Features - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: The flamenco disapora

The gypsy`s India connect The Roma gypsies, who have a strong India connect, are largely reviled even as their music and dance is revered I’m sitting inside a small cave high up in a barrio (district) in the Sacromonte hills of Granada in Spain, which has willy-nilly been home to marginalised groups like the Romani…

Opinion: A little superstition to make the medicine go down?

Just a little superstition? I have to start with a disclaimer: I am not superstitious. When a black cat crosses my path, I just call out, here kitty, kitty. When the salt shaker slips from my grasp spilling the white stuff everywhere, I just grin sheepishly. When I burned the sleeve of a blouse I…

Opinion: So You Think You Are An Empath?

In this epoch of information overload, we watch a thousand crises unfold every day, where the sacred mixes with the profane at top speed, where the latest war updates are followed in quick succession by clips on how to wear a mekhela chador the proper way, how to make naan on an overturned tawa, what…

Opinion: Life`s too short to waste on bad books!

Even as the world is slowly but steadily disintegrating around us, we turn to our personal cope strategies just to survive each day. Me, I turn to books, try to lose myself in that world of make-believe. But of late, I seem to have lost all desire to plough through books that do not hold,…

Opinion: It`s OK to goof off once in a while

Back in the day, goofing off was when you had your make or break Math exam the next morning. You stared at your `rough` book, you stared at the pile of question papers from previous years, and then you went off to make yourself a snack to have with a can of Coke. Tidy up…

Not quite haiku, not quite senryu…

I was requested to write a piece by the editors of PRERNA, the annual magazine brought out by the Shri Ram College of Commerce`s National Service Scheme.The topic was Life in Progress: From an Anxious Generation. I started off writing an essay on this wired and already weary lot of Gen Z youngsters made famous…

Down Nostalgia Road……

The pile of books to read for review grows bigger, and keeping pace with that is the slightly smaller pile of books to read for pleasure. Last week, I decided I need to clean my palate, books-wise. And so I went back to three all-time favourite authors: Alistair Maclean, Georgette Heyer and Frank Richards. Between…

Opinion: Is all staring offensive?

To stare or not to stare Let me start with a confession. I`m a starer. Put it down to my Malayali genes. For those who are not Mallu or have no Mallu friends (really?): the state of Kerala wins all staring contests hands down. This is no mean feat in a country that stares. We…

Feature: Theyyam: of the people, for the people

Dancing with fire and spirits The human aspects of the mystic ritual are fascinating, heartwarming It`s still dark at 4.20 am and the crowds are slowly building. The atmosphere is akin to a carnival, underpinned by stalls selling plastic toys and hard-boiled eggs. Friends are greeting each other, enquiring after Shantechi, and why Jibin hasn’t…

Opinion: A manifesto for manifesting things

Long before it became a big thing on TikTok and other socials, the art of manifesting was much beloved of life coaches across the world. Over a decade ago, a close friend would keep urging me to close my eyes and manifest whatever it was that I needed `the universe to do,` assuring me it…