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Half an hour before sunrise on a Friday morning, 3rd August 1492, three ships set sail from the port of Palos in Spain. The people who assembled to see the ships off were gloomy, and some were even crying as they bade goodbye to their friends and relatives traveling aboard the ships, as if they were never to meet them again. The names of the ships were Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina. The captain of the fleet was Christopher Columbus.

Tropical rainforests are akin to multi-story buildings, each layer hosting distinct species and interactions. Sometimes there are give and take relations between the populations of each stratum but sometimes a member species of a stratum will never meet a member species of another stratum. Generally, the stories are counted as five.

Foraging is a way of life that we left behind when the world became fast-paced, and market-driven. There is a new interest in it thanks to a few cool people who help the world enjoy spontaneity and an occasional ‘Eureka’ moment of simple joy.

frogs and toads are particularly intriguing, representing a crucial evolutionary link between aquatic and terrestrial life. Frogs and toads were the first vertebrates to leave the water and migrate to land. They are fascinating creatures with over 6,000 species, each with unique adaptations.

In the first trial, three women, Elizabeth Francis, Agnes Waterhouse, and her daughter, Joan Waterhouse, were accused of practising witchcraft. They lived in the village of Hatfield Peverel. The one thing that connected these three women was a white-spotted cat named Satan.

The circular economy is a powerful and revolutionary framework for living life and economic activity. One key premise of this concept is a critique of waste in a modern economy. Our civilisation has reached a point where we consume all essential and non-essential materials, water, and energy in such great abundance that they are becoming scarce on the planet at an alarming pace. We must recycle these resources rather than throw them away after a single use.

Scientific evidence shows that goats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago by the Middle Eastern people in the Fertile Crescent, the crescent-shaped region of the Middle East where one of the earliest civilisational groups is thought to have lived.

"A country chooses us. Since childhood, I was somehow fascinated by India. When I was at Oxford, India pulled me towards her. I did my PhD in Delhi University and my teachers were Andre Beteille, J.P.S Uberoi, Veena Das, and A.M. Shah. India took hold of me in my 20s."

Before the world became Eurocentric, it had China as its crucible of progress and the mightiest trading empire. The two centuries around the Christian era saw the evolution of a network of trade routes, known as the Silk Route, connecting China to many major cities in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Readings of history point to this road network being the real beginning of globalisation.

The grace of this silk conceals the arduous process behind its creation. To gather enough lotus silk threads for a small scarf, a single weaver requires 2-3 months of work.

Born in 1926, Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne at the age of 26. During her reign, she was a contemporary of notable figures such as Winston Churchill, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Harry Truman.

The edelweiss has captivated audiences worldwide since "The Sound of Music," but it is also the national flower of many Alpine countries, a symbol of purity, and has a history with Hitler and Nazism.

Orange Tower and Hill Glory are two tropical flowers that are suitable for gardening because they are flamboyant and easy to grow. These two are cousins of Vervain, and no less magical than this quite famous relative from the temperate zone.

Time is indeed real for us. It brackets our life on this planet; it is real because it is one of the variables against which science measures the parameters of our universe, and we measure life and death. Time is a fleeting concept, yet how we experience it has a strong subjective element. 

Before owning a Tibetan Mastiff, it is helpful to understand some basic facts about their natural habitat and the types of human interactions and environments they are accustomed to.

Egyptians considered Frankincense the perfume of Gods. Sandalwood was the ultimate perfume for Indians. There is also some evidence pointing to Indians mastering the art of distilling essential oils as early as 3000 BCE.

Dogs started their companionship with humans about 30,000 years ago, and compared to this long period, cats seem like strangers who just now knocked on our doors to say hi. Nine thousand years is a very short time compared to 30000 years.

The story of rice can be seen as a mirror image of the story of human civilization itself. The domestication of wild animals and plants was key to humans transforming their nomadic habits and settling down in certain locations.

Writing a dictionary can seem a daunting, almost impossible task when considering its immense size, volume, and the vast amount of information it contains. A few dedicated men, however, devoted their entire lives to this endeavour.

Depleted as they might be, our forests and wilderness remain a rich haven of mushrooms such as parasols, morels, chanterelles, buttons, meadows, puffballs and horse mushrooms.