Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
How to bring up kids?
Is an iPod their birthright? 4 min read . Updated: 31 Mar 2011, 10:00 PM ISTThe Good Life | Shoba Narayan This is something I think about a lot. While I know that there is no magic formula for parenting, chasing one seems unavoidable if you are a parent. Whether you are a teacher, or a parent, or run summer camps, dealing with kids is an engrossing puzzle simply because there doesn't seem to be one right method. The variables are too many-- the kid, the adult, the situation, the kid's personality, [...]
Men who listen to their wives for The National
Here is the article on The National site. Here it is below. Untold riches await those men who listen to their wives Shoba Narayan Last Updated: Mar 29, 2011 Lucky Shyam Shewaramani. He won a Dh1 million lottery by listening to his wife. If only the same were true in my household. I've tried many approaches to get my husband to listen to me but to no avail. It didn't use to be this way. When we first met, we finished each other's sentences and echoed each other's thoughts. Now, we barely listen to each other's words and shut off [...]
Secret Luxury for Mint’s luxury issue
Mint's luxury issue to coincide with the luxury conference had a bunch of interesting takes. I liked the one about knowledge and bespoke catering. Would have been nice to see more stuff on luxury travel, music, cigars, etc. Here is the link to Mint's page. And here it is below. Discretion is the better part of luxury Luxury brands are portable symbols of wealth and prestige. Yet even in India, there is a growing group of people who disdain overt displays of wealth and opt instead for subtlety and quiet pleasure The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Email Print font [...]
Flying Coach for The National
I know about Qatar because a lot of my friends from the US fly the airline to get a connection straight into Kerala. This was a reaction. Flying coach class doesn't have to be a malodorous misery Shoba Narayan Last Updated: Mar 26, 2011 Qatar Airways would do well to take another look at coach class. REUTERS Go to photo 0 next photo previous photo I greeted the news that Qatar Airways plans to reverse course and include first-class cabins on new superjumbos with mixed feelings. On one hand, I can hardly afford Qatar's first-class fares on my journalist's salary. [...]
Lessons for Life: new podcast series
Aditya Mhatre of the Indicast Podcast Network emailed me after a Mint column about the podcasts I listen to. He introduced me to his podcast network at The Indicast and helped me learn how to do a podcast. We talked about formats and brainstormed about ideas. I'd like to do humour but that's very hard. Aditya (even though I've never met him) generously offered to host my podcasts on his network. Yesterday, while walking my dog, I called him impulsively and told him that I had an idea for a podcast but wasn't sure it would fly. It's called Lessons [...]
A night out with girlfriends
This essay appeared in M magazine of The National. Click here for the link. A night out with girlfriends is simply good therapy Shoba Narayan Last Updated: Mar 22, 2011 My three girlfriends and I went out one night recently to The Pink Poppadam, a modern Indian restaurant in Bangalore. Mostly, we talked about our homes and lives, spouses and in-laws, children and careers, fears and hopes. We returned home a little lighter and ready to face the month ahead. As numerous studies have shown, men and women bond differently. My husband rarely discusses his mental angst or marital issues [...]
Insurance for The National
Click here for the story
Tone of voice for Mint Lounge
This week's column for Mint Lounge about how you say what you say. Click here for Mint's website Pasted below Posted: Thu, Mar 17 2011. 8:39 PM IST Columns What does your email say about you? In today’s geographically diffused world when much of our interaction is through email and social networks, online tone becomes especially important The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Kiran Gupta is a Mumbai-based top executive of a multinational firm. For the last two years, he has travelled the world to boost his company’s revenue at enormous personal cost. Some time ago, his contract came up [...]
Lessons in Rajat Gupta’s phone call
Lessons in Rajat Gupta's phone call 3 min read . Updated: 18 Apr 2011, 03:10 PM ISTThe Good life | Shoba Narayan Here is a podcast that I did right after the Rajat Gupta tapes leaked for Indicast. Here is a column I wrote about Gupta. I must have re-written this piece a million times. Here it is at Mint's page. Here it is, copied below. There is a Sanskrit saying that I grew up hearing, Vinasha kaleshu viparitha buddhi. My grandfather used it to sketch out doomsday scenarios, the idea being that [...]
Selling Cars in India for The National
My editor, Rupert Wright, liked this piece, which means (sigh!) that I am making some headway in this business writing thing. Click here to read it at The National. Here it is below. Name calling and foreign dominance - selling cars in India is a specialised art Shoba Narayan Last Updated: Mar 13, 2011 When we bought our first car after moving to India a few years ago, we were torn between the Toyota Innova and the locally produced Mahindra Scorpio. We visited the Toyota showroom, took a test drive, discussed specs and wrote a cheque for 100,000 rupees (Dh8,137) [...]