Features - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Pandemic posts

Tuesday larfs… or why I shouldn`t read the Live Chats during a Pink Floyd concert. Fan A: Aaaaaaaah. Fan B: Any PF fans from India here? Fan C: Meeeee! Fan D: is this a live concert? Fan E: Bro, how can it be a live concert?…

Guest column: Hikikomori or Modern-day Hermits

Pulling inwards: The modern-day hermits Hikikomori is a severe withdrawal from love, from life, from people. The concepts have come from Japan, wrapped in words, sometimes uplifting, sometimes baneful. There is Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing, an abstraction every bit as delightful as it sounds. There is Kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery by mending…

Guest column: Millennials and their Morals

The morals of the millennial Y`know what? The millennials are doing well. Where there are millennials, there must be Baby Boomers. In fact, a congregation of Baby Boomers, shaking their head censoriously, waggling disparaging fingers, muttering sibilantly and not always below their breath. Just what is bothering all these Boomer uncles and aunties? Many things,…

Feature: Kurtoskalacs, the chimney sweet of Europe

Kurtoskalacs is no longer prepared regularly in homes across Europe. It has become a touristy treat now. Is it doughy cotton candy? Is it a slimmer version of cinnamon bread? Is it heaven in a few bites? Well yes, it is the last, and it`s called kürtőskalács. I saw it all over Budapest but…

Books: Q & A with Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

`My novel explores how a society riven by a seemingly-unending spiral of violence, needs to open up to the stories of its survivors and fold them into its national and social history.` Manreet Sodhi Someshwar`s The Radiance of a Thousand Suns revisits the atrocities faced by the Sikh community, both at the time of…

Feature: The Thorth Turns haute!

The Malayali towel’s 15 minutes of fame. Kerala’s ubiquitous, uber-thin towels get an amazing upgrade, much to the bemusement of Malayalis around the world What can I say? It’s like your old blush-pink velour pyjamas are suddenly trending like mad on every It list. Quintessentially Malayali, the thorth is simple, sans fuss, low-key as hell…

Feature: The biker chick who is not!

The happiness of a long-distance biker Yoga teacher Sangeetha Jairam rides off into the yonder in her spare time. “I’m no biker chick,” Sangeetha Jairam says firmly. “I am more of an adventure-traveller; my motorcycle is something of a companion-teacher, who has taught, and continues to teach me, a lot about life.” Biker chick or…

Feature: The Tea-times of Childhood

Remembrance of teatimes past Looking back at 4 pm food memories It is a truth universally acknowledged, that young persons forced to spend a whole hot and humid month in their `native place,` will be forever restless, forever hungry. Back in the Eighties, our large brood of siblings and cousins were no different when…

Feature: Sourdough, Him and Me

He did, she did In which the writer attends a sourdough workshop and gets into covert competition with a man. Sheila Kumar 8 min read “This is the mother starter,” says Bengaluru-based Sour House’s Selvan Thandapani, who is guiding us through this Introduction to Sourdough workshop. We are five women aspiring sourdough bakers – and one…

Feature: Baking sourdough bread

The sourdough challenge In which the writer attends a sourdough workshop and develops starter-fear. This is the mother starter, pronounces Sourhouse India`s Selvan Thandapani, who is taking the Introduction to Sourdough Workshop for us. His tone is reverential, and we stare in respectful if slightly foggy fashion at the mason jar with a…