Dear readers,
We are taking a break from regular issues of Cold Takes by Boju Bajai for the next few weeks. While we are on a break, we’ll be recirculating some of the pieces from the last 40 or so weeks.
We’ll be back with more taazaa baasi takes from August 6th :)
Meanwhile, please listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Akanchha Karki. She is a theatre artist and founder of the theatre collective Katha Ghera. In this episode, we talk about her artistic journey, creating safe spaces for young theatre artists, and the impact of MeToo in Nepal’s theatre community. We hope you enjoy our ramailo guff gaff.
- Bhrikuti boju and Itisha bajai
Enjoying Cold Takes? Feel free to send this newsletter to your friends, and click here to read previous editions.
In Praise of Trees
Trees are at the centre of our social and public lives. The shrines built in and around trees are not just places of ritual worship, but also spaces for congregation. The scattered chautaris around the country presided upon by solitary giants-the Peepal or the Banyan- are witness to both talk and silence, as strangers and kin gather under their shade.
Oh, tree outside my window, we are kin,
For you ask nothing of a friend but this:
To lean against the window and peer in
And watch me move about! Sufficient bliss
For me, who stand behind its framework stout,
Full of my tiny tragedies and grotesque grieves,
To lean against the window and peer out,
Admiring infinites’mal leaves.
From “To a Tree” by Elizabeth Bishop
These social trees are often solitary and out of place - they are at the edge of the village or at the centre of a bustling city. But, they are a constant reminder and an open invitation to take a pause and rest, in our otherwise hectic lives.
Trees and forests are life-affirming and life-sustaining, and a source of brief respite from the climate anxieties that are now part of our lives.
In 2022, the New York Times published a story that was a welcome change from the very real sense of fatalism that runs through majority of the reporting on climate change and the environment.
Excerpt from the report:
It’s not all good news, of course. There are still unresolved questions about encroachment, poaching, and the contested relationship between human settlements and wildlife.
But, a tiny glimmer of hope, nonetheless.
Talking about forests, we wonder if the current models of community-owned forests find their inspiration from non-violent movements such as the Chipko Andolan.
The Chipko Andolan is “best remembered for the collective mobilisation of women for the cause of preserving forests, which also brought about a change in attitude regarding their own status in society.”
Gaura Devi’s Chipko movement in Uttar Pradesh’s Mandal village. (Source: Indian Express Article)
A movement led largely by women, the Chipko Andolan continues to inform and inspire our resistance and climate activism against governments and corporations around the world.
Learning to Live to Tree Time
Our work requires us to be on social media more than we would like to.
Sometimes we do feel like our days are just taken over by posting, reacting, and responding to social media content. Often, the conversations are combative, divisive, and leave a mark on our own personal lives and our well-being.
If you have ever felt the same way, “How I became a Tree” by Sumana Roy might be the perfect book for you.
Roy introduces us to the concept of “Tree Time” as an antithesis to “human time”.
“It was impossible to rush plants, to tell a tree to ‘hurry up’. In envy, in admiration and with ambition, I began to call that pace ‘Tree time’.”
― Sumana Roy, How I Became a Tree
Human time, as we understand it, is always linked to speed and our behaviour and actions are defined by that link - rapid development, speedy progress, quick solutions, etc.
We want everything ‘bite-sized’ in the name of saving time. We live, both mentally and physically, constantly being exposed to a rapid torrent of experiences and demands.
But, what if we stood under the shade of a tree and lived on tree time? Could we free ourselves of human time, even if for a short while? Could we “shun ambition” and live by a time “without structure”?
- How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy
Have a good week and find some time to switch off, if you can.
Our Reading Recommendations:
Listen to this episode of Radiolab on how trees talk to each other
Read “What Kind of Times Are These” by Adrienne Rich
Read “How Nepal Grew Back Its Forests” by Karan Deep Singh and Bhadra Sharma for the New York Times