The National2020-06-17T19:48:20+05:30

THE NATIONAL, ABU DHABI COLUMNS ON RELATIONSHIPS, FINANCE, POLITICS, GENDER, FASHION AND POLITICS 358 posts
408, 2014

College Bound

August 4th, 2014|Comment Essays|

Thanks to all the advice-givers of this piece. University is a time for discovery, exploration ... and even purple hair Shoba Narayan August 4, 2014 Updated: August 4, 2014 04:20 PM ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow,” said Shakespeare in Romeo [...]

208, 2014

Arranging everyday objects into art: for Mint Lounge

August 2nd, 2014|Arts | Culture, Comment Essays|

The other day, my husband came to the dining table and said, “Where are the serving spoons?” “In between the frangipani flowers, dearest,” I said. A bunch of children from the building ran in, exclaiming that they were ravenously hungry. Saturday night is Maggi night in my house and as a result, we become the most popular family in my building. Shelfies are all the rage in the virtual universe of photographs. These are artful arrangements of objects that people photograph and upload on photo-sharing sites like Instagram.

2707, 2014

Kathak Maya Rao

July 27th, 2014|Arts | Culture, Comment Essays|

Certain art forms are more connected with a country’s culture than others. To understand Russia, you have to know chess and ballet—the Mariinsky and Bolshoi styles, and names such as Vaslav Nijinsky, Svetlana Zakharova and, of course, Rudolf Nureyev. To appreciate England, you really need to know theatre—Shakespeare of course, but also West End. Fashion is a prism through which you can understand the French; rhythm the in-road into Africa. If you know and understand the tea ceremony and raku ceramics, you will understand the Japanese sensibility.

2207, 2014

Indian Railways

July 22nd, 2014|Books|

To understand India, you need to have ridden on a train. One more plug for this fab book. Okay, so I have a piece in it, so not entirely a dispassionate observation. But cricket, Bollywood, food and trains are (so [...]

2207, 2014

Clubs and dress code

July 22nd, 2014|Comment Essays|

It is a tough call to balance the gentility of wearing appropriate attire and tradition with moving with the times. I have been thrown out of country clubs in the US and in India for wearing wrong clothes--or rather for [...]

1907, 2014

Living Will

July 19th, 2014|Wellness | Spirituality|

This is a horrendously complicated topic. To get an idea, just imagine writing a living will yourself: when would you pull the plug on you? There needs to be a medical counselor to help with this sort of stuff. The [...]

1807, 2014

Day 4: July 18 2014

July 18th, 2014|Books|

I am so mad. I woke up at 3 AM and surfed the Internet for two hours, looking at Hermes and Louis Vuitton bags. Fell asleep at 5 AM and woke up at 630 again. I could've meditated but I [...]

1407, 2014

The Meditation Project

July 14th, 2014|Wellness | Spirituality|

My inability to meditate properly is really stressing me out Shoba Narayan July 14, 2014 Updated: July 14, 2014 05:26 PM In his book, Focus: The Hidden Ingredient of Excellence, author Daniel Goleman talks about the different kinds of [...]

Subscribe to my newsletter

Go to Top