Peacock Proliferation, Elephants, Butterflies, and Coffee
The peafowl has proliferated, the number of snakes has diminished, the toads are flourishing — all because the foxes have disappeared.
Topic
Coffee Planter's Diary
A coffee planter's journal from Malnad, the coffee corridor of India, where I'm an absentee coffee planter, visiting when I can …
The Mandala Snake
"Why this particular fear of the mandala"? I asked him. "The cobra is poisonous, and they're here in greater numbers. You never mention a cobra sighting."
The Truths About Corona Are Fake And That Is The Truth
"We've hardly any corona," they said. "A fellow goes to the hospital with a fever. They throw him in a ward. They send him home in a few days. It's a scam."
Locked Down Plantation, Elephants, Sandalwood Smugglers
It's a blue-topped bright-green world now during June, and more avians than ever in the twelve years I've known the place have flown into the plantation.
Malnad Diary: March
The birds kept up their pitiable cries for over a half-hour. I cannot say what was up with them. Did they sight a cat? Was one in their numbers cuckolded?
A Vegan Prayer Ceremony for Chowdy This Year
When he brought his machete crashing down, slicing the banana and the vibhuti, and cracking the coconut, there wasn't in this year's poojé the yellow of yolk or the goo of egg-white.
Death by the Trunk of an Elephant
Such a death everybody had been anticipating — somebody would go like this, somebody other than them. Everybody was proved right, all but a 40-year-old, owner of the plantation next to ours on our east.
An Indian Ruminates on Independence Day
Though some of us speak of lost values and vanished principles, none will risk disruption of this opiate prosperous state of being.
Kadumane Estate — A Giant Theater
I take a last look at the glowing mist that has filled the trees and capped the hills. It is as though a cold white heat has rimmed this world, this enormous bowl ringed by hills.
The White Planter's Coffee Club
Peering through time, the mists are thick. In their haze are white men from six-thousand miles away, seeking fortune and adventure in the jungles of Malnad.