The National Abu Dhabi
Comment Essays for The National Abu Dhabi
In support of arguing
My friend said something about fighting couples ages ago that served as the seed for this article. We were talking about elderly couples who balk at doing stuff for each other-- particularly women. Caring for husbands during illness, that sort [...]
Why you may not be as cultured as you think: for Mint Lounge
Nice response to the piece below in Livemint website. I wish The Skeptarian, whoever she or he is had said some more. I don't agree with her or his notions about culture as talking to sweeper. That's my milklady version. [...]
Vintage cars
Have to write another article on inheriting collections. Don't think I gave a satisfactory answer to this very interesting question: are you doing your kids a favor by passing on your collection to them? Driven by a passion for possession [...]
Smartphone addiction
The seed of this piece came from Nilesh, a friend in Bombay, who posted a photo of Sony's phone-camera clip on his FB timeline. It looked cool. I started digging. I love my iPhone, perhaps more than I should. I [...]
Storytelling course
I am doing a "webinar" on Storytelling with Takshashila Foundation, a non-profit public policy think-tank co-founded and run by my friend, Nitin Pai. The description can be found here. I get nothing out of it. All proceeds go to Takshashila. [...]
New York Times: on Indian Girlhood
I wrote and rewrote this piece because it is a topic that I feel passionate about. Women are consensus seekers by nature and often, these voices paralyze action. They say that it takes a village to raise a child. But for girls, particularly in the East, it is also a matter of silencing voices and swimming against the village tide.
The Indian museum makeover 101: for Mint Lounge
This piece began with a simple question: why did we as a family visit museums so often while living in NYC and why don't we go to museums so often in India? Jazz Fridays was a favorite ritual for us [...]
Prema Srinivasan’s new book
My daughter wants to be a pastry chef. Study at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. She is 12 and has been saying this for the last two years. This morning, when she picked up Prema Srinivasan's new book, Pure Vegetarian, I [...]
The sari is neatly woven into my country’s social fabric: for The National Abu Dhabi
A piece on my favorite subject. The National Conversation The sari is neatly woven into my country's social fabric Shoba Narayan Aug 28, 2013 Different people have differing relationships with their country's traditional clothes. The Japanese, for instance, have eschewed [...]
Want the arts to flourish? Get educated: about museums for Mint Lounge
I've been visiting a lot of museums lately. And getting irritated by them. We charge so little as entrance fee. I would happily pay 300 Rupees for the Raja Ravi Varma museum in Trivandrum housed in an old mansion; or [...]
Elders fighting
My friends Anuja Master Bose and Sujata Kelkar gave me ideas for this piece. Thank you both. Why do elderly couples argue so much? Because they can Shoba Narayan Aug 21, 2013 Save this article I was sitting at a [...]
Spam
Why am I suddenly getting so much spam comments?