Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid
Copa Del Ray It's the eve of the Indian election results and all my friends are doing a variety of things to keep themselves distracted from this nailbiting finish. I decided to sort through my photo library and discovered some photos of a recent trip to Barcelona-- that offered a different version of a nail-biting finish. The highlight of the trip was Copa Del Ray or the King's Cup finals at Valencia between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. It was the best sporting event that I have ever witnessed. I have watched football and basketball games at Madison Square Garden; [...]
Storytelling
I was asked to give a lecture for an hour to the "Mascots" of SAP Labs. These were the top 30 performers, the crème de la crème, the elite of the company. I suggested, "Storytelling in the Corporate Environment," as a topic. It was a stimulating session. One thing I learned was that incorporating storytelling into your corporate persona is a long-term project. A question was asked about how to do this in a time bound conference call with people in multiple continents. The only answer I could come up with was to use a storytelling-like phrase along with the [...]
Shangrila Paris
Remembering a lovely meal at the Shangrila Paris.
Sound of Indian Music
Wrote this for "Eat Stay Love" that is the in-house magazine for the Four Seasons Hotels among others. LOVE - 120-121 - Column - Shobha Narayan 2
Book about Indian Railways
Was happy to write for this book. The other contributors are terrific. Should be a good read.
For Silkroad Cathay Pacific on Dance
For Silk Road. May 2014 issue KA0514_p058-061_Bengalura dance
Gratitude
An attempt at being funny. I had the hardest thing trying to come up with a quote. I know that someone made a quote, which went something like...."dah dah dah...about" Was it grateful about? Happy about? Complain about? Trying searching for that. I googled Bernard Shaw, always reliably curmudgeon. Unsuccessful. Anyway, here it is. Opinion CommentConnect: facebook twitter Google Plus Radio: Classic FM Feed: rss I must try harder to be grateful for what I do not have Shoba Narayan May 6, 2014 Updated: May 6, 2014 17:57:00 You know what the problem with you is?” said my therapist in [...]
A female chef’s secret recipe for success for Quartz
A female chef’s secret recipe for success I was thrilled to meet this chef. She is casual and confident but underneath you can sense her resolve. It appeared in Quartz here. Carme Ruscellada i Serra looks like the seven-star Michelin chef that she is. I met her recently at her restaurant in Barcelona, Moments, to discuss Catalan cuisine, the Mediterranean diet, and why there are so few women chefs as successful as she. Like many of them, she downplays the role of gender in the high-temperature, high-testosterone world of restaurant kitchens. Running a 70-staff kitchen, according to Ruscellada, is not [...]
Nagging
The best way to make advice stick? Nag incessantly Shoba Narayan April 22, 2014 Updated: April 22, 2014 18:18:00 One of the perks of being a parent is that you get to offer advice to your children. One of the problems of being a parent is that you forget how little advice you took from your own parents. This inherent paradox is being played out in countless living rooms and dens in this, one of the peak seasons for parenting advice. In many parts of the world, students are applying to go to colleges abroad. The prospect of losing their [...]
Cricket Widow
Opinion The only option for a cricket widow is to play the game Shoba Narayan April 13, 2014 Updated: April 13, 2014 16:57:00 I am a cricket widow. I didn’t think I would be one. Indeed, in the early throes of marital harmony, I thought that my husband and I would do every activity together. He would watch my soap operas and I would watch sport. That ended within a month and now neither of us is clear as to who crushed the spousal camaraderie that had been the cornerstone of our marriage – or at least our vision of [...]