Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Sacred Food in the Golden Temple: Mint on Sunday
Rolling rotis in Amritsar’s Golden Temple Shoba Narayan Amritsar: The family standing at the long, snaking line to enter Harmandir Sahib, or the Golden Temple of Amritsar, is fighting. All around are people prayerfully singing kirtans (devotional songs), but this father and son, united by their pink turbans, but divided by their accents, are arguing. “I am a Sikh in my heart,” says the boy who looks to be about 16. “Why do I need to wear a turban to prove it?” “Because wearing a turban is one of the five tenets of our faith. You should be proud [...]
Silence and Sound Part 4
Home » Mint on Sunday » Silence and Sound Last Modified: Sat, Aug 27 2016. 11 37 PM IST Silence is an underrated tool in the arsenal of parenting When I don’t snap to judgement or bark out orders, it gives my kids the space to choose, decide and make mistakes Photo: iStock Shoba Narayan I am trying something that is extraordinarily difficult for every parent. I plan to cease and desist from all parental instructions; or at least reduce their volume and frequency quite significantly. I am what I would call an involved parent. My kids have another pithy word to describe my modus [...]
Silence and Sound Part 3
MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Silence and Sound Last Modified: Sat, Jul 02 2016. 11 35 PM IST My experiments with silence Keeping quiet improves sensitivity. Once you calm down your monkey mind, it is easier to pay attention Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint Shoba Narayan Before he died, my father-in-law gave me sage advice. I was a “pleaser”, he said; someone who enjoyed making other people feel good. Just as I was blooming with pleasure at an unexpected compliment from this reserved man came the sting. Nothing wrong with pleasing everyone, he said, except that I tried to please all parties at [...]
Silence and Sound Part 2
MINT ON SUNDAY Home » Mint on Sunday » Silence and Sound Last Modified: Sat, Jul 16 2016. 11 29 PM IST The problem of embracing silence in an age of noise Most of us don’t know how to experience, process, use or embrace silence—it’s easier to just fiddle with our phones Photo: iStock Shoba Narayan The most exciting developments in brain research—itself an exciting field—today have to do with neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Think of our brain as a giant plastic ball. Researchers want to pull and push it, mould it into suppleness, make it nimble and bounce it back into youthful health. Neuroplasticity is [...]
Shortcuts to health and happiness
Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Published: Fri, Sep 16 2016. 11 53 AM IST The age of betterment: Short cuts to health and happiness People do many things to better themselves. They take up a sport, learn languages, do yoga, meditate and practise gratitude Shoba Narayan The writer in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park. Photo: Arpita Dutta What do the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Dale Carnegie and Dan Ariely have in common—besides the letter D? They all teach you how to live better. If freedom was the mantra of India before its inception as a nation, dignity, its drumbeat at incipience, prosperity, [...]
Listen to your body
Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Published: Thu, Dec 08 2016. 05 27 PM IST Listen to your body Don’t assume that the external world can cure your internal problems. Your body will give you clues about its current state and where it is headed Shoba Narayan Photo: iStock My mother always says, “Listen to your body”. Every time my mother feels under the weather, she does not go to the doctor or even take medicine. She says things like, “The heat in my body has increased, which is why my eyes are dry. I think I’m going to make a soup out of [...]
Work out during your commute
Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Published: Thu, Sep 22 2016. 04 40 PM IST Work out during your commute Engaging your core while in the car, bus or autorickshaw is simple. All you need to do is make sure that your back doesn’t lean against the backrest Shoba Narayan Try sitting upright in your car rather than slumping back into the seat. Photo: iStock There is a great scene in The Other Guys, where Mark Wahlberg pumps his arms up and down and shouts, “I want to be a peacock.” His chicken-like pose works for the movie, but would be totally wrong [...]
Pandiculation is no gobbledygook
Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Published: Thu, Sep 29 2016. 05 54 PM IST Pandiculation is no gobbledygook A pandiculation is a constriction of muscles followed by a stretch. Constrict, release, relax—that’s the sequence Shoba Narayan Try pandiculating to relax your body. Photo: iStock Think of the time you wake up. What do you do? You probably constrict or tighten your muscles for a second before stretching—arms above your head, feet stretching downward. After engaging in this stretch, you probably relax. Think of how your pet dog or cat wakes up after a nap: feet forward, belly down, back arched upwards, [...]
The link between dance and memory
Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Published: Thu, Oct 06 2016. 05 43 PM IST What’s the link between Indian classical, folk dance forms and enhanced memory power? Horizontal saccades—when eyes move from side to side in rhythm with the legs—in classical dance forms such Bharatanatyam improves human memory, studies show Shoba Narayan Kathakali involves saccade, or when the eyes move from one fixed point to the other. Photo: Reuters I could be wrong but no other culture has dance forms that incorporate as much eye movement as the Indian classical and folk forms do. Not the Japanese kabuki and noh dances, not the Chinese folk and [...]
Squat and curl
Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Published: Thu, Oct 20 2016. 05 25 PM IST Squat and curl Squat and curl during your spare time. It won’t seem onerous and will actually benefit you in the long term. Shoba Narayan Regular squats help people adapt to ageing better. Photo: iStock I asked a bunch of experts for one exercise that would offer the greatest value for time spent. I was hoping they would say, “Eat chocolate, in moderate quantities, throughout the day.” Instead, they said, “Squat.” So I do, and so can you. Squats don’t require specialized equipment. They can be done anywhere: [...]