This was originally published in http://www.moneycontrol.com on 1st January 2023 Art by Manian for Kalki Krishnamurthi's Ponniyin Selvan Have you seen Ponniyin Selvan Part-I? If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a film is worth at least a million. No words could convey how wealthy and mighty the Cholas were as well as …
Continue reading The Wealth Behind Ponniyin Selvan: The Kaveri and the Kallanai
Climate speaks through water. As our climate changes, rising global temperatures are causing more intense storms; untimely and intense rainfall is leading to frequent floods and droughts, causing sea levels to rise and glaciers to melt. We face not only a rapidly careening climate crisis but also a brutal change in our water reality. We HAVE to adapt for the future NOW.
Where has it flooded 2. Why has it flooded? Why here? Why now? a. Elevation The low-lying areas (green & blue) have flooded first. Source: https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/maps/lpj1/Bengaluru/; Flooded areas marked out in blue. Moreover, areas subject to the highest flooding were often the lowest lying within a vicinity. Naturally, water flowed into them. b. Land-use change …
Photo by Ray Bilcliff on Pexels.com Many of the seeds of the our tangled thicket of a water crisis originate in colonial times - a penchant for growing crops unsuited to local climes, a centralized control-and-command approach to irrigation and water supply, and a certain disdain for traditional water technologies that 'get' India's water. We've …
Continue reading India@75: Tracing the colonial hand in evolving water tapestry
Aadi Perukku - respecting water.
Chennai's floods are like clapping hands: one palm is the changing climate bringing with it intense rainfall (2021 rainfall, the Commissioner told us, was nearly 50% above normal) while the other is our broken relationship with water. A resounding clap requires both palms moving together forcefully. We appear to have already passed certain climate thresholds, …
Continue reading Resetting Our Relationship With Water: Times of India Column
India's water ship is a mammoth ship - nudging it towards friendlier waters is not going to be easy. We need the individual to change: to acknowledge water, and recognize what makes India's water truly unique. This excerpt from the book that The Print carried, shows what that might look like. This is my story, …
Continue reading Shifting India’s Water Ship Requires All Hands To Push.
When I ran out of home, I never thought that 9 years since, that not only would we become water-secure at home, but that I would have written two books and invested in over 15 climate-related start-ups. Thrilled to share that my second book, Watershed, is out! https://videopress.com/v/W5Bf0Khk?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata The book unpacks India's changing relationship with …
Back to the Future: Keeladi and the centrality of water in an ancient Indian city. About 13 kilometres east of Madurai, on the spanking new Rameswaram highway, one turns right and heads through a sleepy village to a set of coconut farms. In between the coconut trees are patches of cleared ground with neat squares …
Continue reading Keeladi – Life, Death and Water in Ancient India
Open letter to Greta Thunberg on Choices
Climaction 