Nature, who needs it? A writing adventure with Ranjit Hoskote at the Himalayan Writing Retreat

Never in my life had I attended a “writing retreat”, but when the email stating that Ranjit Hoskote would be hosting a three-day “Nature and Writing” masterclass at the Himalayan Writing Retreat in Satkhol, I decided on the spot that this was one for me.

The excitement began with an email from Ranjit, folders of poetic treasure attached, to read before we arrived. Pulled straight into Robert Macfarlane’s article from almost ten years ago about his journey to collect vernacular words and phrases from around the British Isles which pinpoint specific local ecological detail – names for cloud formations, types of ice-melt and other landscape specific words – it all felt very much in line with what I am writing about right now, though my own work focuses on vanishing species in India and spaces of previously unique biodiversity, now earmarked for “development”.

The night before it is time to leave for the retreat, I attend an online talk at Champaca Books with Amitava Kumar, who is discussing his latest work, The Green Book. During the talk, he too discusses nature writing and speaks of how he often takes his students around city parks to observe and write. To pay attention, he emphasises and I suddenly realise why I’ve...

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