Home - Shoba Narayan

Aramness Gir: for Destinasian

Featured, Travel

For Indians, the jungle is the original storybook where our epics unfolded: a space both sacred and transformative. But Gir is the only place where you can see the Asiatic Lion.

Soneva Maldives: for Mint Lounge

Featured, Luxury, Travel

Just outside my cottage at the Soneva Fushi resort was a coral reef. Several times a day, I walked out into the sea and start swimming with my flippers.

Birding in Costa Rica: for Condenast Traveler US

Featured, Travel

We were in Monteverde, the second leg of my family's eight-day-trip through Costa Rica. Our itinerary was tight. We would fly into San José, the capital, rent a car, and drive the La Fortuna region where the dormant Arenal volcano loomed over the landscape like a benevolent pyramid. From there it would be onward to Monteverde,...

Luxury Bhutan: for The National, Abu Dhabi

Featured, The National, Travel

I am crawling on all fours on a bund between the emerald paddy fields in Punakha Valley, Bhutan. Ahead is the fabled Mo Chu river. All around, perched on hillsides are Buddhist nunneries and monasteries, their prayer flags bringing to mind a Matisse print. This is Bhutan: carbon-negative, Buddhist and a pioneer in sustainable tourism....

The welcome "lemon" at the Park Hyatt hotel, Sydney

Australian Restaurants: for Khaleej Times Dubai

Featured, Food, Travel

Some time ago, I took a trip to New South Wales, Australia. Here are six Sydney restaurants that I tried and loved.

The Dalai Lama: for HT Brunch

Featured, Profiles, Spirituality

Where I sit with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for an hour and ask him about life, love, meditation, wisdom and ageing. His Holiness is a person like no other in today’s world. Statesman, Nobel Laureate, spiritual leader of the Tibetans who view him as God, or at least the manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the...

Jasmine Perfume: for Travel & Leisure US

Featured, Travel

Can India be the source of the best jasmine extract in the world?

Travel Stories

Latest Articles

Emotional ecstasy: painter V. Ramesh

Shoba Narayan2020-06-17T15:03:51+05:30February 3rd, 2014|

The painter, V. Ramesh, is sitting cross-legged on the floor of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bangalore, talking about four female poets and their experience of mysticism. All around us are Ramesh’s large canvases, depicting these four women poets who have been a source of inspiration for his recent work. Ramesh discovered them in the library of the Ramana ashram in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu.

About Subodh Gupta for The National Abu Dhabi

Shoba Narayan2020-07-03T10:57:20+05:30February 3rd, 2014|

The NGMA Delhi has this retrospective. Would be great to visit if you are in Delhi. Arts & Culture Art Subodh Gupta the Damien Hirst [...]

Singing Carnatic Music

Shoba Narayan2023-07-19T19:56:45+05:30January 26th, 2014|

Even if practice doesn’t make perfect, I will keep singing Music and dance are the keys to success, writes Shoba Narayan. Shoba Narayan Jan [...]

Drama Therapy

Shoba Narayan2014-01-26T17:49:08+05:30January 26th, 2014|

FIRST PUBLISHED: SAT, JAN 25 2014. 12 57 AM ISTHOME» LEISURE» THE GOOD LIFE Experiencing the power of theatre as therapy A drama therapy workshop [...]

Carnatic Music vs. Harry Potter

Shoba Narayan2023-07-19T19:38:59+05:30January 18th, 2014|

Like jazz, Carnatic music allows for a lot of improvisation. Most concerts begin with improvisation. We call it alapana. And like jazz riffs, you can traverse the musical universe with your imaginative singing and then return to the base, in time with the beat, of course. It is this bit that I cannot do. I can learn and render countless straightforward compositions, but I don’t have the imagination and confidence for improvisation.