• SABARIMALA: PILGRIMAGE IN THE WESTERN GHATS
    August 14, 2017

    The Sabarimala temple in the Pathanamthitta District of Kerala has long been revered as a sacred location and has been drawing increasing numbers of pilgrims in recent years. The temple is dedicated to Lord Ayyappa, a deity closely associated with forest lore. Riding a handsome tiger, the youthful Ayyappa is revered as a protector of [...]

  • AGASTHYAMALAI: A MOUNTAIN OF SIGNIFICANCE
    August 12, 2017

    The man next to me, a young pilgrim with a fragile frame, is muttering a prayer, just barely discernable over the sounds of thunder and rain lashing down on us. A ferocious wind is blowing in from the north-east and threatens to blow us off the precipitous summit that we are bivouacked on. Flashes of [...]

  • METAMORPHOSIS OF A LANDSCAPE
    March 2, 2017

    We live in a world that appears to be moving at a pace faster than ever before. In that, environmental change - of our own making - has become an unfortunate repercussion of the human experience. In India, most of us can relate to changing cities and sprawling urban cancers that are unrelentingly eating into [...]