Mythili emerged from a long dissatisfaction with how “nature” is commonly framed — as spectacle, commodity, wellness product, or weekend escapes.
Rather than offering fixed formats or packaged outcomes, Mythili works with situations. Each engagement is shaped by place, season, terrain, weather, and the people present. The emphasis is not on accumulation — of sightings, moments or information— but on the quality of perception.
This approach draws equally from natural history, contemplative practice, traditional wisdom, scientific method, and lived time outdoors. Observation is not treated as a skill to be mastered, but as a faculty that deepens when distraction is reduced and curiosity is allowed to settle. Silence, slowness, and conversation all have their place, depending on context.
Guided attention may take the form of a morning birding walk, a ride down a river, a sojourn in a tent, or for the more adventurous, a trek through demanding forest terrain.
Or it could be a book discussion. Or a fireside chat. Or a night spent out under dark skies, with the light of distant stars glinting from our awe-struck eyes.
Or it may invite trust, connection and reciprocity, or even build leadership, authenticity and responsibility, more directly — with various practices that range from the meditative to the robust, that shifts the way we relate to land, light, air and sound, to our own senses, and to others in our lives.
Mythili does not position itself as instruction or performance. There is no expert delivering nature to an audience. What is facilitated instead is a shared field of attention, where learning arises through presence, dialogue, and the gradual sharpening of the senses.
And finally, belonging and renewal. Because we allowed nature to speak before we do.
Mythili was founded by C.K. Sridhar and S. Murali. They come from diverse backgrounds — Sridhar is a writer-editor from mainstream journalism, while Murali is an institution builder and administrator from school education, rural and environmental services. What unites them is lived passion and dedicated concern for birds and animals, woods and forests, the sun on open water, and the rain drenched earth. Call it the pancha bhootas. Call it prakruthi. Call it bhoomi.
Or call it MYTHILI.