Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Review of book
Thank you Kari O' Driscoll for the kind review here Author: Shoba Narayan ISBN: 978-0988415799 Shoba Narayan’s memoir is as much the story of an immigrant to a foreign country as it is the story of how becoming a mother changes one’s perspective in so many unanticipated ways. Shoba was born and raised by a traditional East Indian family who observed their Hindu beliefs closely. While she was encouraged to pursue an education, she was also expected to marry someone her parents chose for her and stay in close proximity to her extended family. Unfortunately for Shoba’s parents, their daughter [...]
Illness
Jackie Colaco sent me this rather useful reply to the below article. Living will is something that I have only recently gotten to know. As for body donation, someone dear to me wants to donate all her organs, but it is hard to formalize anything. One doesn't even know where to start. As it turns out, St. Johns Medical College registers you for organ donation. Interested people may contact Jackie for more details. With her permission, am including her email here: Jacqueline Colaco TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN I , being of sound mind, do hereby declare in the presence [...]
M.S. Subbulakshmi
Listening to M.S.'s Bhaja Govindam as you read this will improve the sensory experience. That-- or Bhavayami Gopala Baalam. Also, Mint has chosen a photo from their files, but below are my favorite MS photos. Also, there was a great photo exhibit in Bangalore's Tasveer Art gallery. It was a foreign photographer...wish I could remember the name. It had a photo of MS standing before Sadasivam relaxing on an easy chair. It conveyed the dynamic of this couple as words cannot. I just loved the photo. God! Wish I could remember the artist. Lastly, great choice of film by Vidya [...]
Wobble Board
I love my Thera-band. I wobble and work. And I admire how Aishwarya Rai has charted her life. When the mind begins to wobble, adjust your balance Shoba Narayan Feb 18, 2013 Bollywood's Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the Indian news media tells us, is training to shed her post-pregnancy weight. Now that her daughter Aaradhya has turned one, Ash, as she is known, is gearing for a comeback. I have a few recommendations for the Indian film beauty (and it's not a new diet or exercise regimen; nothing physical, in fact). What I am recommending has to do with the mind: [...]
Wine and Indian food: for Mint Lounge
I have been house-bound these days and have spent a lot of time boning up on an old pursuit: wine. Reading, talking, listening and sampling. The amount of material available on the Web is phenomenal; and the amount of wine available at my local Madhuloka is....er... pathetic. Thank God for kind friends who raid their duty-free shops en route to me. Here is this week's column in Mint. A wine list for ‘malai kofta’ and fish ‘moily’ It is up to Indians to show the wine world how to pair their wines with our food Shoba Narayan First Published: Thu, [...]
How Bangalore has created Power Partnerships
This weeks Mint Lounge is a quirky take on Power Couples. It includes parent-child partnerships along with the usual spouses one. When my editors told me to write on "Power Couples," I wrote a sneering, snarky one that was (again) at attempt at humor. Thankfully, this meeting happened and I attended. So I asked if I could refile and substitute that one for this. Here is the piece on Mint's website and below. I hope BPAC flourishes.
Valentine’s Day
What are you doing this Valentine's Day? In which the author tackles this question for The National here They've given me a column and apparently, the paper has an illustration of me to accompany my pieces. Sad that I cannot see it here. The National Conversation Comment Connect: Radio: Feed: Sick of Valentine's Day? Try to find a (very) little love in your life Shoba Narayan Feb 8, 2013 My husband has started resenting Valentine's Day. I don't blame him. I, too, feel pressure to perform on this day dedicated to Cupid. Hindi films don't make it any easier with [...]
Profile in Khabar
Longing to Belong By Deepa Padmanaban February 2013 Shoba Narayan is living in India and loving it. Why did Narayan, a successful author who spent some of her “best years” in the United States, go back to her homeland—and what was her life like in this country? She has written about her experiences in a new book that was released in India recently. Another India returnee spoke to Narayan. In her recently released second memoir, Return to India, renowned journalist and author Shoba Narayan poses this question to herself in a Shakespearean fashion, with an immigrant twist: “To be American [...]
Chateau Haut-Brion: for Mint Lounge
How to sell old wine in new bottles Indians like irreverent mavericks. We don’t know what to do with the too-polished ones Shoba Narayan Prince Robert was in Bangalore to showcase Château Haut-Brion. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint. Prince Robert of Luxembourg was in town the other day to suss out the Indian market and showcase the wines of his prestigious estate, Château Haut-Brion. A courtly, elegant man, he was perfectly polite as he talked about his wines and why India was important to them. “We have had more and more visitors to our estate from India,” he said. “It is the No. [...]
r2iclubforums
I have been following r2iclubforums for years and years. I have written about this forum in my book, Return to India. When I posted in the forum recently to publicize my book, the organizers came back to me with a barter arrangement. They would help publicize my book and I would help publicize the forum. There is no legal agreement or fee from either party. It is a shared cause that we both believe in. This made eminent sense because it is both transparent and useful. For anyone who is caught in the r2i dilemma, I highly recommend this forum [...]