Blog
Still rooted where I left It
My parents and I planted a little Gulmohar sapling in front of our house when I was three years old. The story has been told so often that it’s part of me now, even though I can’t recall the details — what I was wearing, whether I helped dig the pit, or just played...
Babool: A Native’s Quiet Resistance
It must be very hard to be a native tree in the city. Not just because of the consistently drastic environmental changes post-Industrial Revolution, but also because of the amnesia that afflicts the city, as much as it does its inhabitants. One native tree, Babool...
Kadamba Showers & Ichigo Ichie Moments
A walk that became a conversation with the earth — soft, unplanned, and unforgettable. We didn’t step out looking for anything that morning. There was no agenda — just that soft sense of wanting to walk. And so, I went with my friend… letting the quiet of Lonavala...
A relationship arc with the Pala Indigo
Plant Blindness – the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment Researchers around the world raise alarms about plant blindness, they deem plant taxonomists an endangered species. The data tracks, we would be hard pressed to find the same...
Slow mornings with Trees
Over the last few months, my weeks begin on a Wednesday or a Thursday, depending on which of these days I choose to do my slow mornings. These are my days of blessings, reflections, and/or observation,s among other attributes, also based on how I choose to spend...
Amaltas: Golden Blooms, Gentle Echoes
Every year, as the early summer sun begins to stretch its arms across Mumbai, a quiet transformation takes place. The city, usually wrapped in shades of grey and green, bursts into sudden celebration—with streets and avenues lit up in a blaze of yellow. The Amaltas...
Life and Lessons Under the Banyan tree
It was a clear February day when I went for a trek in the Aravalli hills. The weather was just right — neither too hot nor too cold. As I walked through the rocky paths and dry bushes, I kept observing the small details around me: old trees, half-dried shrubs, and...
A Symphony of Green and Red: Finding Connection in Nature
One of the most tender gifts nature offers is how it gently pulls us into the present, without asking, without demanding, simply by being. It was the last Saturday of January, an early morning, when I found myself sitting quietly under a powder puff tree in a quiet...
Tiny Invaders
If you’ve ever been into a forest—and liked it—there’s probably something that stayed with you. For one of my friends, it was a tree he named the White Elephant. For another friend, it was a caterpillar that they could never identify. For me, during my time in the...
A Resumed Hobby – Identifying Flora with my Niece
On the full moon night of April’s pink moon, I walk with my five-year-old niece amidst mango showers in our colony, in hot and humid Bangalore. This time around, we observe plants, ants and tree barks. She surprised me with a peculiar flower that had bracts and was...
Semal trees
In April, it rains cotton in Delhi. The source of this cotton is the Semal tree or silk cotton tree which botanists call Bombax ceiba. It is for its showy, starfish-like scarlet flowers which bloom from February to March that city planners have adorned Delhi’s...
Arboreal Almanac
I often lose track of time. The pace of modern life is such. Sometimes days go by in such a blur, I have to check the calendar - What day is it exactly? Which month are we in? How long until the balmy summer gives way to cool rains? When will winter come? These are...