humour - Comfortably Numb

Humour: Husband`s Nite

A night for the hubby The night itself was balmy, stars twinkling in the sky and a cool breeze blowing. The shamiana in the Officer’s Mess was all lit up, the army wives, dressed in dazzling finery, were lined up to receive the officers. The men walked up the drive, talking in deliberately hearty tones,…

Humour: Her Kampf

Her Kampf The great author was having a book reading. The great author looked a bit tired but clear-eyed. His wife sat by him, playing protector-comforter-guardian angel to perfection. She liked what she saw, a huge crowd hanging onto her husband’s august words. The great author started reading from his new book in his characteristic…

Humour: On book launches

Oh, the book launch! Does anyone remember those wine and cheese evenings of another age, usually thrown by the fashion designer du jour at a five or seven-star hotel? The lights blazed down from Murano chandeliers, you sipped indifferent wine masquerading as full-blooded Shiraz, you nibbled cheese lumps juxtaposed with strange veggies, you made meaningless…

Humour: Travelling with the Paleface

Brownfaces amongst palefaces beside the Tiber Being an Indian in a coach full of foreigners in Italy has its advantages and disadvantages, discovers Sheila Kumar To be fair, we had insisted that we tour foreign parts, as it were, with anyone but Indians. Don’t get me wrong, I am as fond of my fellow Indian…

Feature: Jaipur Lit Fest Sidelights

Jaipur Literature Festival: Can you repeat the answer, please? One quick question. Who was the rock star of the LitFest? ‘Twas Vikram Seth. Behaving like a distracted, sometimes dithering Oxford don, he launched on chatty monologues, read poetry in truly divine fashion, had the audience at ‘hello.’ Then he took one look at the snaking…

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…

Humour: He snores, she suffers

He snores, she suffers Who suffers more, the snorer or his spouse? SHEILA KUMAR delves into this debate Did you, perceptive reader, notice how the male of the species has been singled out in the blurb accompanying this article? Before a PIL is filed against this writer by irate (snoring and non-snoring) men, I have to…

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…

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…

Humour: What do women want?

What do women want? Back in the old days, it used to be far easier. The relationship between the sexes was one-dimensional, contained no surprises. Men were men, macho, less than refined, not in the least sensitive and more than a bit chauvinistic. Women, well, always the resigned lot, they just put up with things,…