Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Travel: The Bosphorus, Turkey

I just can’t help it. As I stand looking at the rippling swath of blue water, a line from an old Hindi film song comes to mind: “…tumsa nahin dekha.” I’m on the European side of Istanbul, staring at the Bosphorus. Over the last four days, I have taken in all of Istanbul’s many delights….

Travel: Bhutan

Kingdom of happiness Every step I take is hard work. My breath has started coming out in gasps. I am more than halfway up a very steep gradient. I just can’t turn back. Is this a time to measure my happiness quotient? Not really. It’s a cool day, mercifully, and the hills that…

Feature: Friendships that fade away

Those fading friendships Even BFFs grow apart, the physical or emotional distance resulting in a split. There is always the olive branch… provided you need one. Let’s begin with a true story. Shylaja and Hajira had been best friends, closerthanthis from the time they both went to the same primary school. They saw each…

Feature: Stress Busters

A lot of bad things that happen to one’s body can be blamed on stress. Tackle stress head on. Stress raises adrenaline levels which boost cytokine levels which, in turn, inflame blood vessels. This makes it easy for cholesterol to clog arteries. You fall ill; gain weight; get depressed. You are perennially stressed. And the…

Feature: Weber : Licensed to grill!

Licensed to grill! When Manu Chandra cooks, the world (happily) eats. And now it transpires that when Manu Chandra talks, the world eagerly listens. And so it was that Weber Grills hit upon a brilliant idea: of having this uber-chef tell people all about the finer points of grilling. Which was how people gathered at…

Travel: Ireland

Demystifying the misty isles of Ireland Ireland makes for the prettiest montage ever, that much is certain. Imagine peaty boglands, still lakes, fields of golden gorse, the enigmatic Round Towers. Cottages with thatched roofs, pubs with parquet floors, wainscoting and old ladies in tweed devouring scones with clotted cream, complete this picture. However, not everything you…

Travel: Kannur, Kerala

A superb coastal gem You have to come see Kannur’s buddhu fish,” the colonel, an old friend, tells me. And I’m hooked. What is life if you haven’t caught a glimpse of buddhu fish, whatever they might be? Which is why and how I find I’m in Kannur, a very tiny strip on the…

Humour: English as she is spoke

We don’t need no vocab! OXFORD BUSTING They speak her funnily in different parts of the world, as Sheila Kumar discovers Let’s face it, the amazing citizens of that amazing country, the US of A, started out tweaking English for pure convenience’s sake. While the purists raised a querulous eyebrow, stiffened their upper lip and bore…

Feature: Privacy in a Marriage: Walking That Thin Line

Marriage: Walking that thin line If marriage is a sacred bond between two people, then just how much of it should leak into what can be termed the public space? Stripped of its inessentials, marriage really is a relationship between two people. They choose each other as life partners; vow to see each other through…

Travel: The gypsies of Granada

A touch of India in Granada I’m sitting in a small cave high up in a barrio in the Sacromonte hills of Granada in Spain. The walls are rough in texture and look white-washed. There are copper and brass utensils hanging from the rafters and on the walls, and they look oh-so-familiar: pots, pans, woks,…