Sheila Kumar - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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…

Travel: Singapore`s Botanical Gardens

In search of the baobab Chasing a childhood chimera, Sheila Kumar walks through Singapore’s beautiful Botanical Gardens I blame it all on Antoine de St Exupery and his “The Little Prince.” Ever since I read that classic, I’ve been wanting to see a baobab tree. And when someone I met at Singapore’s Tony Tanglin Club…

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,…

Feature: That Room Of Our Own

Virginia Woolf revisited For all the much-vaunted freedoms, Indian women are still seeking their niche. In the autumn of 1928, Virginia Woolf delivered an essay full of thought-provoking, even groundbreaking ideas underpinned with wry humour, to the students of the Girton College for Women at Oxford. It was a rambling discourse but it was by…

Feature: Pets are Fantastic Destressers

Pets keep you perpetually sorted out! Pets are the ultimate destressers. There can be no argument about the fact that pets are great company, wonderful partners in fun and grateful recipients of your affection. A lesser-known fact is that pets play a central role in the state of your wellbeing and help you keep stress…

Travel: The journey back home

The journey back home When a professional assignment turned personal Photo: Anil Kumar Ezhuthachan/Palakkad Trails. As assignments went, it was a fairly routine one. I was doing the area map-makers termed South Malabar, comprising Palakkad, Guruvayoor, Trichur and thereabouts, for a travel book. The idea at HQ was to send people to cover areas they…

Feature: Indiranagar re-invented

Indiranagar re-invented Yesterday’s wilderness is today’s haute haunt. A look at the area’s changing face. It happened so fast that residents of Indiranagar still haven’t had time to come to terms with what’s hit them. Some are agape with delight, others with dismay. From a sleepy tree-lined locality that attracted more…

Travel: Andaman Islands

Paradise islands More than a year after the tsunami, the Andaman and Nicobar islands are seeing a new rush of visitors. Sheila Kumar is among them The tsunami of December 2004 savaged the Nicobar Islands, and did not spare the Andamans either. A series of unrelenting tremblers inflicted damage on roads and buildings, submerged lighthouses and…

Travel: Srirangapatna, Karnataka

In Srirangapatna, the evidence of grandeur and past glory is everywhere. Tourists invariably make Srirangapatna a transit stop en route to the Ranganathittu bird sanctuary or as an early stop before Mysore, just 13 km away. That’s good because it enables this quiet little town to retain its air of secluded privacy. But it’s also…