Kerala - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

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….

Feature: The End Of An Era

Far away in a hill town, strong ties help a family continue a legacy of several generations. He was a self-made man, a flinty kind of man, given more to fits of rage than much smiling. But he had foresight, lots of it. Chancing upon large tracts of untouched land in a southern corner of…

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…