Renuka Narayanan is a commentator and columnist on religion and culture.
Articles by Renuka Narayanan
Keep calm and watch Wentworth Miller
With all the win-lose angst around cricket about right now, I find myself identifying with some of the stuff reportedly said about and by American actor Wentworth Miller.
Updated on Feb 22, 2015 03:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
Words of hope for health and happiness
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart,” said Mahatma Gandhi, whose anniversary of martyrdom we observed on Friday.
Updated on Feb 01, 2015 05:26 PM IST
None | Renuka Narayanan
'God' is man's creation, born of our emotional need
In my view, an ashtapadi takes you to the heart of Sanatana Dharma so directly that you can put away anything you ever read about 'Hinduism'.
Updated on Jan 18, 2015 02:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
Bharat Ratna: It's not for 'useful citizens', it's for politicians and entertainers
It's politicians and entertainers (a sportsman is an entertainer) who seem to get the Bharat Ratna. Those who do really useful things for the Indian people, like the citizens behind our food revolution and milk revolution, don't seem to count.
Updated on Jan 04, 2015 03:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
A new year message from within our gut
Food we eat so sanctimoniously is actually eaten by tiny bugs inside us that are primarily responsible for keeping us alive. Your bugs are used to one kind of food while my bugs are used to another kind of food, that's all. The more different we think we all are, the more similar we are proved to be.
Updated on Dec 28, 2014 02:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
Christmas is not a festival but a feeling
Hindus seem to be celebrating Christmas this year with a zest that's quite remarkable even for this party-loving faith.
Updated on Dec 21, 2014 01:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
Krishna and Buddha: Were they similar? A cold, clear look at the patterns
I recently saw a Facebook post that imagined that the Buddha came up to Arjun kneeling at Kurukshetra and Krishna and it set me reviewing the curious similarities between avatar eight, Krishna, and avatar nine, the Buddha.
Updated on Dec 07, 2014 12:37 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
Would you like to sin on a tiger skin: What is Hinduism?
Why should Hindus remain the only ones to float free to engage and disengage as they please? It's wonderful that Hindus held fast through the millennia. But now that nobody can tell a Hindu what to do, isn't it time someone did?
Updated on Nov 23, 2014 12:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
Suffer little children to come unto me
Children’s Day is a meaningless farce and best discontinued if, after all these decades, an educated girl feels she must thank a violent father for letting her live.
Updated on Nov 16, 2014 01:49 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
On the loveliest night of the year
It's not always a good idea to leave town for the long weekend. I discovered this in August on a trip to Simla.
Updated on Nov 09, 2014 02:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
A Flowering Tree and other Oral Tales from India: The art of attracting really good fortune
The gods of good fortune prefer clean places to dirty ones. It is as straight as that. A lively folk endorsement of this proven life code in Kannada is translated by the late great AK Ramanujan (1929-1993) in the collection called A Flowering Tree and other Oral Tales from India.
Updated on Nov 02, 2014 03:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
Radical chic from an uber minimalist
Many Indians are already engaged in atithi bhojana and earning merit thereby. In case we have not had the time or opportunity to practice that ourselves, reviewing our attitude to fine clothes and jewellery and dedicating a portion of those expenses as 'Dipavali zakat' could be an elegant personal way to light up, by lightening up.
Updated on Oct 19, 2014 02:31 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
Having it all, more than we know: India will transcend regressive elements
That picture of our rejoicing women space scientists was fantastic. Transcending its own culturally regressive elements, this India will and shall move positively ahead, its women scientists wearing flowers in their hair.
Updated on Sep 28, 2014 12:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
The birthday of the holy Bhagavad Gita
This year, Gita Jayanti falls on December 13. It commemorates the discourse called the Bhagavad Gita or God Song that was revealed by Sri Krishna to Arjuna on the first day of the 18-day battle in the Mahabharata. Renuka narayanan writes.
Updated on Dec 08, 2013 12:54 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
Old and new tales from the Coromandel
The acquittal at Pondicherry of the two Acharyas of the Kanchipuram Matth and of all the others brings fresh energy to Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal’s lifecode of pushing beyond the limits of old-style worldviews despite the challenges.
