Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Food & Faith: Shoba Narayan Walks Us Through the Spiritual Food of India
Conversation in Soft Power Magazine In her book Food & Faith: A pilgrim's journey through India Shoba Narayan combines her two loves cuisine and spirituality. A journalistic offering, she shares her experiences with sacred food in shrines across India _ Puri’s bhog, Amritsar’s langar, Palani’s panchamirtham, Mathura’s pedas, Ambalapuzha’s paal-payasam, Kashi’s sweets, Jaipur’s rabdi, Ajmer’s kesaria bhat, Madurai’s dosai, Jewish halva in Mumbai, and communal feasts in Udupi, Goa and the Kumbh Mela. Shoba views cuisine as a vehicle for storytelling. She has been interested in it for the last 25 years as a food writer and began work [...]
Bangalore Talkies: Of hostage negotiators in city markets
Bangalore Talkies: Of hostage negotiators in city markets Shoba Narayan on taking a crash course in bargaining from Lily Aunty and crashing, but not quite burning, at the actual task Hostage negotiators would have a hard time in Bangalore, because folks here upend the whole logic of negotiation with their bargaining. In any negotiation, goes the business saying, you have to create a win-win situation for everyone. That is anathema to the folks on Avenue Road in Bangalore, whose idea of bargaining is more like a sumo wrestler bringing his opponent to heel. [...]
What makes Bangalore special?
Amongst those who live in-- and love their cities-- and the two don’t necessarily go together-- there is often a somewhat trite parlour-game that is played, often after copious amounts of alcohol. The game relates to identity, of a city, of a person. It often begins with the question: are you a true Bangalorean? If the participants can manage to keep away the needless competition that often springs up (my city is better than yours), the game is actually a good one for it requires you to figure out the essence of your city and yourself. Who is a [...]
Blooming tabebuias and drooping jacarandas
Bangalore Talkies: Blooming tabebuias and drooping jacarandas Shoba Narayan on the lesser-known side of Bengaluru—a city of nature lovers, tree huggers and flower peckers (the bird, not the human) Have you seen ‘Wild Karnataka’, the film? It just won the national award, even though as one naturalist, rather snarkily, said, “It should have been called Wild Kabini—not Karnataka.” That’s the thing you see. Not many people know this but Bengaluru is a city of nature lovers, tree huggers and flower peckers (the bird, not the human). They hike to Rangaswamy Betta, Savandurga, Nandi [...]
Bangalore Talkies: Moonwalking at night on city streets
Bangalore Talkies: Moonwalking at night on city streets Bengaluru’s streets are like moon craters. Why bother with Mars rovers, Shoba Narayan contends, when you can barely walk on Magadi road? If you are asthmatic, don’t come to Bangalore. If you have dust allergies, this ain’t the place for you. If you have balance issues, be especially careful as you pick your way through the mounds and valleys that have now become common here. Bangalore’s streets are like moon craters. Why bother with Mars rovers, I say, when you can barely walk on Magadi [...]
The trouble with wineglasses
The trouble with wineglasses View it in Sommelier India magazine here. Take any wine group and the talk eventually turns to stemware. Recently, in Bangalore, there was a flurry of discussion, and much hand-wringing, about how to preserve and use wine glasses. People complained with “crying face” emojis about how household help was breaking their precious wine glasses. They recalled heart-stopping moments in parties when errant, and drunk guests tipped over a favourite Schott Zwiesel glass. So what’s your trick, dear reader? How do you enjoy wine without breaking the bank, or for that matter, your wine glasses? Well, [...]
Wine in an age of Covid
The joke about the lockdown was, of course, how all our wine supplies depleted rapidly. Here in Bangalore, in between zoom calls, oenophiles shared photos and compared tasting notes about varietals from the new and old world wines of course, but also new regions like Israel and Slovenia. We have all been drinking very well...at home. I opened a 1997 Latour last week in honour of a friend who we hadn’t seen in a while. The other wines that I have enjoyed were a 2012 ‘Artemis’ Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon which was beautifully balanced with scents of fennel, berries, [...]
Tasting great Burgundy wines
The Burgundy Paradox and how to overcome it Question: How do you organize a Burgundy wine lunch as a collective? Answer: very carefully. Unless you are a collector or a distributor, organizing a wine tasting of great Burgundy is a difficult and expensive proposition. But The Wine Connoisseurs (TWC) of Bangalore decided to do just that a few weeks ago. We ended up with quite a lineup. So how can you replicate this? The first is to come up with a theme that works for the wine group. The theme in turn is dictated by the wines that are [...]
Desi Books podcast features Food & Faith
Thank you so much Jenny Bhatt for featuring Food & Faith in Episode 24 of your Desi Books podcast. Visit Episode 24, where Food & Faith is featured here Episode Description In today’s episode, in addition to a roundup of new and notable books, we have Shoba Narayan discussing her latest book, Food and Faith, in #DesiCraftChat. And Dr. Gayatri Sethi, who's a writer, educator, and co-founder of the #DesiKidLit community. shares some new and notable books in this new quarterly segment. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0r3KYUJxaKkbcp5qCUfQR9?si=4DgovRYjRdSsATBU6Tn7eg
What dreams are made of
Dreaming your way to reality A meditation on Jungian Psychology and the interpretation of dreams by Shoba Narayan Deccan Herald. March 14, 2021 Covid has been a time to take stock, introspect and wake up. In this essay, Shoba Narayan writes about returning to her old interest in Jungian psychology and what she learned from it. Even though therapy, both in-person and online has become acceptable and indeed, gained ground during the pandemic, most people think of it as navel gazing. “Where you lie on a couch and talk endlessly about your childhood,” said my [...]