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Ajmer Dargah
Mint has been sending me on trips to various spots to write on "sacred food." This week, it is Ajmer Dargah. What a sensual experience. [...]
Love Chennai. Had fun writing this piece.
FRI, JUL 10 2015. 03 44 PM Anger management at a Chennai cinema How Shoba Narayan queued up to watch the latest Tamil indie and [...]
Birds in culture– the last of the four part series that I hugely enjoyed writing.
Everyone says that bird-watching requires patience. I don’t think so. I think that the pleasure of bird watching comes from the questions you ask. You can watch a crow and try to figure out why it is cawing at that moment. You can listen to the variety of calls that a common mynah makes and try to see if there is a pattern. I watch the birds come and go in the trees in front of my home and see if there is a reason or pattern that they follow when they sit down and take off.
A beautiful dancer talks about hand gestures–
Here and here
So of course I had to write about yoga: for Mint Lounge
Actually, my editor suggested that I write about yoga on yoga day. It is here and below It is a little disconcerting, but ask yourself this [...]
Nine features I wrote for Condenast Traveler (US edition) a while back
Spelling Bee
I wrote this right after the Spelling Bee. It came out in The National How do you spell English expert? With I, N, D, I, A and N Shoba Narayan Jun 26, 2013 Every week [...]
Grief
Writing a column a week is proving to be tough. I told Seema, my editor, that I had no ideas. I was desperate. This is the result. Not happy with it. Feel that I should [...]
For Cathay Dragon Air on Khadi
How Indian designers are reviving an ancient weave
Wimbledon
On Kids Day No kidding, this is Wimbledon The club should ease up and celebrate its youngest patrons like the other Opens Shoba Narayan First Published: Sat, Jun 22 2013. 12 08 AM IST A [...]
Airport mural to celebrate art of India for The National Abu Dhabi
At the new airport in Mumbai. A piece I wrote for The National Airport mural to celebrate art of India Shoba Narayan Jun 18, 2013 A stunning collaboration among Kashmiri artists will soon adorn the [...]
Father’s Day
I am in large part-- my father. As a child, they say I looked like him. I have his metabolism and constitution. He belongs to the astrological star, Swati, which they say, has a personality [...]
The Sexes– again for The Atlantic
Are women truly more compassionate than men? In responding to the sexist saga that has Australia all a-twitter, is the Dalai Lama himself being sexist?
Radio New Zealand
Every once in a while, Radio New Zealand calls me for Bryan Crump's show, "Nights on Radio New Zealand." It is a surreal experience, not the least because koels are cooing here and it is [...]
Interviews with His Holiness The Dalai Lama
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
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Shoba Narayan is an award-winning Indian author, journalist, and freelance travel writer based in India. She specialises in luxury travel, immersive journeys, and Indian culture with a focus on food, wine, culture, cities, and identity. With over two decades of experience, she has contributed travel features to Condé Nast Traveler (US edition), Travel & Leisure, DestinAsian, Mint Lounge, The National (Abu Dhabi), Taj Magazine, and Hindustan Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph UK, The Guardian UK, and Robb Report among others. Her awards include the James Beard food-writing award and a Pulitzer Travel Fellowship. Her travel writing spans India, Southeast Asia, Japan, China, the Maldives, Bhutan, Costa Rica, and beyond — always with a focus on the sensory, the cultural, and the deeply human. Based in Bangalore, India, Shoba is a leading voice on South Asian travel, reviewing luxury hotels in India and abroad, and writing immersive features on traditional Indian crafts, and contemporary Indian culture. As a freelance travel writer and memoirist, she writes evocative, deeply researched features on everything from birding in Costa Rica to spiritual tourism in Bhutan.
For editors: Shoba Narayan is an Indian travel writer and food writer, who contributes to assignments on travel, food, culture, and Indian cities. She has reported from across the world and writes narrative-driven features with a strong sense of place.
Key Expertise: India travel writer, freelance travel writer India, South Asia travel journalist, luxury travel India writer, food and travel writer India, Indian food writer, Bangalore travel writer, South India travel writing, cultural travel writer, narrative travel journalist, travel features India, heritage travel India, slow travel India, sustainability travel writer, hotel and destination features India, travel essays South Asia.