Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Aarushi by Avirook Sen

Lurid book jacket notwithstanding, Avirook Sen`s dissection of the trial of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, following the mysterious murder of their young daughter Aarushi, is an incisive piece of well, reportage. Sen has trimmed virtually all the fat off the bone but what remains still tends to baffle, bemuse, dismay the reader. The real revelation…

Feature: Why Men Don`t Talk About Divorce

Why Men Don`t Talk About Divorce When I told my (male) friend I was writing on men and divorce, he did a double take. “Why?” he asked me tersely. “Why not?” I asked in return. He then took a deep breath and informed me that men don’t like to hear or read about, leave alone…

Feature: Teaching Kids Gandhigiri

Worthwhile lessons Of course, our children know who the Father of the Nation is. Unlike a certain island nation where the school-children fared dismally when it came to an awareness of their country’s history and history-makers, most Indian schoolkids will be able to turn in a fair essay on Bapu, his thoughts, beliefs and deeds….

Travel: Sirince, Turkey

SIRINCE On top of the world Sheila Kumar happens upon Sirince atop a modest-sized mountain in Turkey, and comes away charmed This place was not on my list. I mean the list I drew up before embarking on a trip to Turkey. There was glorious Istanbul, a boat ride on the mesmeric Bosporus, a day…

Feature: The new reader, the new writer

Indian English literature It’s all about the money, stupid. Or is it? Sheila Kumar| Change being a constant, we have been — ad nauseam — told for some time now that this is the post-CB age, the age of the new writer and the new reader. Commercial fiction has won the day, we are told….

Book review: The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman

In his second book, a work of fiction this time, Mark Salzman does not quite pull off the Iron and Silk magic once again but no matter, The Laughing Sutra (1991) is an eminently enjoyable read, a smart blend of fantasy, adventure and Chinese history. It’s a neat tweak of the old Middle Kingdom fable…

Book review: Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman

Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman: This book sure has a lot of qi! This week I went back to a much-loved book, the memoir of a young English teacher`s two-year stint in Changsha, in the Hunan province of China. It was written in the late 80s and went on to become a…

Book review: To the Ends of the Earth by Ranulph Fiennes

Ranulph Fiennes and his amazingly intrepid team became, in 1982, the first to navigate the globe in circumpolar fashion, passing through both ends of the polar axis over land. The book is a fascinating account of this labour of seven years. Funnily enough, the best passage I found was not written by Fiennes himself. It…

Book review: Empire of the Moghul : Traitors in the Shadows by Alex Rutherford

Aurangzeb: zealot or strategist? This is the sixth in the Empire of the Moghul series by Alex Rutherford (the pen name of Diana and Michael Preston) , and for a reviewer newly come to the series, that could have been a disadvantage. However, it is not, simply because Traitors in the Shadows stands alone…

Book review: All That Could Have Been by Mahesh Bhatt with Suhrita Sengupta

The fact that this story is the base for the soon to be released film Hamaari Adhuri Kahaani casts its own shadow, as does the fact that this is supposed to be the love story of Mahesh Bhatt`s parents. Come to think of it, the fact that one part of the duo which has authored…