south India - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Feature: The north-south divide

It has taken a good many years spent criss-crossing the north and south of India, for me to come to this conclusion: Kipling got his latitudes mixed up with his longitudes. When he famously remarked that East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, he ought to have laid that sentence…

Feature: Diamonds in the south

The diamond jubilation of South India I am at this high-end wedding (is there really any other kind?) in a temple town near Kochi. It’s a sea of silks, classic Kanjeevarams interspersed with heavily embellished saris. Everyone’s family heirlooms seem to be out on display and this being gold country, the glare of the…

Travel: The Todas of the Nilgiris

Where the buffalo roam I am scanning his face. Hard. Like everyone who is a temporary or permanent resident of the Nilgiri hills, I have heard all about the Todas. That they are a mysterious people, that their origins, obscured by the mists of time, point variously to the Aborigines, the lost tribe…