Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: Orienting, an Indian in japan by Pallavi Aiyar

Nippon under the lens  Pallavi Aiyar,  peripatetic traveller and charming chronicler of Things She Sees, delivers once again. Orienting is her Japan book, a montage she has collated for the edification of her readers, culled from her experiences in that country. It`s an easy read, filled with gently offered insights, where the things to be…

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Book review: Jakarta Tails by Pallavi Aiyar

Feline fables Soyabean and Tofu, the feline fascinators we last met in Beijing, have relocated to Jakarta now It`s no use me telling you about Soyabean and Tofu`s adventures in Jakarta without filling you a bit on their origin story. The two felines,  Soyabean who rejoices in a deep orange colour and Tofu who is…

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Book review: Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar

This is more a brief take than review. Chinese Whiskers (Harper Collins) is not a new book. Dated 2010,  it follows Smoke and Mirrors, author  Pallavi Aiyar`s excellent dispatches from China.  Chinese Whiskers is a charming tale of two  Beijing  cats,  the gorgeous Soyabean and his slightly scruffy companion Tofu, who go to live with…

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Book excerpt: Smoke and Mirrors, an Experience of China by Pallavi Aiyar

  The author is walking around the Potala with an interpreter from the Chinese ministry. A Danish journalist starts to ask the latter questions about Tibet. The woman is upset. The author tells her that in India, people often disagree with each other on a topic and that’s okay.“But in China, it’s different,“ says the…

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Book review: Punjabi Parmesan by Pallavi Aiyar

In Punjabi Parmesan, author Pallavi Aiyar trains her incisive gaze on the European Union. If her China book, Smoke and Mirrors, was at times an amused, indulgent look at the Middle Kingdom, here the EU is placed on a cold metal tray to be scanned by a dispassionate, measuring eye. The picture that emerges is not a grand one. This…

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