32Hummingenesis

Journal

Chai Musings.

The longer reads, carried over from the WordPress archive and still growing.

A small child at a kitchen counter in morning light

Featured · People & JusticeThe Quiet Arithmetic of CareThe work that keeps everything else possible is the work that appears in no ledger, and it is not distributed by accident.17 September 2026 · 3 min readRead the post

All posts 31

A sanitation worker in high-visibility orange walking a street beside waste bins

People & JusticeWho Picks Up After UsAny honest account of what a city throws away has to include the people who handle it, and the conditions we have decided are acceptable for them.11 September 2026 · 3 min read

A person in a wheelchair seen from behind, looking out over a city at dusk

People & JusticeThe Words We Use for Bodies That Work DifferentlyLanguage is not the substance of the problem. It is a reliable indicator of how we have decided to think about it.5 September 2026 · 3 min read

Street dogs on a tree-lined road, one looking up towards an outstretched hand

Animals & CareFeeding the Street Dogs, and the Neighbours Who ObjectBoth sides of this argument contain people acting in good faith, which is exactly why it never resolves.30 August 2026 · 3 min read

A tabby and white cat lying on a soft blanket, looking directly at the camera

Animals & CareThe Cat Who Cannot WalkWhat living with a paralysed animal actually involves, and what it taught me about deciding whose life is worth the trouble.24 August 2026 · 3 min read

The blue face of a glacier meeting still water, snow peaks behind

MountainsWhat the Glacier RemembersIce is a record and a reservoir. We are reading the record with great precision while emptying the reservoir.18 August 2026 · 3 min read

Walkers gathered on a ridge at sunrise, cloud filling the valley below

MountainsThe Mountain Is Not a BackdropThe hills are being loved into difficulty, by people who mean it kindly and arrive in enormous numbers.12 August 2026 · 3 min read

A dense skyline with lit windows under a heavy dusk sky

CitiesThe Borewell Goes DeeperA city can run out of water slowly, invisibly, one private extraction at a time, while every individual decision looks reasonable.6 August 2026 · 3 min read

Low buildings silhouetted against a hazy city sunset

CitiesWho Gets the Footpath?Every city claims to want people to walk. Very few build a surface a person can actually walk on.31 July 2026 · 3 min read

A city skyline under a dusty orange dusk

CitiesThe Commute That Ate the EveningTraffic is usually discussed as a transport problem. It is at least as much a problem about time, and who is made to spend it.25 July 2026 · 3 min read

A large tree standing against a residential tower at dusk

Forests & BiodiversityThe Trees We CountPlanting drives photograph well. A forest is a much harder thing to produce than a number of saplings.19 July 2026 · 3 min read

Planters along a terrace edge at night, city lights beyond

Green LivingWhat a Balcony Can and Cannot DoThirty-two floors up, with a few dozen pots. An honest accounting of what small-scale growing is actually for.13 July 2026 · 3 min read

Hot orange sky stacked over the city at sunset

Climate & ResilienceThe Cost of Staying CoolAir conditioning is the clearest example we have of a solution that makes the problem worse for everyone outside the room.7 July 2026 · 3 min read

Dense green hedge lit by a streetlamp after dark

WildlifeWhere Did the Sparrows Go?The house sparrow did not need wilderness. It needed us to build the way we used to build.1 July 2026 · 3 min read

Grey haze sitting over the city skyline

Pollution & WasteThe Lake That Caught FireA lake is not supposed to burn. When one does, it is telling you something about the city upstream of it.25 June 2026 · 3 min read

Heavy monsoon cloud massing over the city

Conservation StoriesThe Vanishing Wetlands – India’s Natural Sponges Under ThreatNot far from Dehradun lies the Asan Barrage wetland, one of India's 75 designated Ramsar sites. I remember my early college fieldwork days, watching bar-headed geese land with such grace that even the wind seemed to…14 August 2025 · 3 min read

A dense hedge in low light

WildlifeThe Insect Apocalypse – Why the World’s Smallest Wildlife is VanishingOne summer evening in Dehradun, I realized something was missing—the moths fluttering around the porch light. They used to arrive in thick, dazzling clouds when I was a child.4 August 2025 · 2 min read

Pale haze flattening the city skyline

Pollution & WasteThe Microplastic Menace – How Deep Does It Go?In early 2024, researchers in Chennai found microplastics in cow milk from villages miles away from the city. That discovery hit me hard—not as an environmentalist, but as a mother.29 July 2025 · 3 min read

Grey haze over distant towers

Pollution & WasteGreenwashing in Everyday Products – What to Look Out ForOn a recent grocery run in Dehradun, I picked up a shampoo bottle labeled “100% Natural.” A quick glance at the ingredients revealed a cocktail of sulfates and synthetic fragrances.23 July 2025 · 2 min read

Storm cloud building over the skyline

Climate ChangeWhat Monsoons Are Trying to Tell UsMonsoons in Dehradun have always had a rhythm. The scent of parched earth soaking in its first rain. School half-days. Frogs croaking in harmony with swollen rivers.23 July 2025 · 3 min read

First light spreading over the city

Climate ChangeIndia’s Vanishing Rivers – A Crisis of Flow and FaithEvery time I pass the once-lively Bindal River near Dehradun, I’m struck by its silence. The gentle current that used to carry schoolchildren’s paper boats now carries only debris and sorrow.23 July 2025 · 3 min read

Hot orange sky over the city at sunset

Climate & ResilienceHope in the Time of HeatwavesThis May, Dehradun touched 44°C—the highest I’ve felt in my lifetime. The air felt like fire. Even the peepal trees drooped. My daughter asked, “Will the forest catch fire too?” And I had no easy answer.23 July 2025 · 2 min read

The lit city after dark from above

SustainabilityCarbon Footprint 101 – What You’re Getting WrongWhen someone says “carbon footprint,” what’s the first image that comes to mind? Flights, cars, or maybe plastic straws?23 July 2025 · 2 min read

Sky and treetops above the rooftops

Eco-FeminismThe Green Women of UttarakhandThere’s a quiet revolution taking place in the hills of Uttarakhand—and it’s led by women with calloused hands and rooted hearts. They are seed keepers, water warriors, tree huggers—literally.23 July 2025 · 2 min read