Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: Hair Attack!

Hair Attack! Your hair really is you. So what happens if it is wild and unruly, with a mind of its own? Sheila Kumar takes you through her tress trauma. I watch Madonna with a fixed intensity. I have been doing so for years now. You may think I’m a die-hard fan of the…

Book review: Paresh Maity`s Kerala Book

A radiant light An already lush landscape comes alive under the artistic gaze. Sometimes, one just has to deal in clichés to arrive at the inescapable truth. Here the cliché is a landscape artist taking a trip to the ultimate Eden. Art aficionados worldwide rejoiced at the result of a similar trip Maity made some…

Humour: He snores, she suffers

He snores, she suffers Who suffers more, the snorer or his spouse? SHEILA KUMAR delves into this debate Did you, perceptive reader, notice how the male of the species has been singled out in the blurb accompanying this article? Before a PIL is filed against this writer by irate (snoring and non-snoring) men, I have to…

Travel: The Singapore Flyer

FOOTLOOSE Where eagles dare Watching Singapore go about its daily life from the heady heights of the Flyer is an uplifting experience It is 10.20 a.m. and I’m staring at the Merlion. The creature is framed by fat droplets of rain that is furrowing its way down both sides of the spouting statue….

Feature: Can That One Drink Hurt You?

Can that one drink hurt you? Drinking, even light, social drinking, carries its own baggage. Just as long as you know. The thing is, we have evolved enough not to mistake light drinking for alcoholism. So. What is light drinking? To be exact, it’s having 1.5 ounces of hard alcohol each day, or 5 ounces…

Travel: Udaipur, Rajasthan

Water, water everywhere… Sheila Kumar visits the City Of Lakes It’s a clear and crisp winter day, the third day of my Udaipur stint and I’m back in a boat. In Udaipur, I find, you sit in a boat for quite a long time. No great hardship though, since Pichola, the lake I am…

Travel: Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

Sands of time Time unspools at its own pace in the desert city of Jaisalmer. The sinking sun is a brilliant orb of orangey-red, a tad too brilliant for the last day of 2007. It is also playing out its last moments, squeezing every last drop of drama out of the…

Travel: Guruvayoor, Kerala

Visiting Guruvayoor Riding on the highway to Guruvayoor, 30 km west of Thrissur, signboard after signboard reminds me just how far away I am from the Lord — strictly in terms of physical distance. As I belong to a large clan that has its roots in this temple town, it is with some amount of ownership that I write…

Feature: Listen to the Poet

As new forms of stress keep mutating, it really is time to press the pause button. So. Listen to the poet. Which poet, you ask? Why, the one who asked us to stop and smell the roses. To which, we shrug and say, “All very well, but who has the time?” Or we smile in…

Travel: Kokrebellur, Karnataka

The village of Kokrebellur, near Bangalore, offers an amazing sight in season: clusters of painted storks nestling on treetops. It is nothing short of a miracle, calculated to enchant even the most jaded of city-bred souls. Some 80 kilometres south of Bangalore on the Mysore road, you need to take a turn down what rapidly…