Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Can you smell and taste through cyberspace?
The killer app, at least in the fields of wine, perfume, cheese, or anything that relies on olfactory and gustatory sensations, will have nothing to do with curing male baldness. The killer app for wine and perfume will be the ability to transport scent and taste through cyberspace. If you could click on a wine bottle that is displayed on your computer and smell the aroma of the wine it contains, all the wine descriptions that we struggle to come up with will be rendered useless in an instant.
Can wine be described well? for Mint Lounge
KRSMA Estates has invited me to a tasting of their wines next week, and frankly, I am a little nonplussed. Robert M. Parker, the influential American wine critic, once described a Haut-Brion as having “a sweet nose of creosote, asphalt…” and an array of berries. Having never tasted asphalt, and having no idea what a creosote is, this description is absolutely useless to me.
My book talk at the Indian Institute of Science
This Friday, September 4th at 4 PM. Copies of my book will be available for sale. Please come if you can. Click below for the formal invite. CCS-20150904-Narayan The lecture will be held at the Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc. It is located just next to the Health Centre of the institute. The "main gate" (opposite to BHEL office) near Prof. CNR Rao circle, on the CV Raman Road is the nearest entrance to CCS. Please call the office (080-22932486/ 080-23606559) in case of difficulty in finding the venue. Begin forwarded message: From: Contemporary Studies IISc <[email protected]> Subject: Invites you to [...]
Are you listening to the Kodaikanal rap?
The old woman in Palani—down the hill from Kodaikanal-- was trying to recruit me to be a movie extra. Muniamma looked like a rock star. She was about 80, with weathered skin about the colour of a coffee bean. She was clad in a soft white cotton sari sans blouse in the fashion of village women in Tamilnadu. Muniamma’s recruitment strategy was fool proof.
Videos to accompany Palani Hill & Kartikeya: Sacred Food: Mint on Sunday
My piece on Kartikeya, also called Skanda, was the cover story at Mint on Sunday. Best to read it here. Warning: it is long. I also made two videos to accompany the piece. You can see them in Youtube About the Palani temple. Click here. About the Panchamritam. Click here
Radio New Zealand and Abdul Kalam
So they call from Christ Church on Skype on a rotating schedule of global correspondents. I shoot the breeze with the breezy anchor, Bryan Crump. This time: an ode to the late great Abdul Kalam; and movies that I liked. Listen to it here.
The Art of Judgment: for Mint Lounge
My uncle Sivaramakrishnan called from Mumbai this morning stating that he wanted to “capture Twitter". Do you have good judgment? How do you teach it?
Buy my book
Just got my ten author copies of Katha yesterday. They are beautifully packaged. Small enough to fit in a purse. It releases August 28th but you can pre order at the below sites. Infibeam has done the best job of marketing it. Flipkart Amazon Infibeam
Katha Review
Thank you Vijaya Pushkarna, for the generous review. I am supposed to have a Twitter conversation with you or The Week tomorrow, August 5th from 4 to 5. Have never done this before. Nervous. KATHA: TELL A STORY, SELL A DREAM Tales pitch By Vijaya Pushkarna | August 09, 2015 A STORY for every occasion. Anyone with such a repertoire would be much more than the life of a party, attracting people with their eyes and ears wide open. But how does one come by such a treasure? Shoba Narayan says it is no big deal, and goes on to show [...]
For The National Abu Dhabi on London comedy
And I got to interview the legend: Keith Johnstone