Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

The Wellness Column: Surviving Summer

Lighten up this summer! Summer has begun with a bang and the mercury has begun to soar. But you can survive the heat with just a few simple tips. Weather-wise, the best does not lie in the sweltering months before us. The basic survival mantra is: lightly does it. Here are some ways you can…

Feature: The Shyam Ahuja Interview

A man with designs Fifty years ago, Shyam Ahuja launched his brand of dhurries. He talks about what his plans are and why quality is more important than price. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Shyam Ahuja was the first and last name in floor decor. This was the man who reinvented…

Book review: Land Where I Flee by Prajwal Parajuly

Reunion rites In his second book, this time a full-fledged novel, acclaimed author Prajwal Parajuly brings to readers the tale of a family reunion with all the pleasant and less than pleasant emotions attendant on such events. Land Where I Flee is peopled by the dysfunctional family of Chitralekha Nepauney, Aamaa to her not too…

Feature: On Gastropubs

Pub it in style A tour of the metros for the gastropub experience. Time was when people would head out to a restaurant, order masala dosas, wash it down with mosambi juice and call it an evening well spent. Then food acquired some frills and furbelows. Basic fare became stylish, the side dishes acquired a personality, and…

Feature: India Breaks Into A Dance!

So we think we can dance She’s doing the bachata gracefully, torso twisting with every nimble move. Suddenly, she segues into a merengue, her mauve-coloured frilly skirt twirling in counter-rhythm. The audience can’t take its eyes off her, the judges are trying their best to look impassive but their eyes give them away. When the…

Feature: The Amy Chua Interview

‘Insecurity is a prime motivator’ What is The Triple Package that leads to success? Amy Chua has the answer in her latest book. In The Triple Package, Chua and her husband Jed Rubenfeld, both Yale law professors, lay out the premise that three specific traits — a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control — lie behind…

Feature: On Heroes

Heroes & villains Have we become a jaded nation, suspicious of placing role models on pedestals? Or, are we making heroes out of nonentities? I’m conducting an experiment. I start with my neighbourhood, then move in concentric circles to the world at large. This experiment consists of one question I ask the people I…

Travel: Nubra Valley, Ladakh

Nightfall in Nubra Nestled between tall mountains with pristine blue rivers flowing in its lap, Nubra Valley is home to nature in its purest form. Sheila Kumar heads north of Leh to marvel at the delights the valley has to offer It is the twilight hour and the gloaming lights up the Nubra Valley…

Book review: Colour of Gold by Gita Aravamudan

Sepia shot with gold Nostalgia weaves a soft and gauzy curtain through Gita Aravamudan’s second work of fiction, Colour of Gold. The story moves between the KGF that was: bustling, thriving, happy even if fraught with all the dangers attendant on mines and mining, and the KGF that now stands a pale shadow of its…

Book review: The Hundred Names of Darkness by Nilanjana Roy

Survival strategies The Hundred Names of Darkness, writer Nilanjana Roy’s second book in the cat series, makes a pitch for animals and humans to live peacefully together. Any sequel to a critically acclaimed novel comes with its own baggage, but Nilanjana Roy manages to manoeuvre her way through the inevitable obstacle path of expectations, to…