Comfortably Numb - Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Book review: The First House by Avni Doshi

Falling apart Avni Doshi`s debut work, `Burnt Sugar,` was a reflective look at family relationships, specifically the relationship between a woman and her daughter. This book, her second novel, is another look through the slightly fogged-up window of a family home, to the persistent accompaniment of cicadas in the garden vegetation, and a slightly creepy…

Book review: The View from Here, edited by Githa Hariharan and K. Satchidanandan

Singing in dark times Each story and poem in this anthology works as both a snapshot and a time capsule of a particular part of India. The editors, Githa Hariharan and K. Satchidanandan, have selected the short stories as well as the poems from the respected literary journal Guftugu, and the accounts adroitly entwine the…

Opinion: On friendships of the Reel and Real kind

Would you opt for a Reel over a Real friendship? I`m just coming off a fortnight of real-life friendship, a reunion of our college girl gang from way back in Chennai nee Madras. Back then, we were a near inseparable trio. After the college years gave over, we kept in touch, sending congratulations and commiserations…

Book review: Soul Climate by Ines Baranay

A soul connection If, like this reviewer, you are not too familiar with the work of the late Turkish writer, activist and Member of Parliament Halide Edib Adivar, this book by Ines Baranay will make you seek Halide`s books out. At a time when the ties between India and Turkiye have frayed, Baranay has explored the connection between the two, through Halide’s visit…

Book review: Under Water by Tara Menon

Remembrance of loss Tara Menon`s debut work is a neat example of tightly controlled story-telling, where as much simmers below the surface as it does, if you will excuse the pun, above sea level. We watch the protagonist Marissa wandering aimlessly through the streets of downtown NYC on a day of impending disaster, when a…

Travel: Guimaraes, where the Medieval meets the Modern

Where Medieval meets modern As the Indian traveller looks to holiday in a relatively safe Europe this summer, Guimaraes in Portugal would be a good pick. The pretty little Medieval town, a landlocked area some 65 kms inland of Porto, has been named the Green Capital of Europe for 2026, for its commitment to…

Book review: The Saree Eternal by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri

Deconstructing the drape In this Essential India monograph from Aleph Books, former diplomat Lakshmi Murdershwar Puri looks at saris and their genealogy. Choosing the personal route, Puri invites readers to step up to her almirah of saris and proceeds to give the backstory to each drape. The sari is the oldest surviving garment in the…

Book review: This is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Dangerous aspirations The focal point of the story is deceptively simple in its linked concepts: greed, overarching ambition, not knowing `one`s place` in life (Pakistani society, in this particular case), the courage required to step out of line, and the inevitable nemesis that comes to those who do step out of line. The one major…

Book review: The Only City, Bombay in Eighteen Stories, edited by Anindita Ghose

Bombay stories This anthology joins the canon of other books on ‘the only city’ as Khushwant Singh once called Bombay. Edited by Anindita Ghose, it has contributions by a diverse and exciting mix of writers, names well known and relatively unknown to readers. We see the city — challenging, impersonal, complex, careworn, unforgiving, complicated —…

Feature: The flamenco disapora

The gypsy`s India connect The Roma gypsies, who have a strong India connect, are largely reviled even as their music and dance is revered I’m sitting inside a small cave high up in a barrio (district) in the Sacromonte hills of Granada in Spain, which has willy-nilly been home to marginalised groups like the Romani…