Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Being Mohandas: Book Review for Time magazine April 12, 2007
What more can be said about Gandhi, the subject of dozens of hagiographies, biographies and an autobiography; a hero of both Bollywood and Hollywood; a man whose face adorns stamps and currency? Plenty, if you are Rajmohan Gandhi, journalist, scholar, grandson of the Mahatma and now author of the door-stopping, 745-page Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire. The book's title and its author's pedigree promise much. A scion of the great man, one hopes, will wrest Gandhi's narrative away from cinematic hype and the Hindu extremists who claim to be his true inheritors (even [...]
The Parent Trap: Time magazine, May 31, 2007
As a mother, I regularly grapple with two related questions: How soon should I talk about child predators to my kids, and how should I couch such a conversation? I have two daughters, ages 10 and 5, and they interact with adults of all sorts—coaches, teachers, friends, relatives and, in Asia, household help. I want to prolong the innocence with which my children view the world, yet warn them of its dangers. This is tricky, particularly in Asia, where children are welcomed and cherished with a delight that is as genuine as it is—from a Western perspective at least—threatening. Malay [...]
How to bargain | Condenast Traveler US |
The thought occurred as I eyed a stunning Persian carpet in a downtown Manhattan shop. The Mogul-inspired piece looked terrific but cost thousands more than I wanted to pay. The smile on the manager's face suggested that he was willing to bargain. But where to begin? Middle age brings with it the sobering realization that you can actually learn something from your mother.
Mekong, Cambodia & Laos | Condenast Traveler US |
Cambodia is like a lotus bud concealing an onion—serene on the surface but eliciting tears as you peel back the layers. The scale of the Angkor temples contrast with the photos of skulls in the Genocide Museum. The peace of a Buddhist monastery gives way to the raucous din of tuk–tuks. I am in Cambodia to meet a monk and to travel the Mekong.
Bangalore and Beyond | Condenast Traveler US |
Bangalore is home. I didn't always live here—until two years ago I lived in New York. But now this is the city where my kids go to school, where I hail auto rickshaws for bone-rattling yet perversely exciting rides to work and meetings, where I prowl pubs and malls in search of stories and sales, and where I go to Namdharis Fresh supermarket to buy organic grapes, too-hard bagels, and much-too-soft cream cheese in an attempt to replicate the Sunday morning brunches at my Upper West Side apartment.
The minibar menace
The minibar menace Raise the bar: Paying for every can of cola can be more than a mini nuisance The minibar: I know this sounds like a Seinfeld episode but it is in fact a rant. The one thing that really irritates me at hotels is the minibar. I think it is an outdated relic that ought to be abolished. Hoteliers should simply price those cookie bars and cans of Coke into the room. Perhaps they do already. Five-star hotels in India are hardly cheap. I was at The Leela Goa recently and was informed that their room rate [...]
Rating hotels for review: Mint Lounge
The filch factor: : Mint Lounge 4 min read . Updated: 01 Feb 2008, 12:06 AM ISTThe Good Life | Shoba Narayan I have a somewhat unusual method of rating hotels. I call it the filch factor. If I feel like filching something from the hotel, I consider it worthy of my esteem. I hasten to add that I haven’t actually filched anything from hotels (okay, maybe some toiletries) but the filch factor is what makes a hotel memorable in my mind. I still remember the crisp asparagus-green linen napkins at the Ritz-Carlton in Santiago de Chile; the spa robe at [...]
About service in hotels: Mint Lounge
Leave me alone, I'd like to be invisible please: for Mint Lounge 3 min read . Updated: 04 Jan 2008, 12:21 AM ISTThe Good Life | Shoba Narayan Ok, folks. I might as well get ready to take it on the chin. I am going to come across as a real snob here. But please, before you dismiss me altogether, let me explain that this piece was written with the “lofty goal" of making the hotel industry re-examine its notion of service. Like every Indian idealist, I wrote the following in an attempt to change the world, albeit a world inhabited [...]
Dinner with Alain Passard
When your food sings to you 5 min read 23 Dec 2011, 09:22 PM ISTThe Good Life | Shoba Narayan As fresh as it gets: Chef Alain Passard has a kitchen garden in France. Photo by Maurice Rougemont/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images . As we are introduced, Paul Pontallier, the legendary winemaker of Château Margaux, takes my hand, bends down…and kisses it—exactly like Elaine Sciolino describes in her book, La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life. I walk in prickly (more about that later) but by the time Pontallier releases my hand, I am charmed. We are at The [...]
Our Native Village: Hotel Review: Gourmet Magazine
Our Native Village 11.16.07 This 20-room rustic hideaway bills itself as India’s "only 100 percent eco-friendly back-to-basics lifestyle resort." In plain English, that means solar power, windmills, composting, bio-gas plant (no, it doesn’t smell), organic gardens, and a "zero-waste" policy that recycles everything including water from washbasins and toilets to irrigate the garden. A couple of hours from Bangalore, where I live, it attracts young techies who seek its peace and solitude before they go back to being "Sam" or "Carla" at their tech-support call centers. WHAT'S THE BIG WOW? The beds are supremely comfortable for rooms so Spartan. The massive [...]