Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: Siachen`s meter keeps on ticking

Siachen’s meter keeps on ticking It’s another cold grey day. The weather has packed up for over 20 days now, and it doesn’t seem as if the weak sun will break through today. His fibreglass hut (FGH) is comfortingly warm and he doesn’t want to get out of his heavy-duty sleeping bag. But get…

Feature: The Farmhouse, Bangalore

Imagine. Imagine you are motoring through the south of France, wine country. It’s a balmy day, there’s a slight breeze ruffling your hair (you are travelling in an open-top convertible, of course), your camera is going click-click-click. Before you know it, the morning has sped past and there is an ominous rumble in the region…

Feature: Letter To A Father

Letter to a Father The morning post brought little Kelly a letter from her father stationed in an obscure hamlet in the Kashmir valley. As I watched her jump up and down with glee, shrieking “Dadda`s letter, Dadda’s letter,“ I remembered with a sudden pang that that was how I used to react when I…

Travel: Winter in Kashmir

This is a snow song, an ode to the beauty of winter in Kashmir. Nights in white satin and days of shining glory…that is the serene beauty of winter in Gulmarg. The poet who talked of a winter wonderland was quite definitely talking about Gulmarg as far as I am concerned. And yet, in…

Feature: Mani Ratnam, profiled

The friendly neighbourhood storyteller A fat golden orb shoots up from behind some riverside reeds. The first piercing notes of a mellifluous flute rises, in tandem with the sun. Then, there follows a series of images…click, click, click, each one breathtaking in visual simplicity, a collage tracing the life and times of a village belle. …

Feature: Passionate Friendships

A passion called friendship Of late, ‘passionate friendships’ have been much in the news thanks to Pandit Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten, a couple who have had reams of newsprint devoted to their mutual devotion. I read it all, the unending speculation about the exact nature of their relationship, the curious probing into the intimate lives…

Feature: Tribute to Freddie Mercury

Tribute to Freddie M I can just hear it, the Voice From Above crooning softly, questioningly, “Ready, Freddie?“ And down below, on his sick bed, Mercury would…

Feature: Tribute to Delilah

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Feature: A Gift for Amma

A gift for Amma It used to be the easiest thing in the world to buy my grandmother a birthday present. Better still, it used to be a whole lot of fun, involving quite a bit of imaginative thinking and much friendly competition amongst her grandchildren. At 72, she was Everyman`s grandma, petite of frame,…

Feature: My Own Time Capsule

My Own Time Capsule This morning, the first thing I saw when I opened the front door was a solitary hibiscus flower, blood red against a foliage of emerald green leaves. I stood staring for a moment, then shut my eyes. And…