Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
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In the TOI about the reading. From: elisabeth Subject: Tr : Page 3 Date: February 25, 2014 at 8:21:56 AM GMT+5:30 To: Shoba Narayan <shoba@shobanarayaha ha!! would you like to come to a high tea with me and Magali at the Ritz Carlton on Wed 5 March (11:30 am to 14 pm) ? E. Le Mardi 25 février 2014 3h15, Magali <
Moevenpick
Yesterday, the chef at my reading at Moevenpick Hotel and Spa in Bangalore had done such a nice job with recipes from Monsoon Diary. He had put a contemporary 'five-star' spin on the recipes from the book. My favorite was the poha-stuffed-in-papad and displayed by making holes in what looked like lavash bread. Very creative.
Perfume and communing with god: Mint Lounge
Don't understand Mint's headline for this piece. What does will o wisps mean? Maybe from a poem. But I find this notion of ancient humans communing with the heavens through wisps of smoke very touching. Scents are fascinating. Fragrance, will-o’-the-wisps and prayer How do you scent your home? Do you use oriental lilies and tuberose? The best scents create memories for residents and visitors Mutrah Souq in Muscat, Oman, is not as large as Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, nor is it as visually interesting. Most of the bigger shops that sell frankincense, spices, nuts and attar are run by Indians. At [...]
NGOs help girls in rural India tackle female illiteracy, gender inequality: for The National Abu Dhabi
This was part of a trip with CARE USA where we visited an NGO called Udaan/Join My Village. The tour was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was an unexpected pleasure to meet my friend, Michael Pelletier, back in India as Deputy US Consul at the reception. Thanks to this trip, I have become interested in girl-child education, community engagement in change, and public health (maternal mortality, infant mortality). The photos are by Josh Estey NGOs help girls in rural India tackle female illiteracy, gender inequality The tour bus pulls into a dusty lane in rural Mewat, [...]
Book Reading
My friend, Meena runs a book club that is affiliated with the Moevenpick Hotel and Spa in Bangalore. Meena invited me to do a book reading at the hotel. Since there is a food element involved, I thought I would do something that I have not done in Bangalore-- talk about and read from my first book, "Monsoon Diary: a memoir with recipes." The hotel's chef is making recipes from the book as well. Since someone asked, there is no fee for this. There will however be beautifully designed hardcover editions of Monsoon Diary for sale at a discounted price [...]
CARE USA Learning tour
I went on a tour with CARE USA to look at education, public health, and maternal mortality issues. The trip included some chiefs of staff of US congressmen and women. It was fascinating to interact with them and see how the US Congress functions. It was amazing to see the work done by the several NGOs that we visited in Bihar, Agra, and Delhi. I hope to write some pieces based on the trip. Photos of the trip here Video of the trip here Trip report here
Parsi gara
The sari I liked cost about 100,000 Rupees so I didn't buy any from this line. The grace and movement of ‘gara’ Our handcrafted products may be unusual, original, colourful, and wildly creative. But they lack finish E-mailPrint Shoba Narayan Mail Me Ashdeen Lilaowala creates ‘gara’ saris It is fashionable amongst engineers and systemic solution experts to talk about India’s last mile problem. It applies to roads, power plants, and pretty much any type of construction, they will say. Indian workmen will work diligently and dutifully through the project. At the last mile, when things are to be smoothened and [...]
The world’s got ‘talent’
Opinion Comment If the world’s got talent, how come all of us aren’t famous? Shoba Narayan February 4, 2014 Updated: February 4, 2014 18:51:00 The whole world, it seems, has got “talent” – or at least they have, if the slew of TV shows that use the word in their title are to be believed. But how do you acquire it, or are you born with talent? There are books and essays by Malcolm Gladwell, among others, that talk about the “10,000 hour rule”, and suggest you can be talented if you practise any particular discipline for more than 10,000 [...]
For The National Abu Dhabi on Oman Shopping
About incense, frankincense, perfumes, dishdashas and things to buy in Oman
Emotional ecstasy: painter V. Ramesh
The painter, V. Ramesh, is sitting cross-legged on the floor of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bangalore, talking about four female poets and their experience of mysticism. All around us are Ramesh’s large canvases, depicting these four women poets who have been a source of inspiration for his recent work. Ramesh discovered them in the library of the Ramana ashram in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.