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Parent trap: Passing on the hurt from your parents to your children
Of all the hurts that life doles out, it is the pain from the ones closest to us that stings.
Thank you, Vanity Fair….
And then there are the stories by writers-first-cooks-second that are just particularly well-illustrated through food. Shoba Narayan’s 2003 Monsoon Diary describes growing up in Madras, India and summering in Kerala on the South Indian coast before making her way to Mount Holyoke—she fell in love with such new delicacies as blue corn nachos and salsa, but stayed devoted to the food she grew up with, like yoghurt rice, her preferred late night dorm snack.
Nothing Personal about comments from Indian aunties: just give it back
The comments rush out like a tsunami, flattening young and fragile egos (Getty Images)
Strawberries on a train in India
What is it about train travel that evokes so much love and nostalgia amongst Indians?
Seeking Jamdanis and nostalgia in a Kolkata hotel-mansion
Travel: Kolkata: As much as the city changes, its soul remains the same
Wedding across cultures: how to connect with the extended clan
We may be divided by culture, food and customs, but one thing binds all of us: the desire to preserve family ties
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.