New Delhi, Feb. 20 -- There's a small packet sitting at the back of my fridge. It's been there for close to three months now, wrapped carefully in paper, nudged behind pickle jars and hot sauce bottles. Inside it is pa, a yeast starter I brought back in October last year from a research trip to the Elopa-Etugu Community Eco-Cultural Preserve (EECECP), deep in Arunachal Pradesh's Dibang Valley. Every few weeks, I'd think about brewing with it, and then put it back again. Some things ask for a pause. And pa is one of them.

Pausing doesn't come easily to me anymore. Most days are spent moving: travelling, working, juggling projects at The Locavore-a multidisciplinary platform I founded four years ago that champions local food and sustainabi...