Recent neutrino oscillation data hint that the smallest neutrino mixing angle theta_{ 13} is possible to lie in the range 5^\circ \lesssim \theta_{ 13} \lesssim 12^\circ. We show that reasonable perturbations to the democratic mixing pattern, which is geometrically related to the tri-bimaximal mixing pattern through an equal shift \theta_* \simeq 9.7^\circ of two large mixing angles, can naturally produce a nearly tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing matrix V with sufficiently large theta_{ 13}. Two especially simple but viable scenarios of V are proposed and their phenomenological consequences are discussed.
Categories: hep-ph hep-ex