Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: On Books and Bangalore

So. What is Bangalore reading? Sheila Kumar sifts through rumours of a tectonic shift in Bengaluru’s reading pattern. In a tweak of the immortal CSNY song, this was a long time coming. My personal wake-up moment came via a twin-pronged route. I was scanning the sell list of a popular buy-and-sell online forum when I…

Book review: The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed

The Painted Word The Book of Golden Leaves by Mirza Waheed. Penguin/Viking Books. In his first book, The Collaborator, Mirza Waheed spun a stunning story, thinly veiled as fiction, of the hapless Valley and its hapless residents. Here, he tells us a tender love story. The serious young man with fine features and a…

Humour: Let`s Face It!

Let’s face it… I really don’t know what the fuss is all about. The pundits, that great faceless anonymous collective, tell us it is akin to opening Pandora’s box. That once you are hooked or wired as the case may be, the disease spreads in great galloping strides. That your ordinary life goes to…

Book review: The Last Wave by Pankaj Sekhsaria

The Last Wave: An Island Novel by Pankaj Sekhsaria (HarperCollins Books). This book meticulously lists the many woes that assail the Andaman Islands, and sadly enough, the list is a long one. Harish Kumar comes to the Andaman Islands to … well, it’s not clear what his purpose is. What he sees, who he meets…

Feature: Ian Fleming`s 007 vs Hollywood`s 007

Ian Fleming would be both shaken and stirred if he met Hollywood`s 007 The name is, of course, Bond, James Bond. And he`s back in the news, what with the next movie (titled `Spectre`) announced, what with the beauteous Monica Belluci as the oldest Bond girl (phew), what with Sania Mirza set to…

Travel: Cologne, Germany

Of spires and cars The brooding spires of the Cologne Cathedral dominate the city as well as the skyline So there we were, in the famous cathedral town of Cologne (or Koln) in Germany. Counting (German) cars! And what were we doing that cool morning? We were counting cars, and fast discovering that sometimes clichés…

Random snapshots

At random……………. Friends Lakshmi Karunakaran and Amandeep Sandhu visit friends in Stuttgart and out comes `an interesting book on Kerala. ` This was sent to me by Amar Kundu who asked if I was franchising my brand equity…! Gender Stereotyping in Writing? Panel at Oxford Book Store comprising Andaleeb Wajid, Shoba Narayan, Radha Thomas Vijaya…

Humour: The PK Chronicles

The PK Chronicles Notes from inside a Bengaluru Passport Kendra. The whole process was now streamlined, they said. It was easy as cream pie, they said. Well, I’d like to meet them, I have some pithy things to say to them. No, I’m not referring to Aamir Khan’s film-with-enigmatic title in my headline….

Travel: Bannerghatta National Park

I am in the Bannerghatta National Park, Bengaluru’s favourite getaway. I have signed on for a Jungle Lodges Resorts (JLR) night-stay package, which includes all safaris and meals. Earlier that day, I had checked in at the JLR camp; 1 and 1/2 kms inside the park, past ponds filled with blooming pink lotuses, huge anthills black…

Travel: The Alhambra Gardens

The Gardens of Heaven If the Alhambra palace in Spain is a beautiful diadem, Sheila Kumar finds the Alhambra Gardens the jewel in this crown Blame it on the window views. Al Capone, Al Pacino and Alhambra…. There I was, taking the tour of the Nasrid Palace in the Alhambra, stopping every few feet…