Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Vintage cars
Have to write another article on inheriting collections. Don't think I gave a satisfactory answer to this very interesting question: are you doing your kids a favor by passing on your collection to them? Driven by a passion for possession Can you love a collection that you inherit, particularly one that is not easy to maintain? Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Sep 14 2013. 12 03 AM IST The vintage rally in Bangalore was part of a campaign for a cleaner city. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint A few weeks ago, on a beautiful Sunday morning, a few hundred enthusiasts gathered at [...]
The Indian museum makeover 101: for Mint Lounge
This piece began with a simple question: why did we as a family visit museums so often while living in NYC and why don't we go to museums so often in India? Jazz Fridays was a favorite ritual for us when our daughter was a toddler. We would strap her up in the stroller, and walk through the Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side, listening to jazz and seeing the exhibits. Ditto for the Guggenheim. When we went for a fancy schmansy corporate retreat thingie at Pebble Beach in California, the company that had invited us held [...]
Want the arts to flourish? Get educated: about museums for Mint Lounge
I've been visiting a lot of museums lately. And getting irritated by them. We charge so little as entrance fee. I would happily pay 300 Rupees for the Raja Ravi Varma museum in Trivandrum housed in an old mansion; or for the NGMA in Bangalore. But I don't need to. When I go in, there is so few people. This column is a rant really. Want the arts to flourish? Get educated Along with constructing foundations and museums, consider audience participation Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Aug 24 2013. 12 05 AM IST When was the last time you visited [...]
Arts funding: we don’t value our arts enough: for Mint Lounge
Like most journalists, I get lots of requests for meetings from people who have ideas to parlay, products to push, locations to publicize, and so on. Like most journalists, I am also prickly about such meetings because I don't want to be played, as it were. The assumption is: hey, I know you have an agenda, but I'll be damned if I am going to be your tool in pushing this agenda. So you go in defensive and doubt everything. So it was with the IFA. Before I went in, I said, let me write a column about funding for [...]
Goyard, Rimowa and Tumi: defined by your trunk: for Mint Lounge
I finally got it right: connecting the global with the local. One of the few pieces I am happy with even after publication. Usually I go back and say-- nah, wish I had said this instead of this; or wish I had said this better. Goyard, Rimowa, Tumi: defined by your trunk About giant tiffin-carriers, hold-alls, Goyard trunks and vintage European brands Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Aug 03 2013. 12 08 AM IST What your Rimowa (left) and Tumi say about you. I bought my first Tumi carry-on for the same reason that I bought branded objects in my [...]
Pappadams: what are they and how to eat them: for Mint Lounge
I loved this week's issue of Mint Lounge. Sumant Jaikrishnan is an authentic Indian stylister (the male version of stylista). I loved the cover. Read it here. My piece is on Pappadams. Nice accompanying photo. Read it here and below. Sat, Jul 27 2013. 12 07 AM IST Pondering over ‘poppadoms’ Poppadoms are more fluff than substance. They are glorious, ephemeral and gone in minutes Papad or as south Indians call it, poppadom, is a popular part of Indian meals across regions. Photo: Manoj Madhavan/Mint The essential dishes of a Kerala sadya (feast) are paruppu (dal/lentils), pachadi (raita), and payasam [...]
Jimmy Choos sexy shoes for Mint Lounge
Today morning, the first thing I did was to go out, pick up all the newspapers and hide Mint Lounge. My parents are temporarily staying with me and I didn't want my father to read my column today mainly because of the use of the swear word-- "Fuck me shoes." I lead many lives-- some for my readers and some as the good daughter/daughter in law. Sometimes these worlds collide much to my dismay. So the Lounge is hidden. Problem is that my Dad has just gone to my brother's house and I am sweating bricks and hoping that he [...]
What to eat at an airport for Mint Lounge
Airport tales as different as night and day Airports are happy places at 8am on a Monday morning. The lines are short. People are civilized Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Jul 13 2013. 12 18 AM IST A sparrow is eating a masala dosa in Bangalore airport. It doesn’t even bother to lift up the remains of the dish and fly off like a furtive crow stealing a vada. Rather, it hops on the white melamine thali-plate that is neatly divided into sambhar, red chutney and white chutney; and picks on the turmeric-yellow potato filling. I half-expect it to [...]
Wimbledon
On Kids Day No kidding, this is Wimbledon The club should ease up and celebrate its youngest patrons like the other Opens Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Jun 22 2013. 12 08 AM IST A scene from Wimbledon 2012. The Championships doesn’t exactly welcome children. Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images ALSO READ Wimbledon | Get in line or better, online Wimbledon | Ground realities Updated: Sun, Jun 23 2013. 08 13 PM IST It was a sunny day in May last year. My family and I—and what seemed like three million excited children—strolled outside the red clay courts of Roland Garros [...]
Father’s Day
I am in large part-- my father. As a child, they say I looked like him. I have his metabolism and constitution. He belongs to the astrological star, Swati, which they say, has a personality called "sabdeekam" or softness. This came in Mint Make your father’s day How will you celebrate your Dad tomorrow? Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Jun 15 2013. 12 02 AM IST Tomorrow is a day that will celebrate men who arguably have the coolest jobs in the world: our dads. Ok, that was a lame attempt to link this column to this issue. Dad, Dada, [...]