Yasaswini Sampathkumar
Sometimes when I read about amazing people and their life’s work, or
about desperate situations that seem beyond redemption, I wonder whether there
is room for personal change. For example, when I saw about the doomsday list on
BBC’s website about major urban centres that are about to run out of ...
A growing movement against disposable single-use plastics is now focussing on the ubiquitous usage of strawsThe first two months of the year have a quirky distinction. While January hosts the Drinking Straw Day in the first week to commemorate the patenting of the modern straw, the fourth Friday of ...
When I was pregnant, I had a very clear idea about how I was going to raise my child. Those were probably my last moments of certainty as a parent.Before my son was born, I hadn’t accounted for the fact that I was giving birth to a living, kicking, idiosyncratic little tyke who, in turn, would ...
Make space in your list of resolutions because we have a set that you can adopt towards a greener, simpler, and more beautiful plane t.1.Carry your own bag: This is absolutely the easiest beginning for anyone who is looking to reduce waste generation. Plan your trips to the store and carry enou...
“Can we visit one of the living root bridges?” asked my aunt, before planning a visit to Guwahati.Tribes in the Khasi hills of Meghalaya that border Assam have been using the adventitious roots of the native Ficus plants to create organic, natural, zero-waste constructions that are now popularly kno...
1. Gift Vouchers: I know they are not the first thing that come to mind when you want to give your loved ones a thoughtful gift full of warm holiday wishes. And yet, two years after I received one, I think of a gift voucher as the nicest thing a friend has done for me. It was for a local luxury hote...
Online shopping is a reality of our lives and in many cases,
it can even lower the carbon footprint of a shopping experience, especially
when we buy from local stores and ask for minimal packaging.If 1000 people in a
region travel to the stores individually and return home with their holiday
pac...
One of the most frequently asked questions about cloth pads is whether they can be used during travel (especially on public transport) and about managing changes while working outside the home for most of the day. So, here’s the definitive guide to being a cloth pad user (and also simultaneously bei...
“Our homes are a lived experience,” says Chitra Vishwanath, of Biome Solutions, a design firm specialising in sustainable architecture.It is easy to see her point, when I look at the collage of beautiful buildings that are an equal mix of green and brown, plants and mud blocks, earthy shades that ar...
India’s
intense urbanisation has created some of most densely populated cities in the
world. Even as these urban conglomerates
expand in every direction on land (sometimes even into the ocean), most people in
cities spend their time inside small, cramped, built-up spaces with
artificially...