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A Dispatch from the Mountains

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The Kodai Chronicle

Issue 9: Mountain to Mountain

Community
by Samarth Bansal

Boarding the Himalayan Ark

Getting to this village is a hike in itself. You are always hiking. Visiting the local market means a kilometre long walk through oak-, pine- and rhododendron-lined rocky lanes;…

Culture
by Cara Tejpal

The Word for Literature Is Ecofiction

The thirst of this mountainside is insatiable. Day or night, the rain comes in all tempos. Furiously sluicing through the forest in arrows or tumbling down in grim sheets.…

Environment
by Pippa Mukherjee

Magic of the Night: Tuning in to the Fireflies of Kodaikanal

What does the presence (or absence) of fireflies tell us about an ecosystem?…

Issue 9: Mountain to Mountain

  • Boarding the Himalayan Ark

    by Samarth Bansal

    Getting to this village is a hike in itself. You are always hiking. Visiting the local market…

  • The Word for Literature Is Ecofiction

    by Cara Tejpal

    The thirst of this mountainside is insatiable. Day or night, the rain comes in all tempos. Furiously…

  • Magic of the Night: Tuning in to the Fireflies of Kodaikanal

    by Pippa Mukherjee

    What does the presence (or absence) of fireflies tell us about an ecosystem?…

  • Earlier this year, doctors Vivek Karthikeyan and Sudipta Mahto set up a medical outreach initiative called Sirumalai. Together, the couple seeks to address gaps in rural healthcare, in villages like Vilpatti.

    Better Together: ‘We have this passion to be trustworthy doctors’

    by Reena Raghavamoorthy

    Sirumalai, a rural health venture in Kodaikanal sends ripples across villages in Vilpatti Panchayat…

  • The Cosmos in Your Dustbin

    by Neha Sumitran

    It was a warm, summer evening in Mumbai: fans were whirring, pressure-cookers were whistling, and in the…

  • Never Shoot a Monkey – and Other Mountain-Lessons From Living in Landour

    by Snigdha Poonam

    We—the monkeys and I—began our relationship on a bad note. In January 2020, I made a partial…

  • Revisiting the Magic Mountain

    by Somak Ghoshal

    In my mid-20s, when I decided to embark on reading German writer Thomas Mann’s novel, The Magic…

  • Photo Story: Little Wonders of the Wild

    by Abinaya Kalyanasundaram

    Meet the smaller, lesser-known residents of the Palani Hills mountain ecosystem…

  • DIY Guide: How to Make a Kitchen-Composting Setup for the Home

    by Neha Sumitran

    There are many ways to compost, depending on where you live and what you wish to compost.…

  • Editorial: A Little Goes a Long Way

    by Rajni George

    Often, when I am home in Kodai, feeling stuck at work, I step away from my laptop…

  • The Shrine of La Saleth – Kodai’s French Connection

    by Aditya Menon

    Several churches around the world are dedicated to Lady of La Saleth, an apparition of the Virgin…

  • Editorial: Letter to the Readers of The Kodai Chronicle

    by Rajni George

    Dear Readers,

    I grew up near a shola forest and spent much of my time hiding away in…

  • Avocado illustration

    For the Love of Butterfruit: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Avocados from Seed

    by Shaker Nagarajan

    A detailed growing guide to nurturing avocados, from a veteran farmer in the Palani Hills of Kodaikanal…

  • The Many Songs of the Sholakili

    by Abinaya Kalyanasundaram

    It is a fine June morning the first time I hear it. A faint, rhythmic melody emerges…

  • First Light on Eagle Cliff, in Palani Hills

    Mapping the Shola Sky Islands

    by Divya Kilikar

    ‘I wouldn’t say the sky islands of the southern Western Ghats are shrinking or being destroyed. Rather,…

  • Stopping Time in the Shola

    by Kashvi Rekhy

    Kodaikanal is a place where time flows backwards, where time retracts, inch by inch, reversing its flow…

  • Stories of the Sholas

    by Abinaya Kalyanasundaram

    In south India, the mountain plateaus of the Western Ghats form an almost continuous wall from north…

  • Netravati Peak

    Laboratory of Evolution

    by Seshadri K S

    It was a summer afternoon in early 2006 when I first stepped into a Shola forest. I…

  • Solaikuruvi at Lower Shola

    It Began With the Birds

    by Reena Raghavamoorthy

    For the past year and a half, Joshua Edward and A Jeya Pringly Ilancharalathan have been setting…

  • Fire on the Mountain

    by Reena Raghavamoorthy

    Fires, both accidental and intentional, have plagued Kodaikanal and surrounding areas inthe Palani Hills over the years.…

  • view from Mussoorie road, Gangotri range by Daniel Prudock

    The Rest Is History

    by Vivek Menezes

    Earlier this year, in an unusually bracing March chill that kept dusting the ridges of Landour with…

  • Pity Paati to the Rescue

    by Ms Perumalmalai

    Kodai’s very own Pity Paati solves your problems, one question at a time…

Announcements

Issue 9 is out

January 21, 2023January 21, 2023

Issue 8 is out

November 12, 2022November 12, 2022
The Kodai Chronicle Cover_SEPTEMBER ISSUE-page-001

Issue 7 is out, September 1!

August 30, 2022August 30, 2022

The Kodai Chronicle Environmental Fiction Prize

July 26, 2022September 13, 2022

More

Issue 9 Editorial: Letter to the Readers of The Kodai Chronicle

by Rajni George
Letters

Dear Reader, When I first returned to my hometown in the mountains more than two years ago,…

Magic of the Night: Tuning in to the Fireflies of Kodaikanal

by Pippa Mukherjee
Environment

What does the presence (or absence) of fireflies tell us about an ecosystem?…

Earlier this year, doctors Vivek Karthikeyan and Sudipta Mahto set up a medical outreach initiative called Sirumalai. Together, the couple seeks to address gaps in rural healthcare, in villages like Vilpatti.

Better Together: ‘We have this passion to be trustworthy doctors’

by Reena Raghavamoorthy
Community

Sirumalai, a rural health venture in Kodaikanal sends ripples across villages in Vilpatti Panchayat…

The Cosmos in Your Dustbin

by Neha Sumitran
Food

It was a warm, summer evening in Mumbai: fans were whirring, pressure-cookers were whistling, and in the…

Never Shoot a Monkey – and Other Mountain-Lessons From Living in Landour

by Snigdha Poonam
Culture

We—the monkeys and I—began our relationship on a bad note. In January 2020, I made a partial…

Revisiting the Magic Mountain

by Somak Ghoshal
Culture

In my mid-20s, when I decided to embark on reading German writer Thomas Mann’s novel, The Magic…

Photo Story: Little Wonders of the Wild

by Abinaya Kalyanasundaram
Environment

Meet the smaller, lesser-known residents of the Palani Hills mountain ecosystem…

Would You Believe This Bird is Made of Paper?

by Shraddha Nair
Culture

‘There’s nothing in nature that is not enthralling, but what fascinates me the most are birds: their…

DIY Guide: How to Make a Kitchen-Composting Setup for the Home

by Neha Sumitran
Food

There are many ways to compost, depending on where you live and what you wish to compost.…

Editorial: A Little Goes a Long Way

by Rajni George
Letters

Often, when I am home in Kodai, feeling stuck at work, I step away from my laptop…

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About Us

The Kodai Chronicle is created and published by residents and friends of Kodaikanal and neighbouring areas.

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