People of the Thar desert who live with the cycle of seasons find ways of feeding thousands of people without irrigation. This story unfolds over a year and recounts history through contemporary lives lived gently
All the drinking water in the world will fit in a cube that can sit over the city of Bangalore. And in this industrial age, everyone wants a share of aquifers, rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Voices get shriller and stakes rise ever higher should a river cross international boundaries. Add to all this, the unpredictability of weather patterns in the age of climate change.
On the freshwater trail, I will follow the changing fortunes of people and species in the anthropocene era
The Indian government calls 68% of the Thar a "wasteland," and plans to "better utilize" it. Actions born of this new lexicon threaten to destroy livelihoods and an ecosystem at a time when monsoons are unpredictable
Where could I find the desert minstrels who sing a "chhand," a poem, of a fabled people long gone from the Jaisalmer area? Rumor had it that there were only very few minstrels who recited the poem anymore
Traditional desert dwellers, semi-nomadic shepherds, call upon ancient wisdom to survive in the deep Thar desert of Rajasthan. This is a story about people who remember where the wells live
The deep Thar desert sees only forty cloudy days. Yet, the shepherds have as many different names for clouds. Does the essence of thriving in this hostile clime begin with an evocative lexis of the land?
When we lose an evocative lexicon of the land, when we forget, we lose what Barry Lopez calls the “voice of memory over the land.” This is an attempt to keep that lexicon alive