Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Singapore coverage
I am competing with svelte models but Singapore's Pardesi Pulse has a piece on the book here.
New York Times contest
This essay launched my food writing career
From New York to Bangalore
Coverage in the New Indian Express here. They all use this same photo!!
How the French do it: for Mint Lounge
To French wine, cheese, bread, but sadly, for a vegetarian-- not French food. Thank you, dear Elisabeth-- our lunches together give me a taste of France right here in Bangalore. How the French do it Provenance, Indian style, is soon becoming a thing of the past Shoba Narayan First Published: Thu, Dec 06 2012. 08 20 PM IST Dessert wines and candy shops, all within walking distance in Paris. Photo: Jorge Royan/Wikimedia Commons RELATED Why don’t we speak in the local tongue? French wine, Indian palate In the words of the daughter-in-law The Itinerant Investor Updated: Thu, Dec 06 2012. 08 [...]
Long-term marriages
I loved writing this column because it reflects my life these days. Are we destined to be curmudgeons? Only if we're lucky Shoba Narayan Dec 5, 2012 'Is this how we'll end up?" I ask my husband. "Is this how old age will be? Bickering and arguing over small things like all the old people do?" Related We are surrounded by the elderly - the apartment complex we live in has a few dozen and over the years, we've got to see them all in action. They throng the cafe that I go to, lured by the free salad [...]
Reviews of Return to India
Thank you, bloggers Book Reviews by DDS So it is safe to say that, no matter who you are and what is your life like, you will be able to relate to this story because at the end of the day this book is about the journey of a young girl to becoming a mother, from seeing the life as a party ground to seeing life as an adult who is responsible for another life. It is all about maturing through the years, adjusting to whatever life has to offer and seeing your priorities change Destination Infinity I feel that [...]
Words
Thank you, Sriram, for the phrases. I wonder who the people in the photo are. My heart beats ‘pada-pada’ Around India, you find duplication of words, from mada-mada in Tamil to balle-balle in Punjabi, as a national trait Shoba Narayan Recently, at a family wedding in Madurai, I listened to a rather mind-bending conversation. It occurred to me that it was a fairly typical conversation in all Tamilian weddings. Let me just recount it for you and then explain context. Here is a typical scene at a Tamil wedding. Everyone is extremely busy, acting extremely busy. This intensifies as it [...]
The pink-skinned banana flower is a luxury for Mint Lounge
The pink-skinned banana flower is a luxury You have to be family to be served banana flower Shoba Narayan Updated: Fri, Nov 23 2012. 05 21 PM IST I am cooking banana flower today. It is a good-looking if shy vegetable, hiding its offerings under pink, smooth skin. Peeling a banana flower requires patience and if you are lucky, community. Joint families are best for this vegetable because it invites sitting around and gossiping. Women in the proverbial ancestral home will sit on the ground in a circle and painstakingly remove the kallan or stigma along with the pink outer skin. The next [...]
What’s your writing routine
I love Brainpickings. Friends frequently forward stuff to me and many times, it is essays from that site. Today, my friend, Sriram, sent me this link from Brainpickings about writers' routine. When I read and re-read The Paris Review interviews, usually when I need discipline or inspiration, I almost always turn to the writing routine section. This piece has it all in one place. Save it and read it when the writing muse sags.
Social media for The National
How did you spend your Sunday? How much time were you on your computer? Like I am now. Did you talk to people? Or did you type at them? It bothers me. Plugged in and 'alone together', conversation is a chore Shoba Narayan On hot summer afternoons, when the dragonflies wilt and sweat glistens like dew on brown skin, young Indian girls gather in villages and towns to play indoor games. They sit on cool mud floors and play “seven stones,” a game in which one pebble is thrown in the air and the other stones picked up in sequence [...]