Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: The Shefalee Vasudev Interview

‘I’m a chronicler, not a groupie’ Shefalee Vasudev’s Powder Room is an honest look at the gloss and the dross in the fashion industry. She talks about why she chose to take the lid off the glamour. Journalist Shefalee Vasudev came to her first book via stints with Cosmopolitan,The Asian Age, anchoring and scripting a Hindi…

Feature: Shinie Antony`s Novels

Weaving strong narrative threads Shinie Antony’s recent releases both deal with bold subjects, vulnerability being the leitmotif in one of them. Exactly three years after her debut novella, Barefoot and Pregnant, we find author Shinie Antony pretty much where we left her last: balanced on the cusp of ordered chaos, taking in all of life’s…

Feature: Are You A Smart Shopper?

Are you a smart shopper? Scoring great stuff at all the sales is only part of the deal. Spending well, and wisely, makes the deal a super one. Sheila Kumar points the way down Shop Street. It’s Sales Time in the city and we are trying our best not to lose our heads, right? We…

Feature: Is Sexual Freedom just a Myth?

Is sexual freedom just a beautiful myth? The Oxford Dictionary refers to sexuality as sexual practice, sexual preference. Sexuality is also an emotion, the condition of being sensual, a way in which we view our bodies. And here’s the truth: all the kaanta lagas of yesterday, the Rakhee Sawants of today, don’t change the fact…

Travel: Mysterious Ireland

ON THE EMERALD ISLE The entrance to the Newgrange chamber and (below) the Round Tower at Glendalough PHOTOS: SHEILA KUMAR This history is mystery! Ireland’s fascinating ancient monuments conceal more than they reveal, says SHEILA KUMAR W e stand before the large mounds containing the monolithic graves of the Bru na Boinne. Up…

Travel: Singapore`s hawker centre food

A culinary carnival A serious but delicious search for the true taste of Singapore I’M in heaven. This is bliss. I have just bitten into a bright green sweet, with coconut shavings scattered atop it. The sweet has released a spurt of cane sugar. Garry, sitting across from me, smiles knowingly. He knows all…

Feature: Memories of Another Bangalore

Have we lost more than we’ve gained? It was a balmy night. Up on the floodlit stage at the Kanteerava Stadium, Biddu Appaiah (he hadn’t dropped his surname then) was belting out some good hard rock. The crowds were giddy with delight, and we were part of that singing, dancing crowd. When the show was…

Travel: Olavipe, Kerala

Backwater idyll They call the homestead Olavipe, `gift of the waves.’ Set in the south of an isle off Kochi, the place is a lotus eater’s delight, says SHEILA KUMAR. FOR a structure supposedly risen from the waves, Olavipe stands rock solid, a sprawling manor in the old Kerala style, naalukettu, tiled roof, fretted gables, stone…

Travel: Ranganathittu, Karnataka

Wingtips on water makes for a lovely picture and that`s what you get at The Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary Once upon a time, there was water aplenty, in and around Bangalore. And where there was water, birding sites came up, with a host of birds big and small: pelicans, herons, black kites, white-breasted kingfishers, red-wattled…

Travel: Tipu`s Fort, Palakkad

Silent sentinel In the heart of Palakkad town sits Tipu’s Fort, a majestic edifice with a chequered past. Sheila Kumar takes a ramble. It is Tipu’s fort but it was built by his father Hyder Ali in 1766. The sizeable fortress is a striking feature of Palakkad town, one which most locals take entirely…