Bengaluru in April

I have come back to Bengaluru for a while—long enough, hopefully, to continue understanding something of its temperament. It is a city that both fascinates and unsettles me: in the feel and fragrance of its air, in the interplay of its sounds and silences, and above all, in the restless energy of its people. ToContinue reading “Bengaluru in April”

The Unseen Orchestra

After months away—across continents and climates, through the tempered quiet of New York/New Jersey and the restless, choking urgency of Delhi—my return to Bengaluru has been, above all else, a return to sound. Not the sound of traffic or human industry, though those are never far, but something older, gentler, and far more enduring—the quiet,Continue reading “The Unseen Orchestra”

An Evening that Spoke for the “Third World”

The gathering was not large. Yet it was the kind of gathering where numbers quietly surrender to thought. On that evening, we had assembled to release a collection of poems titled तीसरा जहाँ, written by Savita Jain ‘Savi’, herself a retired senior government functionary. The book explores the lives, pains, hopes, aspirations and quiet resilience ofContinue reading “An Evening that Spoke for the “Third World””

Eyes of the Earth:  Punta Cana’s Indigenous Forest Reserve

Punta Cana is often spoken of in the language of beaches—turquoise waters, powdered-sugar sands, coconut groves bending into Caribbean winds. Yet, just a short distance from the familiar rhythm of surf and sun lies a quieter, older heartbeat: a 15,000-acre subtropical forest that the sea breezes seem to guard like a secret. Known today asContinue reading “Eyes of the Earth:  Punta Cana’s Indigenous Forest Reserve”

Maple: The Flame of Autumn

Not to speak of maples when the world of trees is considered would be a serious omission. But not to speak of them in autumn would be nothing short of a sacrilege. There are trees that announce themselves with grandeur, others that shelter us in silence, and yet a few that live in memory because of a single,Continue reading “Maple: The Flame of Autumn”

The Radiance of Fall

On Beauty, Transience, and the Grace of Letting Go Each morning and evening, as I walk through the quiet streets of Short Hills (New Jersey), I am met by an astonishing theatre of transformation. The maples that only weeks ago stood in tranquil green now burn in gold, in orange, in impossible crimson. Every dayContinue reading “The Radiance of Fall”

The Oak-A tree of Time, Myth, and Memory- VI

In Memory and Intimacy: A Personal Companion  “The tree is the slowest, most patient of all living things. To sit beneath one is to be reminded of what endures when everything else passes.”— John Fowles If myth made the oak divine, and art made it eternal, then memory makes it beloved. There are trees weContinue reading “The Oak-A tree of Time, Myth, and Memory- VI”

The Oak-A Tree of Time, Myth, and Memory – Part V

Oaks in Thought, Word, and Image: Literature, Art, and Human Creativity “Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” -Shakespeare (As You Like It, Act II, Scene I) John Constable, The Cornfield (1826), National Gallery, London. If in myth the oak stood as a sacred emblem, and in ecologyContinue reading “The Oak-A Tree of Time, Myth, and Memory – Part V”

Oak and Spirit: The Silent Alchemy

(The oak–liquor relationship finds expression in the cadence and emotional charge of this poem. Its imagery, symbolism, and metaphorical resonance seeks a distillation that is  both timeless and transcendental) Long before lips knew the taste,oak and liquor found each other.It was not a meeting of moment,but of destiny—two strangers who spoke the same ancient tongue.The oakContinue reading “Oak and Spirit: The Silent Alchemy”

Lagerstroemia-A Poem

A Poem of Memory, Bloom, and Becoming (This poem was born of a sudden moment of recognition—when a flowering Lagerstroemia, seen in the quiet backyard of a foreign land, evoked the soft fragrance of home. Known for its delicate, crinkled petals and luminous hues, the tree stirred not sorrow but a sweet recollection—of India, ofContinue reading “Lagerstroemia-A Poem”