I have lived in gated and ungated colonies for most of my life. I use colony in a very loose sense and use it synonymously with neigbourhoods here. In these colonies, walking was as everyday affair as water shortages were (are). Unlike water shortages though, walking did not register to me as a community activity or a mega event until I started thinking more deeply about lives lived in various places. Conversations around water and air were arising from a space of lack, insecurity, privilege, and anxiety. We were always worried about water tankers not coming in, electricity available between particular slots, thick air smog in the mornings. But walking was never uttered as a concern which was endangered. It was in fact uttered as a medicine: "High BP?" "Walk!"  These colonies see their usual walking everyday. In the evenings, you would find someone or the other walking. There would also be morning people who'd go for a walk after dropping their kids at the bus s...

If things go on like this  Then a mango tree is looking for a part time job. It always wanted to be more than  A season's search. "Honestly, anything would be great right now - Just keep me away from  Property*." At a session with sun,  Brilliance registered for name-change Museums have sided with Marigolds in the case "State vs Plants" Walk-in Interviews are being held for pavements All land is only offices now.  So scholarships are being awarded For making a green leaf into a leisure activity All writers are busy working on this curriculum.  I wish there was a way to bring the water prices down. I just want to drink water and breathe air  Will say no tree ever. *"Property is Theft."

Seeing the City through a Walk 2 March, 2024 Acknowledgements: Taking a Walk courtesy Wild Aesthetics of Urban Environments, a two-part workshop led by Kush Sethi. The walk  was aimed at being a gateway into urban ecology through gardening . Thank you to the wonderful facilitators of the walk and the program curators who designed this event.  Below is a series of photos and documentation from an urban nature walk held one breezy nice March morning in Delhi when we got some respite form heat and a confused cold. Some of us collected in Max Muller Bhavan as part of their exhibition, Critical Zones. In Search of a Common Ground. We went on a walk outside the institute and observed foliage growing. I recorded some of the plants, trees, bees, buildings, people and roads that we observed. After the walk, we returned to the Bhavan and observed some of the leaves under the microscope and tried to repot some of those plants taken from the roadside. No plants or animals were h...