Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: Is Comfortwear All About Slouchy Elegance?

Cozycore’s Formula of Comfortwear With cozycore officially anointed as trend of the season, where does that leave the woman on the street? They tell me cozycore is having a moment now. Of course, this less-than-stylish meld of comfortwear and style has been spotted on celebs everywhere for at least three years now. Think track…

Book review: Trick by Domenico Starnone

A battle of wits A battle of wits between a grandfather and his four- year- old grandson is at the heart of the deceptively simple premise of Domenico Starnone’s latest book ‘Trick.’ Witty, observant and melancholy by turns, it is a deftly layered book, a wonderful read. One of Italy’s most accomplished writers and the…

Travel: To Sakleshpur in a camper

We are off to Sakleshpur by the Hemavati river, in a camper, all set to have much fun. Chandrakanth R, CEO of Camper Trails, gently warns us that it might be a bumpy ride to Sakleshpur. The vehicle, he points out, was made for American roads. He adds comfortingly, “We have added leaf springs…

Book review: Paradise Towers by Shweta Bachchan-Nanda

Not so towering A close look at people living out their less- than- celebrated lives in a Mumbai apartment block. We`ve had a rash of celebs turning authors, with Twinkle Khanna in the vanguard and others like Rishi Kapoor, Karan Johar, Soha Ali Khan, and now Shweta Bachchan Nanda, following in her wake. Let…

Book review: Jahangir by Parvati Sharma

Jahangir by Parvati Sharma. Juggernaut Books. The king known to history students and history buffs more for being indolent, over-fond of his drink, an emperor who avoided military campaigns, a vicious, even capricious man, becomes a very interesting figure in this book. Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir. The fourth of the six Great Mughals. An inveterate chronicler…

Book review: The Town That Laughed by Manu Bhattathiri

THE TOWN THAT LAUGHED, ALEPH BOOK COMPANY. Manu Bhattathiri`s debut novel is so steeped in a kind of malayalitvam, that if you are from God`s Own…., you start to substitute Malayalam words for English ones, as you read! People remembered the times when unemployment was quite a pleasure. The times when young men woke up…

Travel: Travel Travails

Who wants my passport? Or why anyone who wants to break the travel jinx must travel more. Put simply, something not-so-good happens on every trip I take abroad, which quickly turns the vacation into a not-so-good trip. It took a while for me to see the pattern; now I brace myself for the jinx. Circa…

Book review: Eating Wasps by Anita Nair

Heartbreak Hotel All the goings-on in Anita Nair`s new book Eating Wasps is situated in a riverside resort in Kerala, and the reader will find the state arches over the story with its topography in all shades of green, its pazham poris/idiyappams/ela adas, its people with and without pathras, the last loosely translated as…

Book review: Left From the Nameless Shop by Adithi Rao

Heart-warming tales of small-town life These are stories suffused with nostalgia for a quieter way of life. Lives intersect in manifold ways in Adithi Rao’s debut book of short stories, lives lived in the fictional small town of Rudrapura in Karnataka. And a leitmotif runs all through the narrative: a sense of nostalgia for a…

Feature: The Kanjeevaram Sari

FABRIC OF INDIA / THE SOUTH INDIA EDIT The Body and Soul of the Kanjeevaram Sari What’s changing, what never will, and why the Kanjeevaram is a power weave Sabita Radhakrishna has worked with textiles for well over 30 years now. An active member of the Crafts Council of India, she was senior consultant for…