Articles by: Suprabha Seshan

Pandemic Blues

Pandemic Blues

During an extermination event – the first and only ever such event in the universe’s life – it is difficult to contemplate the relations between humans and the rest of nature. In 2021, Meral Cicek invited me to do precisely this through an essay for Jineoloji magazine, a publication of the women’s movement of Kurdistan. The pandemic, lethal as it[Read More…]

by — 14/04/2022 — Comments are Disabled — Counter Solutions
Locking down Leviathan

Locking down Leviathan

The streets of Jayanagar, a residential area in Bengaluru are strewn with spring flowers. Yellow copper pods,  lilac crape myrtles,  pink-and-white honges and orange gulmohurs blaze overhead and underfoot;  vitality and senescence mirroring each other. The normally hard surfaces – kerb, pavement, road and concrete  – are softened by fallen petals and the duff of stamens from rain trees. Every[Read More…]

by — 29/04/2020 — 9 comments — India
From This Wounded Forest: A Dispatch

From This Wounded Forest: A Dispatch

I am witness to the murder of forests. To be silent in the face of this is unconscionable. I am witness to the birth of forests. To be silent in the face of this is unconscionable. I am witness to… nay… I’m beholden to…. nay…. I’m alive and breathing and who I am because of the work of forests. To be silent in the face[Read More…]

by — 07/04/2019 — 7 comments — Environmental Protection
(Photos: GBS Photo Archives)

Old Mother Forest

To survive the holocaust of planetary proportions that is upon us, one must defend her or get out of the way. I live across a small stream from an ancient rainforest in Wayanad, Kerala. It has a constancy that’s baffling, appearing more or less the same to me, for all the years I’ve been here. The forest sustains. As do[Read More…]

by — 02/01/2019 — Comments are Disabled — Environmental Protection
How Green Is My Forest

How Green Is My Forest

Lit by chlorophyll and the conjurations of trees, there’s a trail through a forest along the Stone River where the light never repeats. Slender and winding, this is a generous trail; always bearing gifts. Some days it offers melodies; other days, stories. Often it offers ideas and memories. It does this, I’ve now come to understand, through streams of sensory ticklings. Paintings:[Read More…]

by — 13/08/2018 — Comments are Disabled — Environmental Protection
Once Upon A Biome

Once Upon A Biome

The world in which each of us lives does not necessarily yield the world in which we all live together. Where does your world end and mine begin? I live in a world grown from tall trees, tiny tender plants and a scintillating diversity of creatures, which is covered in cloud and drenched in rain for a greater part of[Read More…]

by — 23/04/2018 — 4 comments — Environmental Protection
Ancient Life Lessons

Ancient Life Lessons

It was a bright morning in late October, with a light breeze and no mist. Crinkled woody seeds of todayan, a beautiful tree with upturned leaves, cracked open underfoot as I walked through a rainforest at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Wayanad district, Kerala, where I live and work. Balsam capsules sprung open on touch. In the course of a few minutes,[Read More…]

by — 19/12/2017 — 1 comment — Environmental Protection
Once, The Monsoon

Once, The Monsoon

Field notes from a botanical sanctuary: changing weather patterns are causing havoc to plants. I love being at home, in Wayanad, when the south-west monsoon arrives. This hilly district of northern Kerala is still full of tall trees and myriad creatures, and drenched in rain for several months in a year. From my window, I see Banasuramala, a beautiful mountain[Read More…]

by — 22/06/2017 — 2 comments — Environmental Protection
The Music Of Everything

The Music Of Everything

First published through EarthLines Magazine, Issue 16 I sing to elephants. It’s what I do. I sing because I like to, and because I believe my elephant neighbours are comfortable in my singing presence. I sing all the time, and it’s when I sing that I know more precisely how I feel. My own speech never does justice to my[Read More…]

by — 21/02/2017 — 1 comment — Environmental Protection
Rainforest Etiquette In A World Gone Mad

Rainforest Etiquette In A World Gone Mad

  Let us begin with theettam. Or if you prefer, with Leelamma’s kitchen, where thee (fire) burns. Between the wood-burning stove and the community pit-loo, an ecological picaresque unfolds.   Perhaps this is why, in Malayalam, theettam (excretum) and thee’tta (food) are near-homonyms.Newcomers to the language, whose ears (and tongues) cannot distinguish between  ‘tt and tt (slight upward flick of[Read More…]

by — 23/07/2016 — 2 comments — Life/Philosophy