Jalebi, peda, payasam … stories about temples,

temple prasadams – and much more !

Dear Southerners,

Sweet news! On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, India’s best magazine writer – Bangalore-based Shoba Narayan – will address our club. Topic?  It is about faith and food. Temples and their prasadams– and the magnificent devotional ardour of India’s millions that sustains both.

Her talk will be based on her latest book Food and Faith, A Pilgrim’s Journey through India,  where Shoba discusses not merely temple prasadams, but temple history, myth and legend. She explores India’s heart and mind, and her own quest as a spiritual seeker.

If Shoba Narayan is irresistible as a writer, she is articulate, engaging and engrossing as a speaker. Ask Carnegie Melon university,  a number of American colleges, IIM Bangalore,  the Bangalore International Centre, the Chennai International Centre.

Three years ago Shoba had agreed to address our club during a planned visit to Chennai. But the trip got cancelled because her father fell ill.  During the past year, Covid-19 has kept this inveterate traveller in Bangalore, and Zoom has enabled her rendezvous with Madras South.

The magazine writer

Shoba has written five books and a few hundred articles on travel, food, fashion, family life, lifestyles, music, wine, culture, crafts and nature. Where? In The New York Times, Wall Street Journal,  Time, Newsweek, Atlantic, Gourmet, Travel and Leisure, Food and Wine, Mint, Hindustan Times!  The royalty of journalism in the US and Europe has been eating out of her hand. She has won a James Beard Award for her food writing, several other awards.

She is a splendid and evocative story-teller – whether she writes about the Dalai Lama, Nandan Nilekani, film-maker Shekar Dattatri, potters, weavers and art historians, geisha dancers in Japan, Italian fashion, Chinese food, singers and dancers, her mother or mother-in-law, family reunions on Internet.

I have saved several of Shoba’s articles in my computer, as I have been reluctant to delete such lovely stuff.  Browsing through these articles is always a pleasure. Just as it is to listen to a timeless Lata, Kishore, Asha or Rafi gem, even if one has heard it many times. Some writers excel in description, some in narration, some in dialogue. Shoba is good in all three.

Says a fan “She writes with humor and love on most topics and never puts herself above the character or situation. It is this empathy combined with her inherent humanism that shines through in her writing.

“Shoba sees the universe in a grain of rice and is able to shed light on macro issues through a micro lens. She tackles big subjects through amusing every-day anecdotes.”

Shoba Narayan graduated in psychology at Women’s Christian College, Chennai; studied fine arts at Mount Holyoake College, Massachusetts; and obtained a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, New York. She won a Pulitzer Travelling Fellowship, awarded to the top three at Columbia. Then followed a rich, prolific and many-splendoured career as author and columnist.

In her own words, “I am a feminist who likes men, drinks wine, and wears high heels or lipstick occasionally.”

“I watch birds, bees, butterflies and moths, usually from my balcony.  I’m a birdwatcher, wine-drinker and gadget geek. I would like to retreat to a forest when I retire.”

Her lifelong mission “is to get fit without exercising and lose weight without dieting.”

“What I currently love best is anchoring multi-media projects,’ says Shoba. “I have worked with select brands to create websites that highlight brand values with cultural traditions such as textiles, jewellery, perfumes and crafts.”

Her books

Shoba’s five  books are Monsoon Diary (which alternates autobiography and food between chapters, and includes  21 favourite food recipes);  Katha: tell a story and sell a dream (aimed at business leaders to help them sell their messages and dreams); Return to India (about the eternal dilemma of Indian migrants in the US – whether to stay there or return);  The milk lady of Bangalore (about encounters of the bovine kind, both serious and funny); and most recently, Food and Faith, a Pilgrim’s  Journey through India (referred to earlier in this circular),

Says she about her books,  “I write non-fiction memoirs that are rooted in India, have a touch of humor, and deal with relationships, identity and traditions.”

Her latest book, and her Rotary Club of Madras talk

At our meeting of May 4, Shoba will show us a beautiful audio-visual highlighting several temples and their prasadams described in some detail in the book Food and Faith. (The Ajmer mosque and the Amritsar gurudwara also figured in her pilgrim journey.)

She visited Udupi, Kashi, Ajmer, Palani, Mumbai, Madurai, Jaipur, Goa, Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar, Puri, Kumbh Mela, Patan (in Nepal), Ambalapuzha and Mathura. Tirupathi wasn’t included because it’s already very well-known.

The temple food she describes (some of it with delectable detail and anecdotage)  includes Udupi’s masala dosa; the jalebi and kachori in Kashi; besan ka sheera in Kashi;  peda in Mathura; orange-coloured kesaria bhaat in Ajmer; the panchamritham of Palani; Jewish halwa in Mumbai; sweet pongal, melon rice, tamarind rice and Azhagar kovil dosai in Madurai; bisi bele baath soaked in ghee in Madurai; laddu and rabdi in Jaipur; unni appam in Thiruvananthapuram; dal roti, subzi and kheer in Amritsar; puri, kachoris, samosas, jalebi and lassi at the Kumbh Mela; paal payasam at Ambalapuzha.

Shoba remarks: “Have you heard the sizzle of a jalebi early in the morning? It is the most beautiful sound in the world.” She wouldn’t mind a Kashi-type jalebi-kachori breakfast every day!

She says “I am attracted to the beauty of Hindu rituals, to its pujas, pomp and circumstance. At the same time, I like Christian gospel music, Budhist philosophy, Sufi poetry, Jewish literature, Sikh generosity, Parsi identity. In India, we are lucky enough to be able to experience them all, enjoy them all.”

Southerners – Tuesday March 9, 2021, will be special. Temples, food and Shoba Narayan! A combo you will remember a long long time. See you then!

S R Madhu