Sheila Kumar  

Social Media as Therapist

Alongside the political rants, the generic puppies and kittens pics, the humble-brag travel and acquisition posts, I started to see people posting about intensely personal experiences.

12 Sep 2021

To inconvenience and be inconvenienced

Some years ago, I was sitting next to an Australian tourist in a coach headed to Kovalam. First, they showed a movie, with tinny sound turned up to full volume.

08 Aug 2021

Korea’s intriguing Tamil connect

Apparently there exist more than 500 words in Tamil and Korean, words that not only sound similar but hold similar meanings, too.

26 Jul 2021

Kerala: Patriarchy in the land of matriarchy

Strictly speaking, as pedants will be quick to point out, the system followed by some communities in Kerala is matrilineal, not matriarchal.

03 Jul 2021

Trust, faith and the Coronavirus

The orange-robed man from Haridwar scoffs at allopathic medicos while plugging his own pill to prevent COVID to which the IMA reacts angrily.

18 Jun 2021

The grim and the whimsical exist side by side today

Doomscrolling has now become a compulsive need but there is a frontier against which our grief, in its concentrated or scattered form, crashes and breaks.

28 May 2021

We didn't learn a thing from the way the pestilence treated us

COVID-19 is back with us for a vicious second (or third, or fourth) round, has surged to shocking levels with the peak nowhere in sight and an infrastructure collapse in plain sight.

30 Apr 2021

Time to create a personal Beyul

At this point, if readers have made the Shangri La/Lost Horizon connect, well, huzzah. Like all stuff of legend, the beyul is a place of great beauty, serenity and contentment.

17 Apr 2021

Nostalgia, with a side of wistfulness

Because nostalgia, notwithstanding some things wrought by the relentless march of time, actually works better for us. For me, at least. Let me begin with my workplace.

12 Mar 2021

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