Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: Colour on Your Plate

Bring colour onto your plate Eat at least two servings from each of the four food colour groups every day, advises SHEILA KUMAR. Not many of us can lay claim to being colour conscious when it comes to the food we eat. However, it is vital that we achieve a proper balance of colour in…

Feature: The Eloor Lending Library

Trove of Tomes The Eloor lending library’s bank of books has ensured that Chennai will never be at a loss for words of the printed kind. “If my DVD player works fine, and I have my Eloor membership, its going to be a happy old age for me,” says a scriptwriter for Tamil films, of…

Travel: Dhanaulti, Uttarakhand

Silence of the wildflowers Dhanaulti in the Tehri Garwhal hills is a walker’s paradise This is what my cousin Mallika had to say about Dhanaulti. “I went for a walk. Kept walking towards the horizon. And then, all of sudden, I was at the edge of what seemed an abyss. A deep valley opened…

Feature: Love Yourself

Agreed, we live in an unforgiving age, surrounded by examples of perfection everywhere. People with perfectly worked out bodies, perfectly intelligent minds, perfectly honed talents; the perfect fathers, mothers, spouse, siblings, offspring, friends. However, it’s time you learnt to love yourself warts and all. The truth is nobody is perfect. Nobody. Of course, there…

Feature: On Downscaling

The view from the other side Drawing from personal experience and outside advice, SHEILA KUMAR details the life of a downscaler. Downscaling is when a man or woman decides to downsize their professional life, for a variety of reasons, all hard to contemplate, harder to act on. And, surprise, surprise, downscaling happens to women…

Travel: Stresa, Italy

Sojourn in Stresa Discover a delightful resort town by the splendid Lake Maggiore. Every corner I turn affords me yet another glimpse of the lovely lake, brisk moisture-laden winds playing on its surface. I AM looking at a landscape in blue. In fact, I am in a landscape of blue, the blue used by Tiepolo…

Feature: Embrace Your Imperfections

Embrace your imperfections! Don’t berate yourself endlessly for things that don’t matter in the long run. Learn to accept your flaws and grow to like them instead. Agreed, we live in an unforgiving age, surrounded by examples of perfection everywhere. People with perfectly worked out bodies, perfectly intelligent minds, perfectly honed talents; the perfect fathers,…

Feature: Osteo Alert

Osteo alert! Asians, more particularly women, are susceptible to osteoporosis, according to research. Have you put your osteo-fighters in place? We’ve been noticing them for years, bent old men and women, with gnarled fingers and toes. People who only need to trip to break a bone or two. People who suffer from chronic joint pain. Some…

Travel: Down the Chao Phraya river in Thailand

Online edition of India’s National Newspaper Saturday, Aug 05, 2006 Metro Plus Mangalore Cruising alongside a culture Gliding down the Chao Phraya provides an exotic view of of the many facets of Thai life The river, erstwhile Siam’s bloodline, is unrecognisable by night. In the uncompromising light of day, the water runs a muddy…

Humour: What do women want?

What do women want? Back in the old days, it used to be far easier. The relationship between the sexes was one-dimensional, contained no surprises. Men were men, macho, less than refined, not in the least sensitive and more than a bit chauvinistic. Women, well, always the resigned lot, they just put up with things,…