Travel Stories
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How to game ageing
One of the pleasures of my life is getting to know kids of my friends– kids we have seen grow up and spent time with over separate lunches and dinners (sans parents). And now they call us when they are in town, and come over to see us. Even though my kids may not agree, I like to think I am a "cool" aunty to the kids of my friends. This "coolness" list is equally for me to remember and follow.
Wine Searcher: Indian Wine
I use wine-searcher often to learn about the wines that I drink and also to figure out producers and trends. So it is a treat to write for them about, shall we say, an epic battle in the libations area. Read on.
Q&A with Round Glass Living
Round Glass, a digital platform did a Q&A with me and plugged my book. “Written in her chatty and self-deprecating style, Narayan travels around India…to partake of sacred foods and temple cuisine”
Book launches and authors in Bangalore
Can Bangalore as a city inspire tales, stories, books, films and more– in the way that London and New York have done, or Florence did during the Renaissance? What does it take for a city to foster the creative ferment?
Secrets of writing
Metaphors are the language of the psyche and the spirit. To fashion them, I have to be in touch with my inner world, a hard thing to do. That is the craft of writing.
Are your kids driving you nuts this summer?
Before scrapbooking became a verb, a subculture with its own norms, colour-coded pens, communities and hashtag, it was an object that my mother and grandmother owned. Perhaps yours did too. Ask your grandma.
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.