Finding Paradise

Slowly but surely, over annual harvests of sweet-sour tamarind, fragrant golden turmeric and plump yelakki baaLe, endless hassles with power supply and labour, many a gaffe and heartache, and eventful encounters with fellow-residents of the wild variety, Navilu Kaadu natural farm is morphing into our own little paradise.

A Tree Lost, A Tree Gained

Nearly two years after we set foot on Navilu Kaadu, we realized with much heartache that two full-grown banyan trees once adorned our land. Visiting farmhands described the trees they…

Tree Tales from Nagarahole

What is the link between Agatha Christie and Nagarahole? Can a tree start quarrels? Water from a tree trunk? An elephant’s favourite treat of a tree? The only tree that hosts the larvae of the leaf miner moth? A tree species with separate male and female trees?

Many of us perceive trees as insentient beings. Do you wonder then like I often do, as to how trees in their stillness and quiescence, radiate life, warmth, serenity, love, abundance and vibrancy all at once in mysterious ways that no other walking, trotting, slithering, running, hopping, talking, grunting or roaring being can?

A Graceful Life

My beloved grandmother passed away peacefully on the 10th of May 2020. This is the unedited version of my tribute to her, serendipitously published in Reader’s Digest on her eleventh day ceremony. Grateful for a beautiful childhood around her.
Link to the Reader’s Digest tribute here.

Waterfowl Census 2020: Bengaluru Lakes on the Brink

This article is the unedited version of the final article published on JLR Explore, the official blog of Jungle Lodges and Resorts.

The Waterfowl Census 2020 left Arnav, me and other volunteers in wonder, fascination, and dismay in the same vein.
It is a surprise that our sorry excuses for lakes and wetland habitats are still deemed worthy of annual visits by many migratory bird species, though dwindling in numbers as the years progress.

Trees that Raised me

Beneath their shady boughs, the neem, copper pod, jamun, sampige, gooseberry and many more trees in Annaiah and Ammaaji’s flourishing garden, raised two entire generations of children as they played, squabbled, made-up, laughed, cried and eventually grew up and moved out of this cosy haven to the wide world beyond.

Drought, Deluge and the Death of a Tree

When a banyan is felled to make up for crop loss, who compensates the squirrels, the hornbills, barbets and the bee-eaters, parakeets, mynas, the wasps and the bees, and so many more beings for the colossal loss they suffer??