…at the ends of the Himalayas: life in Spiti and Siang valleys – Kulbhushan & Karthik     A dialogue that sparked off between us about which dried-meat tastes better; Mithun or Yak, instantly became a meaty confab beyond bovids that revolved around communities in Spiti and Siang valley and their practices. One look at […]

Chowra is slow to show its welcome, but soon, behind the stoic, rarely smiling faces, you see a shy curiosity, a matter-of-fact hospitality, and even a kind of warmth.  I was supposed to have left today for Karmota to catch the ship to Port Blair, but the fickleness of vessel schedules dictates that I will […]

Wild elephants, more often than not, get a raw deal from us, people. Yet, news reports tend to dominate with stories of people apparently at the receiving end. It is refreshing, then, to see a more balanced or thoughtful article appear, such as  this one by G. Ananthakrishnan on the cover of today’s The Hindu […]

Willow warbler is a very common migratory leaf warbler. This small bird has shown a ray of hope to those evolutionary biologists who have always been supporting what is called a ring species. There were always more evidence of the mode speciation in biology where one species diverges into two species due to some kind […]

My pen feels strange to my fingers.  I have to relearn gently the act of writing.  The QWERTY keyboard has taken over my fingertips, and reduced my writing to emails excusing myself for mails unresponded to.  Perhaps I have to retreat to remote islands such as these if I have to rediscover the nib and […]

The road winds through a disfigured landscape of tea plantations. It skims the contours over the open reservoir with its sloping banks of naked red earth. It passes the checkpost with the inevitable tea stall, and only then does it plunge down. Down towards the rainforest, our destination for the evening. The Nilgiri langurs, on […]