Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
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 [...]
Board Games
The board game theory of life India is the birthplace of many modern board games Shoba Narayan First Published: Fri, Jan 25 2013. 06 51 PM IST A watercolour painting of Shiv and Parvati playing chaupar. It is a simple game involving five pebbles of medium size. We called it Anchangal (five stones), but it could well have been played with 10 or 11 stones. It took a little practice and there was scope for improvement. You started by throwing one pebble up in the air and picked up another pebble while it fell. Then you graduated to picking up [...]
The great bubbly paradox: how to choose Champagne: for Mint Lounge
A piece about my favorite beverage. I have been trying to write columns without using the letter "I" in it, as a kind of New Year resolution. This was very hard with this piece because my instinct was to begin the piece by saying, "I love champagne. I can drink it with lunch and at night." But I changed it to "What's not to love?" in the third person. The great bubbly paradox How to choose your champagne and savour it Shoba Narayan First Published: Fri, Jan 18 2013. 06 07 PM IST The Dom Pérignon Power of Creation event [...]
Selling on Gumroad
A friend told me about this website that allows writers to sell directly without middlemen. What this means is that if you buy my book for $10, I will get about $9 instead of the $5 or so that other sites give. So if you'd like to buy my book from Gumroad, please click on the link below and it will take you there. Return to India: a memoir
Gifting
A long time ago, my mother brought me some rasam. The scenario described below was acted out, except that I was the one talking about knee pain, and why make rasam. And my mother was the one saying those words. Similarly, years ago, my mother in law was insisting that I buy a sari in Nalli Silks, Chennai. Again, I was refusing like the son-in-law in the scene below. I think gift registrys take the joy out of giving. They sacrifice emotion for efficiency. Indian weddings don't have gift registrys but here too, we get the same one-horned rhino or [...]
RIP dear Light of our current lives
Very busy Sunday-- writing and rewriting this piece in between hospital visits-- don't ask. At first, I included her name in the article. As my editor said, what's the point of asking them to name a law after her if we can't mention her name. My husband read this piece pre-publication and suggested that it wasn't a good idea. So removed. A light leads the way forward from India's crisis of conscience Shoba Narayan Jan 7, 2013 What would Delhi's "braveheart" have wanted? This is a question that faces India in the aftermath of the brutal rape of a student on [...]
New Year Resolutions
January 3, 2013 New Year Resolutions: 1. To write a bit everyday on this page. 2. To develop self-control, particularly when it comes to the uncontrollable urge to scarf down potato chips at midnight. 3. To attempt humor-- carry over from last year's resolution 4. To be disciplined which includes walking for an hour everyday, doing 100 burpees, running barefoot in the park while pondering Kant's philosophy, and coming up with life-changing ideas and thoughts. 5. To develop realistic resolutions rather than ones such as the above which I have no hope of keeping.