Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Why are they even together?
About good relationships and bad ones? Kate and Will are getting married. Do you have a good marriage? Find out. Here is the page on the Indicast Podcast Network Lessons From Life #3: Successful Marriages Wednesday, 13 April 2011 15:59 Marriages might be made in heaven but have to be maintained in the real world. This week's lesson from life is inspired by upcoming Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Everyone is sure that it'll be a fairytale wedding ceremony, but will the couple have a fairytale married life? The comparisons to the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana are obvious. Shoba [...]
Why we hate our girls for Mint Lounge
This was a tough piece to write because you had to get the tone right. Many rewrites; many inputs from editors. Here it is at Mint's site and pasted below Culture Why we hate our girls The 2011 census reveals our abysmal child sex ratio. Is it poverty, deep-rooted cultural conditioning or our ignorance about what it means to be a woman? An IAS officer may not have the remedy, because India needs to convert minds subliminally for a real change Shoba Narayan Some stories find you. This one began with bags—1,000 unbleached cotton bags, to be specific. My [...]
Indian Aviation for The National
Indian aviation must be a viable business to really take off Shoba Narayan Last Updated: Apr 2, 2011 Which is the best airport in the world? For the past 10 years, Singapore's Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport have alternated the top slot in the Skytrax World Airport Awards, although Seoul's Incheon International Airport has recently challenged their reign, winning in 2009 and coming second last year. Most of the world's best airports are now in Asia and the Middle East, according to the Skytrax airport star ranking. Not a single US airport made the five, four or three-star [...]
Friendship podcast
This week's podcast about Friendship. Here at the Indicast site. Also below. This week's lesson from life is inspired by Dr. Manmohan Singh's invitation to Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the Semi-final match between India and Pakistan. The incident was neither about cricket nor about politics. Shoba Narayan tells us how this incident teaches us about friendship. Listen Online (07:30 mins) Unable to embed Rapid1Pixelout audio player. Please double check that: 1)You have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. 2)This web page does not have any fatal Javascript errors. 3)The audio-player.js file of Rapid1Pixelout has been included. sn-lifelesson2 Download Podcast (MP3) Download (3.5 MB) : [...]
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 [...]