Undercurrents is a book manuscript that stems from my doctoral research, largely based on archives and fieldwork focused on the Kaveri river in southern India. One of South Asia's most heavily engineered rivers, the Kaveri (or Cauvery as the British spelt it!) has proved crucial in equal measure to Chola statecraft and economic life as it has for Tamil literature. The project largely focuses on the late 19th and 20th century history of engineering on the river, following one of colonial India's first multipurpose reservoirs and its meanings for social, economic, political and environmental life.

Currently, along with Dr. Bhavani Raman (University of Toronto) I am involved in a long term project thinking about the archives of urban water in Chennai (formerly Madras). Conceived in 2015 when a major flood hit Chennai, as were both doing archival research, the project, which has multiple elements has changed course over the years. We have worked with different groups on varying sites in the city, such as Ennore and the Adyar river, and are now engaged in developing an environmental atlas (by no means comprehensive) of sorts for the city.  We have been lucky to receive support from the British Academy for the research in two separate projects, 

The work has spanned archival research, oral histories, map collecting, digitizing, and making, and contains elements of public engagement. Some examples of talks and writing are below :-