KAMiNi GOPAL lives in Shenbaganur with a menagerie—two cats, two dogs, and two children. An ecologist and cake artist, she has been in love with snakes since she handled her first green vine snake 35 years ago and has rescued many snakes. When she's not artfully avoiding deadlines and wrangling her 2,000 open tabs, she crafts bespoke cakes, spots birds, benignly neglects her garden, dives into books and rants about politics.