Kathak Maya Rao
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.
For The National Abu Dhabi on Barcelona
Ah Barcelona! If you are an architecture or design or sports buff, or a foodie, this is the city to go to. Travelling with kids: When shopping abroad is a holiday July 24, 2014 Updated: July 24, 2014 05:31 PM [...]
Indian Railways
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 [...]
Clubs and dress code
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 [...]
Living Will
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 [...]
Day 4: July 18 2014
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 [...]
Day 3: July 17 2014
From now on, updates will appear on the meditation page
Day 1: July 15, 2014
Did Brahmari Pranayama 11 times yesterday.
The Meditation Project
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 [...]
Mindfulness
To be obsessed with meditation seems like defeating the purpose. My problem is that I still haven't conquered this. How to sit "simply" and stare into space aka unfocus your eyes? How didn't all those rishis that I read about [...]
Takshashila and Deepak Nayyar
This promises to be a great event. Ummm....my husband is moderating and an organization that I am part of is organizing.
Intuition/Imagination for Mint Lounge
Leap before you think Before he began Apple, Steve Jobs spent seven months in India, something that is described in his biography by Walter Isaacson. In it, Jobs talks poetically about the difference between intellect and intuition. “The people in [...]