Today I saw a video of a floating land mass of plastic riding the waves of the Dominican Republic's sea.
I also saw my mother's Instagram footage of a little group of brown birds having a serious spat, perched on different levels of a dish antenna.
I saw many trees on Bangalore' s streets fenced in with the metal grill that sooner or later will start to dig into their bark.
Then the resin will leak around the fence and make blobs of liquid looking wood and some one like my mum will photograph and Instagram it.
I also saw my mother's Instagram footage of a little group of brown birds having a serious spat, perched on different levels of a dish antenna.
I saw many trees on Bangalore' s streets fenced in with the metal grill that sooner or later will start to dig into their bark.
Then the resin will leak around the fence and make blobs of liquid looking wood and some one like my mum will photograph and Instagram it.
Everywhere there are signs and traces of the forest and how she tries to get to us.
Peeping through the cracks of old buildings - Peepal and Banyan trees have begun to grow from seeds that some bird shat out while passing by above.
Cobras appearing under people's couches in plush Bangalore homes and tigers falling asleep atop walls in north Indian villages, surrounded by paralysed gaping crowds.
Leopards feasting on farm doggies, even rotvwiellers
The crow teases and taunts our pedigreed labradors
Cats everywhere have more babies then they can manage to push out
A koyel coos precisely three times
And a shrill cry emanates - a kettle letting out steam? A banshee? A baby animal or bird of some species? - we will never know
Everywhere the forest peeps through - calling, waiting, warning.
Now she has started to plead
Paintings of wild animals adorn our walls
Museums with stuffed hunted wildebeest, deer, tigers, leopards, bears, cheetah, lion and elephants adorn walls of grand colonial British buildings across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Nigeria
Cups, greeting cards , mantel pieces, posters, writing pads, bracelets, stuffed toys pendants, earrings and school bags, embellished with animal motifs, in animal shapes and forms. Many specialising in underwater life - making all these ancestors look so cute. Cute enough to sell and cuddle.
These align the shelves of shops in every mall, bazaar and store.
Street hawkers offer mass produced Chinese designs of rubber snakes to scare your sibling with, spiders to leave on your teacher's chair and little mice to let your pet cat take to battle. So real ! I tell you.
Just, not real
Our bedcovers and curtains
Our mats and mattresses
Our t- shirts and tiles
Forest patterns
Spirals of the wind
Waves of the ocean
Roots of the trees
Veins of the leaves...
And that famous emblem of all things grand - paisley - stolen from the king fruit - Mango
Our poems - metaphors using stars, promising the moon, likening hair to dark forests and body smells to fragrant meadows...
Everywhere the forest creeps into our cities
Reaching for us
Threatening us
Saving us
Trying to at least
As our malls, our furniture, our children's school accessories, our languages and our favourite Disney movies, vow tiredly -
"We yearn too".
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