by Ruskin Bond

A way of life long gone A set of hill stories from the prolific Bond that rues the passing of a gentler age. I will confess to it: late in life, I have become a full-fledged Bond girl. Oh, not the dashing 007, the other one, Ruskin. Therefore, reviewing this book was an activity filled…

Travel: The Lantau Buddha

When big really is beautiful Lantau Island A trip to gaze at the Lantau Buddha You glimpse him from a fair distance away. It`s a hazy day and on high in the cable car coming up from the Ngong Ping 360 cable car station, the first sighting of the seated figure, majestic in its very…

Book review: Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor

A wave of emotions An interesting debut from a promising new writer. Kanishk Tharoor`s intriguingly titled book is a slim volume consisting of a dozen short stories. These stories span continents, oceans, they go underwater at times, they swim among the stars at other times, and once, even descend into the hellish…

Book review: The Private Life of Mrs Sharma by Ratika Kapur

Storm in a teacup Once in a while, along comes a book written at the cusp of imagination and craft. This slim volume that released a few months ago, tells a compellingly ordinary story and tells it in style. The protagonist is a middle-aged housewife running to a little fat, going about her everyday life:…

Book excerpt: Idle Thoughts of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K Jerome

An excerpt: Women are terribly vain. So are children, particularly children. One of them, at this very moment, is hammering upon my legs. She wants to know what I think of her new shoes. Candidly, I don`t think much of them. They lack symmetry and curve, and possess an indescribable appearance of lumpiness (I believe…

Book review: Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

Life in servitude It has to be said: this book has two immediate hooks. One is the gorgeous Modigliani nude sprawled on the cover, making for a sumptuous book jacket, one that instantly impels you to pick the book up. The other is the opening line, where it says “Once upon a time, before…

Book review: Alphabet Soup for Lovers by Anita Nair

As light as soufflé Anita Nair ventures back into feminine territory with a love story set in the hills. After venturing out to sea with the tale of a Somalian trader with a jewelled eye, as well as introducing us to the very interesting Inspector Gowda, Anita Nair goes back into what is essentially…

Feature: Charlie Chaplin, A Tribute

Make like the Tramp! One could do worse than adopt a Chaplinesque outlook to life. Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, better known as Charlie Chaplin, entertainer exemplaire, would be 127 years on April 16, 2016, if he still lived. But the character Chaplin created and the world took to its heart, the Tramp, continues to entertain,…