Features - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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…

Opinion: A brief meditation on grief

Grief is a many-splendoured thing With all that`s happening around us – war, genocide, displacement, disease – this is as good a time as any to talk about the nature of grief and grieving. Grief, say clinical psychologists, is a universal emotion, a natural response to loss. It hits us in small and big waves,…

Books that Got on my Non-fiction 2024 List

From Phansi Yard, My Year with the Women of Yerawada by Sudha Bharadwaj. Juggernaut Books. An incredibly moving collection of 76 vignettes of women inmates the activist and lawyer met during her stay at Yerawada Jail. These are tales of extreme privation — of 77 women, because we must include the author – written with…

Opinion: Navigating life sans a smartphone

Surving sans a smartphone First, they said keeping your smartphone under your pillow at night carries radiation risks. So, I moved it to a nightstand a little distance away from my bed. Then they said don’t take recourse to the blue light of your smartphone on sleepless nights, so I`d switch on the bedside lamp,…

Opinion: Do You Have A Special Friend?

I`m a big believer in that special friendship between a man and a woman who might or might not be connected to each other by ties of blood but are very definitely connected by ties of the emotional kind. This is a relationship forged over time, where they`ve seen each other through times thick and…

Column: From Austria without much love

From Austria, without much love The first indication that things were going to go off the beaten track came while I was prepping for a trip to Austria. I`d asked my TA to find me a day trip to Hallstatt, the postcard-pretty Alpine village. My TA, bless her, got to work but kept reporting that…

Daunt Books: a treasure trove in Marylebone

Treasure trove This is such a pretty bookshop, it almost diverts attention from the substantial collection of books it holds. Almost. The first Daunt bookstore, situated on a quiet road in Marylebone, a London suburb, was formerly an Edwardian antiquarian bookshop. That ambience has been retained, and translates to a gorgeous oak gallery, old-fashioned skylights…

Column: When enough is enough

Enough, already! Let`s play a quick word game. I`ll throw a word at you, and you make the necessary associations. The word, used as a noun, is: enough. In response, I hear you say: ordinary. Limited. Average, tepid. No more, no less. My turn now. And I`m saying: equanimity. Balance, liberation. Happiness. I`m saying we…

Column: Happy is as happy does

In the pursuit of happiness, being kind is key Could we dwell for a few moments on the concept of happiness, please? Truth to tell, after Pharrell Williams` catchy tune of the same name, we haven’t really paused to think too hard about the state of being happy. Again, truth to tell, we lead uber-hectic…