Comfortably Numb

Travel: Paris: Mogan, Montmartre, Madhu and Montparnasse

Madhu, Mogan and Montparnasse Sheila Kumar gets a rather unusual perspective on Paris, The City of Lights. Mogan Sue, Madhu and me meet Mogan-from- Tiruchirapally) one autumn evening in the foyer of our hotel, the Hotel Montmartrois in Paris. After Mogan spooks us with a slew of warnings about “being careful,” he insists…

Feature: Terrors of the Dark

At night the mind takes stock of all that one has or has not done, and fears and worries creep in. It’s obviously a throwback to the days of our ancestors.When it became dark, they built robust fires to warm themselves, as also to keep wild animals at bay. These fires, I am certain, kept their…

Travel: Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh

Once a Gond kingdom, there’s more to Jabalpur than the world-famous Marble Rocks. One of Jabalpur’s claims to fame is that it dates back to the upper Jurassic period. The other famous aspect of this town in Madhya Pradesh is the Marble Rocks, located at Bedaghat, about 23 km away. At Beraghat, the deep green…

Humour: Pillar to post

Sometimes, even awkward situations can take a funny turn, if turned the right way. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing them at the O’Hare airport in Chicago. They were her former husband, his new wife and their newly-born son. Not that she was in Chicago on pleasure; she was there to hand over her daughter…

Humour: Mona in Khajuraho

Note: Mona was a flaky character I created in the pre-digital age and she used to appear in a lot of my DH Middles. Discovery of India Sometimes you can travel to places and return, without really having seen anything. My friend Mona had just returned from a trip to the fabled temples of Khajuraho….

Feature: Who`s Afraid of Ayn Rand?

In the cult novelist/philosopher’s centenary year, SHEILA KUMAR looks at life after the Howard Roark effect. No one talks about the Howard Roark effect anymore. It seems to have got lost in the melee of MMS scandals, political intrigues, the advent of multiplex cinemas, rocking malls and the debate on whether Kolkata is dying, Mumbai…

Travel: Andamans after the tsunami

Just ten days before the sea surged over the Andamans, I was holidaying on its white-sanded beaches… Christmas time is when people flock to the Andamans. That is also when the tidal waves hit in 2004, marauding the Andaman and savaging the Nicobar islands. Since D-day which was Christmas day, over 70 tremors have rocked…

Feature: We Who Watched Swades

We the viewers I WATCHED Ashutosh Gowariker’s ode to social service, “Swades” with a sinking heart. Oh, I liked the film, flawed though it was. In what is getting to be a Gowariker trait, it was a simple story told at its own pace. The humour was so gentle that it appeared positively fragile at…

Feature: Whither Next, Neo?

Whither next, Neo? We seem to be a nation of Neos, all battling an ancient Matrix. But do we know just what we are doing, asks SHEILA KUMAR. The UK-based theatre person Mahabano Kotwal put it best when she recently said: India is opening her legs even as she closes her mind. We are living in confused…

Feature: It Takes a Village

It takes a village An education camp held in a remote hamlet of Uttarakhand dispelled some long-held notions about people and about education. In India, the dispensation outlining a Rs. 40,000-crore programme for primary education was concomitant with the United Nations urging governments around the world to spend around six to eight billion US$ (Rs….