Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: Go Back to Nature!

If you have become too reliant on beauty products, it’s time to stop. First, take a simple test. Are you unable to step out without washing, conditioning and rinsing out your hair, smoothing some shine serum after blow-drying it, and finally, spritzing two stiff shots of hair spray? Does your make-up routine include a…

Book review: I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

The upside of ageing A wry look at what most women don’t want to look at. For all the big name Hollywood hits that she has stacked up after her name, like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “When Harry Met Sally” and “You’ve Got Mail” (not quite in that order), the late Nora Ephron was no mere…

Feature: Chennai`s Home Soirees

Very much at home Chennai’s music lovers are increasingly hosting and attending katcheris at home. It’s a parlour in a spaciously appointed Chennai home but the conventional sofas and chairs have given way to gaddas, bolsters and moodas for those unable to lower themselves onto the white-sheeted mattresses. The sea-facing windows are open and the…

Feature: Are We Seeing A Commitment Crisis?

Are We Seeing A Commitment Crisis? Time was when our elders (and betters, many would have it) just went with the flow of the tide. They would study hard, marry whom their elders told them to, work hard at being good husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. They never paused to examin e the concept…

Book review: The Gold Of Their Regrets by Ravi Shankar Etteth

A crackling good yarn Subhas Chandra Bose in a guest role, Nazi gold, a sprinkling of murders make for a great thriller. First, the good news. This is a crackling good yarn, a murder mystery that moves at a rapid pace, is peopled with ingenious characters and at its centre, holds a story that in…

Feature: Just Believe It!

Just believe it! If faith can move mountains, belief can turn your life around. We Indians inherently believe in belief. So much so, we are forever telling people around us to believe. But how many of us believe in ourselves? In all we can do? In all the good things of life? The power of…

Travel: Singapore`s Orchard Road

POSTCARD FROM SINGAPORE Shop till you drop A ready reckoner for shopping in Orchard Road IT is a lovely long street, dotted with leafy trees, wooden seats at strategic intervals, street stalls selling sumptuous finger food. Once the site of nutmeg and pepper plantations, now Orchard Road is dominated by the many mega malls,…

Travel: Finding Farhan`s fort in Goa

Finding Farhan’s fort A journey across Goa looking for a fort THE sun is beating down relentlessly on us, a quartet of friends who go back a long way. We are rendezvousing in Goa, it’s a reunion of sorts, and at my behest, we are seeking one particular fort. You know, the one where the…

Feature: Are You A Serial Pleaser?

Are you a serial pleaser? Don’t run yourself ragged trying to please everyone. A serial pleaser is someone who is forever trying to keep everyone in his/her circle happy all the time. An exhausting prospect, but you’d be surprised as to how many of us attempt to do just that, sometimes unconsciously. Of course, it…

Humour: A scaly affair

A scaly affair A snake in the house makes for more drama than expected. “Come quickly,“ the household staff telephoned Anthony, and pleaded. “There’s a python in the backyard eating one of our ducks.“ Sure enough, Anthony, hurrying to the yard, saw a magnificent specimen lying in a stupor, its middle swollen with fowl. Snakes…