How to talk to elders: game their wisdom and learn from it
What is your strategy when you meet elders; those uncles you encounter at weddings? You sit with them, chat desultorily about their prostate, how hot Mumbai has become, and maybe reminisce about the ancestral home or village. The conversation ends abruptly after 5 minutes; and then both parties, with relief, turn to their devices.
Krishna, Rabdi and ladoos in Jaipur: Sacred Food: Mint on Sunday
Jaipur is a magical city. The colors, the food, the peacock calls.... latest installment of my food series here in Mint on Sunday Don't miss the "bombaat" video of the women singing.
Thank you Domain-B
For the plug here
The outrage over Manchurian ‘idli’: for Mint Lounge
The outrage over Manchurian ‘idli’ There are a hundred wonderful variations of this ancient, flawless dish. Why spoil it? It was on board a Vistara Airlines flight that I first tasted the ghastly concoction called idli manchurian. It was [...]
How to give (or how to clear out your closet)
This then is the long view of life. I view interactions as transactions. My parents view interactions as relationships. Post office personnel get invited home for festivals; and the man at the transport office gets new nightwear because he complained that his joints were aching in Bengaluru’s cold weather. As for me, I have a lot of spare room in my storage closet these days.
We are on the Delhi Metro
Rupa Publications puts its authors on the Delhi Metro
Can you smell and taste through cyberspace?
The killer app, at least in the fields of wine, perfume, cheese, or anything that relies on olfactory and gustatory sensations, will have nothing to do with curing male baldness. The killer app for wine and perfume will be the ability to transport scent and taste through cyberspace. If you could click on a wine bottle that is displayed on your computer and smell the aroma of the wine it contains, all the wine descriptions that we struggle to come up with will be rendered useless in an instant.
Can wine be described well? for Mint Lounge
KRSMA Estates has invited me to a tasting of their wines next week, and frankly, I am a little nonplussed. Robert M. Parker, the influential American wine critic, once described a Haut-Brion as having “a sweet nose of creosote, asphalt…” and an array of berries. Having never tasted asphalt, and having no idea what a creosote is, this description is absolutely useless to me.
My book talk at the Indian Institute of Science
This Friday, September 4th at 4 PM. Copies of my book will be available for sale. Please come if you can. Click below for the formal invite. CCS-20150904-Narayan The lecture will be held at the Centre for Contemporary Studies (CCS), IISc. [...]
Are you listening to the Kodaikanal rap?
The old woman in Palani—down the hill from Kodaikanal-- was trying to recruit me to be a movie extra. Muniamma looked like a rock star. She was about 80, with weathered skin about the colour of a coffee bean. She was clad in a soft white cotton sari sans blouse in the fashion of village women in Tamilnadu. Muniamma’s recruitment strategy was fool proof.
Videos to accompany Palani Hill & Kartikeya: Sacred Food: Mint on Sunday
My piece on Kartikeya, also called Skanda, was the cover story at Mint on Sunday. Best to read it here. Warning: it is long. I also made two videos to accompany the piece. You can see them in Youtube About the [...]
Radio New Zealand and Abdul Kalam
So they call from Christ Church on Skype on a rotating schedule of global correspondents. I shoot the breeze with the breezy anchor, Bryan Crump. This time: an ode to the late great Abdul Kalam; and movies that I liked. [...]