Travel Stories
The Leela Delhi: Hotel Review: Mint Lounge
Is anyone listening to the guest? 4 min read 27 Oct 2011, 09:23 PM IST The Good life | Shoba Narayan Small bites: Try the fresh salads from Egypt, Morocco and all over the Mediterranean, [...]
For Cathay Pacific magazine on Beer
Why Bangalore is the city for craft beers
For Destinasian on Kashmir
Up high in the Kashmir valley where flowers and maidens bloom.
For Mint Lounge India on Delhi nightlife
A Phantom and Other Nocturnal Animals 5 min read . Updated: 25 Aug 2011, 10:01 PM IST The Good Life | Shoba Narayan There is one thing that we Bangaloreans mourn: the [...]
For Cathay Pacific Magazine on Architecture
Why Bangaloreans care so much about old buildings and neighbourhoods.
Tai Chi in Shanghai & Beijing | Condenast Traveler US |
I have come to China from my home in Bangalore, India, to find a tai chi teacher. My pursuit of tai chi has been punctuated by such cultural challenges. When I informed my conservative Indian family that I was interested in tai chi, they were appalled. Why was their Indian child, heir to an ancient and proud tradition of yoga leaning toward an alien discipline?
Financial Times: New Zealand
Culinary cornucopia in Christchurch and beyond.
Financial Times: Manila
Finding beauty and spas in Manila.
Financial Times: Asian Fusion
Articles > Newspapers > Financial Times > Asian Fusion Asian Fusion - By Shoba Narayan (This article originally appeared in January 2003) Asian fusion in all but name Shoba Narayan finds a Singapore four [...]
Latest Articles
Poem: in these eyes lie ancient secrets: in The Madras Courier
in these ears lie ancient secrets (a riff on the film Roja) she tickles my ear with a golden brush i wake [...]
Poem: Crows and ancestors: in Indian Literature
Crows and ancestors A crow, dead? Hung from an Indian elm tree, splayed like black shorts on a fickle clothesline, except this was [...]
Poem :The price of tomatoes: in Indian Literature
The price of tomatoes the other day, Ma told me that she regretted not climbing Mt. Kailash seven decades ago then she asked for [...]
WisdomCircle: Mental Models
No matter what the field, there are three things that all of us need for success. The first and the foundational factor is content, by which I mean talent, knowledge, expertise, rigour, all of these that each of us have learned and cultivated since childhood in our chosen field. The second is attitude, which is the set of character traits that each of us have, either through genetics, through how we were parented, or because of the circumstances of our particular life. The third factor is projection, which has become increasingly important in this digital age. It refers to how comfortable we are with being well-known, either in our chosen field or adjacent ones.
Hindustan Times: Inclusion
How did the MacArthur Foundation with an annual budget of about $160 million, a staff of around 250 people and a jury of about a dozen become so spectacularly inclusive not just in terms of gender parity but also in every other domain? The answer is both obvious and very hard to achieve: by acknowledging their bias, and actively seeking to overcome it.
Hindustan Times: Show your love
An uncle passed away. At his funeral and subsequent days, I witnessed an outpouring of love and from his family, relatives, people he mentored and neighbours. All of which led me to wonder about the age-old question: what will your obituary say? What will people say about you after you are gone? What will they speak about at your memorial service? Which is another way of asking: who are you and what do you project to the world?
Nine features I wrote for Condenast Traveler (US edition) a while back
Interviews with His Holiness The Dalai Lama
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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.