Feature - Comfortably Numb

Feature: The Bet Julian Simon Won

Doomsayers and doomslayers On the 25th anniversary of Julian Simon’s famous bet on the future of the planet, a look at the ways in which we see our tomorrow. IN August last year, Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert, laid a bet with John Tierney. Simmons predicted that oil prices will soar into the…

Feature: Tribute to a beloved dog

A pet can be an entertainer and sometimes it can also teach us life’s valuable lessons. We had a Golden Retriever called Boss for seven years — a stunner with his sandy coat, brilliant black eyes and handsome muzzle. However, it was his good humoured demeanour that set him apart from other dogs. Boss didn’t…

Feature: Strengthen Your Bond

Better your bond Getting a romantic relationship to last needs some effort. Here are some tips. Let’s face it. Falling in love is all too easy. Staying in love, however, isn’t. Like all other relationships, a romantic relationship too is vulnerable to the pulls and pressures of day-to-day life. However, if both partners are clear…

Feature: Madras, the Different City

Rocking to a different beat Chennai city is different from all the other metros. This is its strength and it is high time that the difference is celebrated. It could be an apocryphal story but it isn`t. Two young men were `timepassing` in Spencer Plaza on Anna Salai…

Feature: Terrors of the Dark

At night the mind takes stock of all that one has or has not done, and fears and worries creep in. It’s obviously a throwback to the days of our ancestors.When it became dark, they built robust fires to warm themselves, as also to keep wild animals at bay. These fires, I am certain, kept their…

Feature: Who`s Afraid of Ayn Rand?

In the cult novelist/philosopher’s centenary year, SHEILA KUMAR looks at life after the Howard Roark effect. No one talks about the Howard Roark effect anymore. It seems to have got lost in the melee of MMS scandals, political intrigues, the advent of multiplex cinemas, rocking malls and the debate on whether Kolkata is dying, Mumbai…

Feature: We Who Watched Swades

We the viewers I WATCHED Ashutosh Gowariker’s ode to social service, “Swades” with a sinking heart. Oh, I liked the film, flawed though it was. In what is getting to be a Gowariker trait, it was a simple story told at its own pace. The humour was so gentle that it appeared positively fragile at…

Feature: Whither Next, Neo?

Whither next, Neo? We seem to be a nation of Neos, all battling an ancient Matrix. But do we know just what we are doing, asks SHEILA KUMAR. The UK-based theatre person Mahabano Kotwal put it best when she recently said: India is opening her legs even as she closes her mind. We are living in confused…

Feature: It Takes a Village

It takes a village An education camp held in a remote hamlet of Uttarakhand dispelled some long-held notions about people and about education. In India, the dispensation outlining a Rs. 40,000-crore programme for primary education was concomitant with the United Nations urging governments around the world to spend around six to eight billion US$ (Rs….

Feature: A Chance Encounter

One balmy evening by the waterside, Sheila Kumar meets a young woman from another world altogether. Kerala’s backwaters sparkled before us, washed golden in the gloaming. The river was running swift here, at Valiyaparamaba to the far north of the state. Some distance ahead lay my destination, an island hemmed thickly in with palm groves….