Call Me By My Pen Name

As Earth Month comes to an end, we bring back some standout features from our two Environment issues, which explored the many faces of the relationship between humans and their surroundings. These stories are repositories of conversations and thoughts that we hope empower readers with the understanding that even a simple shift in perspective is a step toward making the climate crisis a less intractable problem
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Urban citizens and proponents of the organic food movement are largely unaware of their proximity to legislation that threatens to leave the farmers who keep their plates filled without livelihoods. While shifting closer to the source is desirable in theory, customers of sustainable endeavours first need to fully understand the consequences of their choices and demands
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Keertida Phadke’s decision to forsake a well-paying job in marketing for a course at a plant-based culinary school in New York seemed risky to her friends and family, but the Natural Gourmet Institute (NGI) alumnus stands by her decision. In the middle of expanding her vegan brand, Better, the 34-year-old founder speaks to Verve about her culinary education, how it helped her corner the retail space in India and the pay-off of having undergone such specialised training at a time when the food industry is in limbo
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Acoustic consultant and architect Buland Shukla believes in living a life less ordinary
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For the co-owner of Goa’s Edible Archives, the mundane bottle gourd deserves the same culinary riffing as the now-trendy amaranth; in her kitchen, every ingredient is king, nurtured by the context of the earth from which it came. The affable chef spends a day with Verve and orchestrates a market-to-table experience that has her inimitable stamp
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Verve pays tribute to India’s legendary costume designer – with inputs from peers, colleagues and fans…. 
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The art of embroidery has conventionally been associated with domesticity – the unenticing fate awaiting girls supposedly without other ambitions. While the practice is still a relaxing pastime, a contemporary resurgence is seeing women reclaim that archaic narrative and even quitting more lucrative career paths to take on needlework full-time. We speak to Anuradha Bhaumick, whose visually complex pieces (featured on her Instagram account Hooplaback Girl – yes, a pun on the Gwen Stefani song) represent idyllic scenes from the lives of book lovers like herself
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