Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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,…

Book review: This Unquiet Land by Barkha Dutt

This Unquiet Land by Barkha Dutt (Aleph Books). The title line says `Stories from India’s fault lines,` and indeed this autobiography from arguably one of the country`s best TV news-journalists, is just that: a klieg light shone on the disquieting things we would rather not dwell too much upon. Dutt…

Book review: The Ever After of Ashwin Rao by Padma Viswanathan

Pain, at a remove A psychologist attempts to tackle the pain of loss through chronicling others` cope strategies. In Canada, almost two decades after the bombing of Air India Flight 182, the trial of the suspects have finally started. Ashwin Rao, a psychologist who trained in Canada, has come back, to attend the trials,…

Book review: Elephant Complex by John Gimlette

Elephant Complex by John Gimlette (Quercus Publishing). This book came out just a few months ago, in the winter of 2015, so I`m not too behind time with the review. However, even if I were, I`d still be writing about it because the book is such a rewarding read. This is travel writing that delves…

Book review: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

How To Tame Your Hawk H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Vintage Books) is an award-winning (the Samuel Johnson prize for nonfiction, the Costa Book of the Year prize) story of healing with a hawk. It is not a new release but it has long transcended the time barrier. It is the kind of…

Humour: That food frisson

That food frisson It’s been a long time coming. Starting out as a troubled eater, when the trestle table turned, it turned with a vengeance. Suddenly I woke up to food. I started to tuck in, I started to write about food and yes, I started to read and watch food stories. Just as it…

Feature: Gargoyles galore!

It’s the good old fear-and-fascination trope. The grotesque gargoyle has come a long way from its plumbing origins to startle people everywhere. These phantasmagorical creatures are something of an obsession with me. Wherever and whenever I come across them, I pull out my camera and get into action. I spend ages closely observing them, walking…

Book review: Asian Absences by Wolfgang Buscher

Some books have the reader hooked by the last line on the first page itself; others grow on the patient reader, gradually but rewardingly. Asian Absences falls between the two stools. The very first essay in this slim travelogue has to do with the journalist/writer/restless traveller Wolfgang Buscher traversing a corner of India, Rajasthan to…