Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Opinion: Do You Have A Special Friend?

I`m a big believer in that special friendship between a man and a woman who might or might not be connected to each other by ties of blood but are very definitely connected by ties of the emotional kind. This is a relationship forged over time, where they`ve seen each other through times thick and…

Book review: The Many Lives of Syeda X by Neha Dixit

Living under the radar Veteran journalist, prize-winning `shoe-leather` writer of many articles which have caught the startled attention of the authorities and the public alike, Neha Dixit`s first book is everything one would expect from her: an excellent piece of reportage. There is no soft immersion involved here. We are almost immediately introduced to the…

Book review: There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

One drop of water to bind them all One single drop of water. It falls from the sky onto Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king. From then on, it alters its structure but not its DNA, and enters the system of the other main characters: King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums, that self-taught genius who grows…

Book review: A Wonderland of Words by Shashi Tharoor

The tagline reads: Around the world in 101 essays. These essays are an `expanded and augmented` version of Shashi Tharoor`s `World of Words` column in the Khaleej Times wherein he parses the meaning of many an English word, a term, a concept, indeed of a fast evolving language itself. Stray thought: this is just the…

Book review: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote. Penguin Modern Classics. My Book Club`s choice for the month had me re-read `In Cold Blood,` this tour de force account of a gruesome set of murders committed in 1959, in Holcomb, agrarian Kansas. The facts, for those who wouldn`t know, are as follows. Two drifters, Smith and Hancock,…

Column: From Austria without much love

From Austria, without much love The first indication that things were going to go off the beaten track came while I was prepping for a trip to Austria. I`d asked my TA to find me a day trip to Hallstatt, the postcard-pretty Alpine village. My TA, bless her, got to work but kept reporting that…

Photo feature: By the Sea in Cornwall

All photographs copyrighted to Sheila Kumar.

Book review: Do Not Ask The River Her Name

Far away in Jerusalem…. Sheela Tomy, in her second book, the evocatively named Do Not Ask The River Her Name, has moved from the hilly tracts of Kerala all the way over to Israel but the story keeps its roots firmly planted in the land of coconuts. The book`s protagonist is Ruth from Kollam, who…

Book review: Hurda by Atharva Pandit

Murders most foul Ever so often there is distressing news of girls found dead in small-town India. It follows a set pattern. The reports almost always say that the cause of death is yet to be established; it could be due to suicide, murder or an accident. Places that the urban dweller pays scant attention…

Book review: Like Being Alive Twice by Dharini Bhaskar

Love in dark times This inter-religious love story set in a dystopian unnamed nation packs quite a punch. It is an intense exploration of what it means to love in a fractured world. Priyamvada (Poppy) and Tariq are in love. When we meet them, Tariq intends to propose, and Poppy intends to say yes. In…