Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
The Chennai music season decoded: for Mint Lounge
Chuffed that Ranjani Gayathri posted this piece in their Facebook page (Ra-Ga). Nice acronym. Sat, Dec 07 2013. 12 09 AM IST The Chennai music season decoded A primer to Chennai’s music and dance festival Shoba Narayan Ranjani and Gayathri perform with Charumathi Raghuraman This is the time of year when my Klout score drastically increases. Thanks simply to the fact that I grew up in Chennai and am interested in music and dance, my popularity reaches an all-time high, with friends, acquaintances and even cordial enemies from across the globe asking about Chennai’s December season. It is also the [...]
Poetry reading.
If any of you are in Bangalore tomorrow, I am moderating a poetry reading by Athena Kashyap. Please come. I am fascinated by poetry: the musicality of it; how to make words sing; how to condense thought. So I thought I would engage Athena in a discussion about the whys and how of poetry writing. I will begin by having Athena talk about her book and read a short excerpt. And then, I will widen the scope to poetry in general. In preparation, I went to the site that I always turn to: The Paris Review Interviews. This time with [...]
Radio New Zealand
Educating Muslim girls for radio here
Storytelling
Telling stories allows us to connect with the wider world Shoba Narayan November 26, 2013 Updated: November 26, 2013 17:32:00 We live to tell stories. We make sense of life by telling them. We connect to people through stories. No matter what field you are in – whether it is philanthropy or public policy, engineering or economics, management or manufacturing – stories can connect you with your audience. They can help you make a point, persuade a group, or propagate an agenda. Stories connect content with emotion. They help you push buttons, inspire people to join a cause, and disseminate [...]
Wine Palate: how to figure it out: for Mint Lounge
Wine wisdom: figure out your palate The problem with wine-talk is that unless you are in the company of oenophiles, no matter what you say, it sounds pretentious. You can blather on about the bouquet of a good Frescobaldi or the greatness of the 2009 vintage. For the average person you might as well be talking about Gaussian elimination or Markov chains. Terms like bouquet, finish, and terroir mean specific things to experts but are meaningless to the general population. In India, the problem is compounded by the fact that imported wines are stored and transported in shoddy conditions, turning [...]
Failure and success
I talk about the sandbox, but harder still is to watch your kid shut you out of her college application process and not go crazy. If you let your kids fail, you might be doing them a favour Shoba Narayan November 19, 2013 Updated: November 19, 2013 19:36:00 It is a conundrum. Encountering obstacles and failures helps a child to develop grit and resilience, yet the hardest thing for a parent to do is to sit and watch as their child stumbles and falls. Angela Lee Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist, has said that grit and determination are surprisingly [...]
Why a dance is worth a thousand words: for Mint Lounge
Classical and folk dances are the best way to connect to your culture-- my view. Why a dance is worth a thousand words Seeing dance from an audience perspective is one thing. Doing it is another pleasure entirely One of the most stunning performance pieces that I saw this year was by actor Jyoti Dogra who used her India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) grant to create a piece called Notes on Chai. The piece had no accompaniments, music or props. It was just one woman—Dogra—on stage in a black costume. She began by making these weird sounds and nasal [...]
In the spirit of global philanthropy
In the spirit of global philanthropy The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Well-endowed: Wealthy Indians often donate to alma mater overseas, such as Harvard University. Wikipedia Updated: Thu, Oct 07 2010. 08 34 PM IST So Anand Mahindra has given $10 million (around Rs44.3 crore) to Harvard. I know, I know. I saw the emails too. “Why do India’s rich make large donations to foreign universities?” His money; his prerogative. And others have done it before him. The Murthys have donated $5.2 million to Harvard to establish the Murty Classical Library of India; the Nilekanis have donated $5 million for [...]
Indian Philanthropy
Thanks, Vidya, for pointing out that this wasn't there in my website. The big idea: Indian philanthropy Shoba Narayan Comment E-mail Print First Published: Sat, Aug 04 2007. 11 05 AM IST Vanaja Ramprasad wants to usher in a green revolution Updated: Tue, Aug 14 2007. 04 30 PM IST Philanthropy is a funny thing. All of us, and by that I mean the readership of this newspaper, have the urge to do good, give back, and effect change. Yet, each of us is bound by quirks and nostalgia. Many give to religious charities: Why do Amitabh Bachchan and the [...]
Diwali Generosity Challenge
An acquaintance pointed out that this wasn't in my website. Given it is the Giving Season, putting it back here. The diwali generosity challenge The Good Life | Shoba Narayan Comment E-mail Print First Published: Thu, Oct 28 2010. 11 57 PM IST Money-wise: Caring Friends makes charity easy, doing due diligence on your behalf. Updated: Thu, Oct 28 2010. 11 57 PM IST This one is for the NRIs and if any of you feels impelled to pass it along to, say, a Pandit, Khosla, Jain or Harilela, be my guest. This one’s for all you Silicon Valley and [...]