The National Abu Dhabi
Comment Essays for The National Abu Dhabi
Characters
Children remember the oddest things. If you have kids around you; kids that visit you from time to time, you might want to consider the kind of person you are and personify. This one is written with Prabha-mami and Nagarajan-mama [...]
Overlearning
Came upon this concept in an interesting way. Thank you, Ms. Anjana (kathak teacher) for the idea. Practice makes perfect in classical Indian dance classes Shoba Narayan October 1, 2013 Updated: October 1, 2013 17:27:00 Save this article Alaa Ahmed [...]
Regional aesthetics
I am wrestling with the whole notion of culture, identity, tradition, aesthetics, and how to infuse them into my life. How to embody these things? By wearing a sari? After years of being an atheist and then becoming a agnostic, [...]
Bangalore Literature Festival
Is this weekend. Please attend if you are in Bangalore. I am in a panel on Sunday afternoon (the 29th) from 1 to 2 pm. It is about rewriting the rules of romance and reminiscence. In bold below. But the [...]
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 [...]