Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Bimbisar`s Curse by Tanushree Podder

Burden of a king When we first meet the great king of the Magadh Empire, Bimbisar, he is weak and infirm, imprisoned by his son in a cold dark dungeon. As he reflects on the circumstances that brought him to this sorry pass, history unfolds before us. Early on in the narrative, Bimbisar vows to…

Book review: Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai

Taking off the halo This autobiography reads like the coming -of- age memoir of just another girl filled with self-doubt, unsure of many things, trying to find her niche in a world far from her comfort zone. It just so happens that the subject and writer is Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a gunman…

Book review: Once Upon a Summer by Manjul Bajaj

Once Upon a Raj time In her fourth book of fiction for adults, Manjul Bajaj has once again created a delicate spindrift of forbidden love, this time in the times of the British Raj. The wonderfully descriptive story moves between New York, Rannpur, Jaunpur, Saharanpur, Nainital, flows gently over every pebble, every path, every emotion…

Book review: Kidnapped by Hezbollah

A brush with danger The tagline of the book reads: A True Story of Travel, Turmoil and Triumph, and pretty much sums up what lies at the heart of the story. This is the true-life account of an Australia-based man of Indian origin. When Kaushik Sridhar decides he needs to visit the war-torn areas of…

Book review: Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya

Charu’s song This sweeping saga combines personal narrative, social history and a fascinating deep dive into how the Indian Railways works. The beating heart of the story, however, is its indomitable main character, Charulata Chitol. The story begins with Charu’s family moving to a railway township, Bhombalpur. Charu’s father works in the Light Machine Shop…

Book review: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

The Booker-25 shortlisted THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY by Kiran Desai, Penguin/Hamish Hamilton Books, is a veritable tome (almost 700 pages) dedicated almost single- mindedly to loneliness and its eviscerating effects, how to survive it, stay afloat, not go under… or get across if one does go under. Written in a melancholy manner, the…

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…

Photo feature: The Azulejo tiles of Portugal

All photographs copyrighted to Sheila Kumar.

Photo feature: Statuary in Portugal

All photographs copyrighted to Sheila Kumar. Related links: Photo feature: Statuary in Austria Photo Feature: Portals in the Angkor temples of Cambodia Photo Feature: Jaipur`s jharokas and more! Photo Feature: Kiwiland Calling!

Book review: Into the Heart of the Himalayas by Jono Lineen

Jono Lineen`s complete travelogue, INTO THE HEART OF THE HIMALAYAS, Speaking Tiger Books, is a lovely read. The author, a curator at the National Museum of Australia, walks across the Himalayas in a bid to come to terms with the sudden unexpected death of a younger brother. This book which was released in 2012,…