Updated on Nov 30, 2013 11:38 PM IST
Stories for policemen and other unsensitised men
Going by the reactions to the news of the week, perhaps there has really been a shift after the tragedy of Nirbhaya in how the Indian public views things.
Updated on Nov 23, 2013 11:37 PM IST
Now why does this sound so familiar?
We, who worship gods and goddesses with noticeably Greco-Roman ways — and also deal with the ‘system’ so comically described in ‘The Ordeal of Richard Feverel’ by George Meredith in 1859.
Updated on Nov 16, 2013 11:20 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
The right to measure that methane
From the ‘chintan-manthan’ on Mangalyaan emerged this gem that our rocket cost less than an apartment in uptown Manhattan. Well done, India, sending out an inter-planetary spacecraft with more dash than cash. Mangalyaan, whose further success we most earnestly want, is an exciting outcome delivered despite the usual challenges.
Updated on Nov 10, 2013 02:04 AM IST
Possibly the strongest relationship on earth
According to a news report this week, there are as many as seven TV serials on air or under process based on works of Indian fiction. Some of these stories were written a hundred years ago but their content is both relevant and interesting today. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Oct 27, 2013 01:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
'As bountiful as mines of India'
Amidst all the exciting talk of pre-election scenarios and what-if cocktail conversations, it occurs to me that our attitude to India is exactly like our attitude to religion. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Sep 28, 2013 11:13 PM IST
‘Papa, ich liebe das exotische’
The thorns attached to Nina Davuluri’s crown and the consequent smiting and blighting, wuthering and blasting going on in America and at home make me realize with some astonishment that I have never been made to feel bad about myself because I am dark-skinned
Updated on Sep 22, 2013 03:08 AM IST
Keeping one's solemn word of honour
In these times of unbelief in almost everything, it is sobering to recall a word of honour given in 1459 that has been kept to this day. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Sep 08, 2013 02:29 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
Greed and the gold beneath the grime
With the rupee clattering to the floor, it's nice to remember the jataka that helps us reach a quality of inner life that does not depend on retail therapy, though it is super-soothing to walk into a bookshop or a supermarket and not have to pay upfront.
Updated on Aug 31, 2013 11:10 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
And they walked away from the money?
As the rupee plummets and an FB post advises a self-imposed national bandh on using petrol for just one week to put the economy back, it’s hard not to think of people in our tradition who had it all. They had wealth enough for the next seven generations and they walked away from it.
Updated on Aug 25, 2013 12:10 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
The man we love to hate and bait
For the 67th anniversary of our Independence here’s a cheer for Thomas Babington Macaulay. His ‘Minute on Education’ in 1835 arguing for the promotion of the English language over Sanskrit and Arabic, now seems startlingly forward-looking and objective, citing England’s own case.
Updated on Aug 17, 2013 10:56 PM IST
Grace notes of orange blossom underneath
It cannot be denied that beyond the ‘little nobodies from nowhere playing at being king and queen’ there were interesting goras too in our past who took care to document and add to our natural heritage. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Aug 11, 2013 12:47 AM IST
A pilgrim’s progress many moons ago
Seeing groups of kavadiyas out on the roads in Asadh brings back the tirtha yatra undertaken in the eight century by Padmapada, one of Adi Sankara’s four chief disciples. The story goes that Padmapada yearned to go on pilgrimage and begged very hard for permission. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Aug 03, 2013 10:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan, New Delhi
A hundred percent ‘pure item’ person only
Ah, India, the land of lists way before Western magazines. Listing qualities through comparisons is such an old cultural reflex that you wonder if old-style people, however well-meaning, fully realise how impolite it sounds today if they objectify women as of yore. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Jul 28, 2013 01:43 AM IST
The white saviour complex and Asia
It is very common in Thailand to see elderly men have very young wives, and yet more Thai women have careers and own businesses than in many other Asian cultures. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Jul 21, 2013 04:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Renuka Narayanan
A Sufi story on freedom and life
With the holy month of Ramzan upon us, an old Sufi story comes to mind that could well have originated in India, from one of those ancient anthologies. Renuka Narayanan writes.
Updated on Jul 13, 2013 10:44 PM IST