Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
The art of collaboration between dancers, artists and social scientists
Rehearsals are a vicarious pleasure; a way of accessing the genius of performers without the pressure of a performance. A few arts institutions—the Lincoln Center in New York, for instance—accord the privilege of watching a rehearsal for a price. I am at Kamani at the behest of Minaakshi Dass, whose venture, India Heritage Desk, aims to discover the next Aditi Mangaldas or Malavika Sarukkai. Gauri Diwakar may be one candidate.
O&M creates quirky, edgy campaign for Rajasthan Tourism
01/18/16--02:14: MUMBAI: The Rajasthan government will be launching a multi-year, multi-modal and multi-narrative domestic and international tourism campaign on 15 January, 2016 and has set aside a corpus in excess of Rs 100 crore for the same. Over the next few years, the government is expected to spend the money on the campaign, which envisages rebranding Rajasthan Tourism, including a new logo. The state has partnered with Ogilvy & Mather for the creative side of the campaign. Despite wide and deep attractions, Rajasthan’s lack of tourism marketing over the last 25 years has resulted in the state falling [...]
Rajasthan Tourism’s new campaign
How Ogilvy Turned Rajasthan Into Rohansthan, Nehasthan, Meerasthan, Jennysthan... By Snehojit Khan , afaqs!, Mumbai | In Advertising | January 20, 2016 Ogilvy has created a new logo and a multimedia ad campaign titled 'Jaane Kya Dikh Jaaye' for Rajasthan Tourism, for which Rajasthan Government has earmarked over Rs 100 crore. The campaign marks the state's return to tourism marketing after 25 years The Government of Rajasthan has finally decided to market the state of Rajasthan after an interval of 25 years and has rolled out a multi-year, multi-modal and multi-narrative domestic and international campaign on January 15. Titled [...]
Thanks for the plug, Ashville
"And, while there was precedent for a memoir with recipes (Elizabeth Bard’s Picnic in Provence, Shoba Narayan’s Monsoon Diary and an entire Goodreads list dedicated to “books shelved as cookbook-memoir”), “the cooking lessons with Jonah linked me to the way food was central to both of our stories,” Smith says."
Heavenly breakfast in Varanasi: Mint Lounge
South Indians, or should I say Tamilians, can be cantankerous purists. No mixing tastes. No adding sugar to dal like the Gujaratis do; or adding jaggery to rasam like the Kannadigas do. Only one vegetable per sambhar; be it okra, brinjal or small onions. If you mix multiple vegetables, you are a caterer who is trying to palm off all the cheap vegetables available into one pot. These Tamilians ought to taste the pleasures of breakfast in Varanasi. It might change their minds.
The delights of wearing a sari: for Mint Lounge
This is going to be my year of regional styles of donning this garment. Just saw and loved Baji Rao Mastani. Nanditha Lakshmanan, Shilpa Sharma, Sudha Kanago, Deepa Krishnan, Ally Mathan, Jo Pattabhiraman, Chandra Jain, Geetha Rao, and all you casual and effortless sari wearers, this one is for you. 25 December 2015 | E-Paper Home » Leisure » The Good Life Last Modified: Fri, Dec 25 2015. 02 05 PM IST The delights of wearing a sari For many of this generation, donning a sari is both a moral and an aesthetic choice 18 Shoba Narayan Dress is [...]
Paris and Luxury
Should brands take a stand is the question I try to analyze in this piece. Normally, no. But now? Thanks to Elisabeth Cadoche-Guez for setting me up with luxury brand executives in Paris. Elisabeth is the author of a wonderful book on Arthur Rimbaud. 27 November 2015 | E-Paper Home » Leisure » The Good Life Last Modified: Thu, Nov 26 2015. 05 07 PM IS Luxury in the time of great tragedy France’s great luxury brands haven’t done much in this time of tragedy, and they ought to repair that Shoba Narayan Imagine if you were the head of [...]
Poetry Feedback
Funny how poetry evinces so much passion. Did not realize. Hi Shoba, As a poetry junkie, loved your last column. Would love to meet your father some day. Like your father, I too "had to memorise" Abou Ben Adhem as a schoolboy! By the way, if I am not mistaken, the correct verse is "An angel writing in a book of gold" - and not "an angel writing in leaves of gold". Here's the link to a piece on Abou Ben Adhem and, incredibly, an obscure topic in the biological sciences. It is by, who else, a South Indian Brahmin [...]
Poetry…India…Verse… Performance Poetry Festival. How to appreciate poetry?
The mysterious ways of poetic inspiration Why do we like poetry? And how do they get into our lives? Shoba Narayan T.S. Eliot. Photo: John Gay/Getty Images “Why do you like poetry so much?” I asked my father again this morning. He sighed. “Because we had to memorize poems like “Abou Ben Adhem, may his tribe increase,’”he replied. It is a tangential answer; one that attempts to pry loose and give word to something tenuous, precious. My father begins reciting the poem to deflect my tiresome questions. His voice is soft, and thanks to newly acquired dentures, a bit slurred. [...]