Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Research and Reality
Posted: Fri, Apr 13 2012. 7:51 PM IST Where research ends and reality begins Detachment is an interesting idea. How do you stop yourself from forming bonds of attachment with the people you report on for years? Can you? The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Share on facebookShare on digg In her magnificently reported and lyrically written book, Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars, Sonia Faleiro describes a poignant scene when the heroine, Leela, goes to visit a fellow bar dancer and sex worker, Ameena, in her chawl. Seeking closure: Photographer Steve McCurry’s iconic picture of the Afghan [...]
Khadi: The Freedom Fabric makes a comeback: for The National Abu Dhabi
Khadi 'Freedom fabric' makes a comeback in India At the recent high-profile wedding of the Bollywood stars Genelia D'Souza and Ritish Deshmukh, two outfits that stood out were not made of high-end fabric or Swarovski crystal, but khadi, the Indian handspun and hand-woven cloth, made from cotton, described as "freedom fabric" and popularised by Mahatma Gandhi. The Bollywood stars Kangana Ranaut and Arpita Khan dazzled the paparazzi with their long skirts made of block-printed khadi. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who designed both skirts, is part of a growing number of fashion designers who are helping revive this handspun fabric with its hoary [...]
Sherbets: drinks of an Indian childhood for Mint Lounge
This coming Saturday is Mint Lounge's Summer Special issue. I wrote a column on cooling summer drinks, which, I discovered is already up on the site. So am posting it here. Columns Posted: Thu, Apr 5 2012. 8:12 PM IST The cooling draught There is no better summer drink that the traditional Indian sherbet from your childhood The Good Life | Shoba Narayan When my Chinese room-mate got acne on her face, she ate a porridge made of green mung beans. Soaked mung beans are considered cooling foods in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). They support the yin earth and disperse yang heat. Indian Ayurveda, [...]
Music and Art for Mint Lounge
Tuning in to change 5 min read . Updated: 30 Mar 2012, 09:17 PM IST The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Artist Sudarshan Shetty and I are sitting on the steps of the Pushya Mahal ghat in Thiruvaiyaru town and chatting. The river Cauvery, so resonant to us south Indians, is flowing in front of us. Flowing is an overstatement. There are islands of sand in between large puddles of water. This discernment has percolated down to Srinivasan. I first met her in New York over 10 years ago. She came for [...]
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand and I had fixed up a time for a live-show a few weeks ago. On the appointed day, I miscalculated the time difference. So here I am, in Commercial Street, Bangalore, showing around friends who have just arrived from Singapore. I haven't seen them for years and there is a lot of hugging and "Oh, how much you have grown!" My mobile phone rings and it is Robyn from New Zealand saying, "We are at Skype and you were supposed to. Where are you?" So I sputter that I cannot be at Skype in two minutes and [...]
Other mentions
Art Expo India: where art meets business In an insightful column published a few months ago, The Mint writer Shoba Narayan mentioned of various fabulous facets that make the process of creating and collecting such an exciting process. Here are some of the interesting points that she made in her essay. Amor Y Sabor Hey DJ: Spin that Wheel If you haven't read Shoba, I suggest you do. Her grace comes from being falliable, being one amongst us. She writes with insight and blends personal vignettes into almost all her pieces. I have reproduced an article by her, about [...]
Adam Bly
I met Adam Bly in Bangalore, thanks to my friend, Sriram. We had a few meals together and I interviewed him at Inklude Labs' offices. Here is a video recording of the interview. We were laughing a lot because I had to repeat lines.
Design inspired by India: Mint Lounge Luxury issue
I was at the Mint Luxury conference in Mumbai. The Lounge Luxury issue was timed for that. There are some terrific essays by Radha Chadha and Sunil Khilnani. I liked Radha's "More is More" theory of Indian luxury-- it is spot on. Here is the link to my piece. Columns Posted: Fri, Mar 23 2012. 8:45 PM IST The balancing act Buying well-designed but functionally poor objects is not sustainable long-term because there is only so much “stuff” that your home can accommodate The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Even for design junkies such as myself, the world of product [...]
Sudarshan Shetty Profile for The National Abu Dhabi
About Sudarshan Shetty for The National. Mumbai-based artist Sudarshan Shetty demonstrates his sense of play Shoba Narayan Mar 27, 2012 Standing outside the gleaming tower of the Maker Maxity building in suburban Mumbai is a fire-engine-red double-decker bus of the sort that used to ply the roads of Mumbai in the 1970s. This bus, however, sprouts two stainless steel wings and has its front wheel raised slightly off the ground as if it were about to take off into the sky. Beside it reads a plaque: "Sometimes when we travel, we forget who we are." A whimsical creation by Mumbai-based [...]
Idealism and Love
My latest My Life column for The National's M magazine Shoba Narayan on idealising your spouse Shoba Narayan Mar 29, 2012 After 20 years of marriage, I am no longer the dewy-eyed newlywed who believes her husband can do no wrong. Now I view my husband's shortcomings with stoic realism. Knowing his flaws, I believe, takes our relationship to a deeper place. Related ■ My Life: Shoba Narayan on her long-lasting marriage ■ My life: Shoba Narayan on being born to write Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the eminent positive psychologist Martin Seligman believes that the more illusions you have [...]