Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Transgenders
Enjoyed writing this piece. Thanks to the Mad Men of Chennai who helped me with this: Venkat, Sunil, Ranvir. Mucho Gracias! A space for gender-bending realities Most sexual minorities yearn for normalcy. Talk to them and they all wish for a family The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Posted: Thu, Aug 23 2012. 9:50 PM IST A beautiful young woman in a pink sari is admiring herself in the mirror. Her name is Deepika and she has been a woman for four years. Before that she was a man. Now, she is part of Chennai’s growing community of transgender women [...]
On Wisdom
This one is for you, Ma. And thanks, Sujata, for sending out the study. Intelligence versus wisdom, and humility comes out on top Shoba Narayan Aug 21, 2012 Does intelligence have anything to do with happiness? Or is it that more elusive quality - wisdom - that is more beneficial? A recent research paper, A Route to Well-being: Intelligence vs Wise-Reasoning, suggests that wisdom offers a better route to happiness - the authors call it "well-being" - than standard IQ does. In the paper, published in the Journal for Experimental Psychology, a team of researchers measure wisdom - "pragmatic reasoning", [...]
Cow Chronicles Final Post
Cow chronicles: a civil ceremony Mercenary dairy farmers have an inherent aversion to ill-treating these animals because they have been raised to think of the cow as the ultimate mother: “Go-matha” The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Posted: Fri, Jul 13 2012. 10:59 PM IST Milking a cow isn’t easy. I have tried. Cows kick novices. First you squat, then you massage its teats for a while, till it lets down the milk. Murrah buffaloes from Haryana, prize for their high-fat milk, are harder to milk because they are moodier animals. Amateurs can massage the teats of a Murrah [...]
On turning Forty: for Vogue
On turning forty Vogue Page 1 Vogue Page 2
Radio New Zealand
Two months ago, I did the second show of Radio New Zealand. But forgot to put it here on the website. Tomorrow, we are taping the third show. You can listen to it here Shoba Narayan on Radio New Zealand
Olympics and Art
London's soaring Orbit is impressive - but is it really art? Shoba Narayan Aug 9, 2012 Save this article Depending on who you ask, the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the 115-metre-tall public art project standing in the middle of London's Olympic Village, is either a vertical icon or a massive eyesore. Since it was unveiled in May, the combined sculpture and observation tower has been received with a number of mixed, but mostly negative, reviews. Bloomberg columnist James Russell called it a "£22.7 million image of industrial apocalypse" with "menacing tentacles … It will wow you even as you wonder how they [...]
TVS Family
An intimate profile of one of the matriarchs of India's most distinguished families.
ArcelorMittal Orbit: The sprinter and the marathon man: for Mint Lounge
The sprinter and the marathon man The ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit’ is a flight of fancy that arose from a fit of bravado - a product of using time and circumstance wisely The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Posted: Fri, Jul 20 2012. 1:15 AM IST Its genesis is serendipitous enough to be the stuff of Shakespearean farce. London’s motormouth mayor Boris Johnson runs into steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal in a cloakroom during the 2009 World Economic Forum. Johnson corners Mittal, whom he is meeting for the first time, and describes his plan for a giant erection at the centre of the [...]
Shazia Mirza
Mirza takes on all the taboos about Islam and flips them around as jokes. She tells us what we are thinking, with a punchline
What after you have seen 1,000 moons? for Mint Lounge
What after you have seen 1,000 moons? Life for many of us is not about artistic genius or business impact. It is about small pleasures, rich relationships and the ability to make peace with your soul The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Posted: Fri, Aug 17 2012. 8:32 PM IST In the last six months, I have participated in five sathabhishekams-as 80th birthdays are called in my community. Milestone events help you mark time and take stock. For the Hindu 80th birthday, the date is usually fixed after the person has seen 1000 full-moons. Both my father and father-in-law celebrated [...]