The National Abu Dhabi
Comment Essays for The National Abu Dhabi
How Bangalore has created Power Partnerships
This weeks Mint Lounge is a quirky take on Power Couples. It includes parent-child partnerships along with the usual spouses one. When my editors told me to write on "Power Couples," I wrote a sneering, snarky one that was (again) at attempt at humor. Thankfully, this meeting happened and I attended. So I asked if I could refile and substitute that one for this. Here is the piece on Mint's website and below. I hope BPAC flourishes.
Valentine’s Day
What are you doing this Valentine's Day? In which the author tackles this question for The National here They've given me a column and apparently, the paper has an illustration of me to accompany my pieces. Sad that I cannot [...]
Profile in Khabar
Longing to Belong By Deepa Padmanaban February 2013 Shoba Narayan is living in India and loving it. Why did Narayan, a successful author who spent some of her “best years” in the United States, go back to her homeland—and [...]
Chateau Haut-Brion: for Mint Lounge
How to sell old wine in new bottles Indians like irreverent mavericks. We don’t know what to do with the too-polished ones Shoba Narayan Prince Robert was in Bangalore to showcase Château Haut-Brion. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint. Prince Robert of Luxembourg was [...]
r2iclubforums
I have been following r2iclubforums for years and years. I have written about this forum in my book, Return to India. When I posted in the forum recently to publicize my book, the organizers came back to me with a [...]
Board Games
The board game theory of life India is the birthplace of many modern board games Shoba Narayan First Published: Fri, Jan 25 2013. 06 51 PM IST A watercolour painting of Shiv and Parvati playing chaupar. It is a simple [...]
The great bubbly paradox: how to choose Champagne: for Mint Lounge
A piece about my favorite beverage. I have been trying to write columns without using the letter "I" in it, as a kind of New Year resolution. This was very hard with this piece because my instinct was to begin [...]
Selling on Gumroad
A friend told me about this website that allows writers to sell directly without middlemen. What this means is that if you buy my book for $10, I will get about $9 instead of the $5 or so that other [...]
Gifting
A long time ago, my mother brought me some rasam. The scenario described below was acted out, except that I was the one talking about knee pain, and why make rasam. And my mother was the one saying those words. [...]
RIP dear Light of our current lives
Very busy Sunday-- writing and rewriting this piece in between hospital visits-- don't ask. At first, I included her name in the article. As my editor said, what's the point of asking them to name a law after her if we [...]
New Year Resolutions
January 3, 2013 New Year Resolutions: 1. To write a bit everyday on this page. 2. To develop self-control, particularly when it comes to the uncontrollable urge to scarf down potato chips at midnight. 3. To attempt humor-- carry over [...]
Wearing a burqa
Stereotypes interests me. Perception too. What image do you have when you hear a person's voice? Or read their work? How does this match up to reality? It was a real delight to meet this young Radio Jockey and hear [...]