Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
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, [...]
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 [...]
Rosemary, Geeta and the future of banking
Rosemary, Geeta and the future of banking
The time is right for an Indian Noma: for Mint Lounge
The time is right for an Indian Noma Someone commented on the Pink Poppadom. Been there. Liked it. Star chef: Madhu Krishnan of ITC, adjudged best by the Food Lovers of Bangalore. The time is right for an Indian Noma 5 min read . Updated: 14 Apr 2011, 08:55 PM ISTThe Good Life | Shoba Narayan The time is right for an Indian Noma Topics The Good LifeShoba NarayanCaperberryFavaToscanoOlive BeachTaj West EndITC Royal GardeniaLounge Does Indian cuisine need to break the shackles of tradition to make its mark globally? Or do we stay true to our heritage? Evolution or revolution: that [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Can you survive a year without shopping?
My latest Mint piece is a topic that I have been thinking a lot about. Can you show affection without buying people things? How to use the most precious thing we have-- time-- to tell the people we care that we care about them.