Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Song List
I visit Music India online a lot. It is a great site and allows you to filter music according to likes. Here's what's on my current playlist. Character Dheela: Has a nice mixture of rap and melody. Like the lead instrument-- trumpet? Munni Badnaam: Love the female singer's voice. Has "gaathram" or sultry imperfect depth Nee Korinaal (Tamil song): Nice melody and nice sound effects. Sri Suktam: I love Sanskrit chanting but only of a particular kind. I am in love with this man's voice and am trying to find out who he is. He chants the Sri Suktam so [...]
Religion for The National
This piece came out in the My Life column I write for M magazine. My Life: Shoba Narayan Shoba Narayan Sep 14, 2011 Can you value your traditions without being overtly religious? It is a dilemma many of my 30- and 40-something friends face. We have grown up in fairly religious households. We are immigrants who have lived in many countries. This is the problem. As you get older and live in different cultures, other traditions start resonating with you. My friend Ayesha grew up Muslim in Pakistan, but as a mother living in New York with a Jewish [...]
Survival of the Tastiest for Mint Lounge
Headline writing is a fascinating exercise. When I write a column, I try to come up with headlines. Mint's team always do better (naturally). What is the skill that one needs to be a good headline writer, I wonder. I mean, you have to take the essence of an article and combine it to make a catch few words. And you'd think that since I am the writer of the piece, I'd be good at making up a headline, right? Wrong. So I'll keep trying and the day I come up with a better headline that Mint's for my pieces, [...]
Women on top: for The National Abu Dhabi
A woman's touch is exactly what is needed in today's politics Shoba Narayan Sep 6, 2011 As Moza Al Otaiba begins her Federal National Council campaign, one of many women moving into the UAE's public sphere, I have some good news for her. Recent research suggests that putting women on a team, committee or council improves its overall performance. In other words, it is not enough to get a group of smart people together to solve problems. In politics or in the workplace, enthusiasm, motivation and cohesion leave something lacking - that crucial woman's influence. A recent study by US [...]
Nagging is Easier
Subtle persuasion? Sometimes nagging is just easier Shoba Narayan Aug 25, 2011 I am studying Russian-style arm-twisting with a group of Bangaloreans who want to clean up this city. How to get people to stop dumping their rubbish on the road? How to get more people to recycle? Arm-twisting or persuasion is an art, but now - thanks to numerous studies - also a science. You can get people to do what you wish simply by modifying your message. One woman became the best-selling salesperson on a television channel by modifying her last line from, "Please call. Our operators are waiting to speak to you", to "If you [...]
A harbinger of hope for Kolkata’s poor
This ran during the Ramzan-Eid season in The National, Abu Dhabi
For Mint Lounge India on Delhi nightlife
A Phantom and Other Nocturnal Animals 5 min read . Updated: 25 Aug 2011, 10:01 PM IST The Good Life | Shoba Narayan There is one thing that we Bangaloreans mourn: the 11.30pm curfew by which the bars and restaurants close. To watch Delhiites revel way past our curfew time gave me Delhi-envy I got Delhi-envy at 1.43am on a soft summer night when I met a man called Honey. The evening began at 10pm at an art gallery opening. Hotelier Priya Paul (whom I had first met a week ago) and [...]
Three in Biotech: for Silkroad, Dragonair, Cathay Pacific
Three in Biotech We interviewed her at Biocon and photographer Mallik Katakol came with an "umbrella" to focus the light on her to shoot her for this piece and the other Work/Life that I did on her.
For Cathay Pacific Magazine on Architecture
Why Bangaloreans care so much about old buildings and neighbourhoods.
When Housewives March for Mint
For a while now, I have been focusing on what writers call the "telling detail," where you observe something but pick out the detail that is new and unusual. In this piece, it was the housewife telling her Maharaj to make dal, sabzi, roti, and then breaking off to yell, "Saaku Saaku, lanja saaku." or "Enough, enough, bribes, enough." When the housewives march Cults become movements by accident. The tipping point comes when the housewives get out on the streets Shoba Narayan Freedom Park in Bangalore is far away, geographically, from the Ramlila maidan in New Delhi. But on this [...]