Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Yoga and Willpower
I restarted yoga lessons. My teacher is very good, but very very busy!!! Hope his timings and mine can work out long term. Inspired by my lessons..... Can yoga improve your willpower? In an ideal world, stilettos would have massager-inserts in them; French fries would remove the toxins from your body and make your waistline shrink; and everyone would have the willpower to do whatever they wanted to accomplish. But reality, sadly, is a little different. Social psychology points to four characteristics that lead to success: resilience, willpower, focus and imagination. In an outlandish and somewhat brilliant twist, all four [...]
The Confidence Conundrum
still love the line: "confidence is turning thoughts into action." The confidence conundrum and what we can do about it Shoba Narayan June 17, 2014 Updated: June 17, 2014 18:12:00 One of the things I announce in a public forum, often just for effect, is that my lifelong dream is to be a standup comic. It produces the desired effect. Everybody laughs. If you saw me, you would know why. I don’t look funny, I don’t talk funny. In fact, I am pretty much galactically unfunny. It feels pathetic to admit this, but announcing this desire to be a comic [...]
Temperament versus efficiency
After a nice few weeks of vacation, back to writing the column. The tug-of-war between ‘nice’ and ‘competent’ My grandparents had four sons and one daughter: my mother. My grandmother’s favourite son was her eldest. He had a sweet word for everyone; sent my grandmother photos from faraway England with lines of Tamil poetry as captions; and was ever-smiling. Her third son lived in the same town as she did. He was the one she called when she needed to go to the doctor, have a piece of furniture moved, or speak to her tenants about rent increases. He was [...]
Chairs, Sugar, Phone
Thank you, Manish, for this idea. Modern addictions are holding us all back, but can we live without them? Shoba Narayan June 11, 2014 Updated: June 11, 2014 18:40:00 Recently, a friend asked me an interesting question: “Which would be the hardest addiction for humankind to shrug off? Sugar, chairs or mobile devices?” My instinctive answer was mobile devices, but that may just describe my addiction. As the recently released documentary Fed Up, points out, very few things can rival sugar as a “weapon of mass destruction”, as one review says. The documentary, which has garnered good press, takes a [...]
Khadi
I am speaking at this event organized by the Crafts Council. About the future of khadi. Going to call all my designer friends and find out what they think. Thank you, Susheela Mehta for inviting me. Looking forward to hearing doyennes like Uzramma speak on this topic. Click here for the Vastra Invitation
Christina Amundsens
Thank you, Christina Amundsens, for this plug
My work in Hindi
Some time ago, a well-run and respected newspaper based in Rajasthan got in touch. Their name is Patrika. They wanted me to write for them and were willing to run columns that had already been published after translating the work into Hindi. I was thrilled to receive the PDF of the translation. You have to scroll down to the middle to find my piece. I wish I could write in Hindi. I wish I could speak better in Hindi. Patrika Column
For The National Abu Dhabi on Bangkok
My Dad talks about this incident to this day. Tuk-tuk tricks and Bangkok bartering Shoba Narayan May 29, 2014 Updated: May 29, 2014 11:47:00 It begins innocently enough. We’re in Bangkok and my 12-year-old wants to ride on a tuk-tuk. After days of visiting Buddhist temples, she wants something more adventurous. My 80-year-old father, who’s travelling with us, is having none of it. “Tuk-tuks are dangerous,” he says. “Why take chances in a new country? And that too, on the day of our flight?” I’m caught between two generations. My instinct is to dismiss my father’s warnings, as I usually [...]
For The National Abu Dhabi on Hyderabad
Travelling with kids: History is more fun with new friends Shoba Narayan May 22, 2014 Updated: May 22, 2014 15:57:00 My husband asks as we disembark the plane: “Did you know that the Nizam didn’t want to join the Indian Union after India gained independence?” “Yes, and did you know that Hyderabad is called the City of Pearls?” I chime in. “Even though the Nizam used diamonds – not pearls – as paperweights.” We’re in Hyderabad for a long weekend to attend a friend’s wedding and also to give our children a glimpse of south Indian history. Hyderabad epitomises many [...]