Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
The Park Chennai: hotel review for The Telegraph UK
Once the site of the cutting-edge Gemini studio, this 14-year old hotel takes its design cues from the movies, marrying dramatic public spaces with kitschy Bollywood bling. Avant-garde when it opened with its leather-floored bar and nightclubs, this packed hotel still has its swing.
ITC Grand Chola: Hotel Review: The Telegraph UK
Recreating the grandeur of Tamil history ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, India Telegraph Review/ Shoba Narayan/ Travel writer 8/10 With its signature Kaya Kalp Spa, nine award-winning Italian, Pan-Asian and Indian restaurants, a cigar bar, and banquets accommodating 4000 guests, Chennai’s grandest LEED-platinum certified hotel is a marble-clad ode to the Chola dynasty – perfect for travellers wanting luxury and proximity to the airport. Location 7/10 The Chola is a great choice if you are flying in an out of Chennai, as it is 20 minutes away from [...]
Indian vegetarians travelling the world: for a podcast
Audiomatic is a great platform for some great Indian podcasts. Vikram Doctor does a great show called 'Real Food Podcast.' Here is an episode in which I was (a little) involved. Here is the link to the show. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/297693490" params="auto_play=true&color=ff00ff" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
Haveli Dharampura: Hotel Review: Mint Lounge
Haveli Dharampura and the future of India’s past Home » Mint on Sunday » Big story Last Modified: Sun, Dec 25 2016. 12 20 AM IST The restoration of Haveli Dharampura offers a template for breathing life into dilapidated heritage homes in a bid to woo foreign tourists Photo: Haveli Dharampura Shoba Narayan In January 2015, the urban development ministry launched the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) project. The focus was to develop heritage cities in a holistic manner. Europe does this best, by preserving even the smallest city’s unique character and appeal, and converting it into [...]
For Travel & Leisure Southeast Asia on Nepal
Elephants, birds, nature and a posh lodge in Chitwan, Nepal.
Use your commute
24 September 2016 | Home » Leisure » The Better Life Last Modified: 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 [...]
We live in thee age of betterment
People do many things to better themselves. They take up a sport, learn languages, do yoga, meditate and practise gratitude
The Better Life
Home » Opinion » The Better Life Last Published: Fri, Sep 09 2016. 12 35 PM IST How to get fit without exercising and other such shortcuts Simple things like stretching while waiting for the coffee to brew—and some a bit more complex grounded in psychology and science—but all easily do-able Shoba Narayan We live in the age of betterment. As adjectives go, this means living in or aspiring to the comparative state—faster, thinner, stronger, more disciplined, just better. We want to get better at managing people; have more control over our finances; learn to manage stress better; have better work-life balance; and the mother [...]
Connecting to readers is a columnist’s particular pleasure: last Mint Lounge column
This will be my last column. My first coincided with the first issue of Mint Lounge and so it continued for nine years, weekly for the most part. I have grown and changed with this paper, participating in and bearing witness to its multifaceted issues. To be one of its voices has been a privilege I have never taken for granted. I was going to write a philosophical piece about time. About how this wasn’t really an ending but a new beginning. About how the ancients viewed time as cyclical. I researched the Pirahã tribes of Brazil who know no past or future but live, like Buddhist monks, in the present always.
You don’t go to Rajnikanth movies for the plot, you go for the comfort
To understand the hold that Rajinikanth has on his fans, you have to meet my ex-driver, Robert. An archetypal Rajini fan, Robert dresses, walks and talks like Rajini. Conversations with him are a triumphant reminder that while English is the language of logic and analysis for us Indians, our mother tongue is the language of the heart. It is Tamil that I turn to when I want to plead or persuade. And like many of our great vernacular tongues, Tamil lends itself to exquisite hyberbole. What passes of as conversation in Tamil would sound like a film dialogue when restated in English.