New Delhi, April 16 -- When author Vasudha Rai, one of India's leading beauty and wellness writers, wanted to plant a peepul tree in a community garden she shared with her neighbours, the neighbours were dead against it. "They said it was unlucky, which made me think, how can a plant be unlucky?" Rai recalls. This sent her down an investigative path which led to many discoveries. Divine Botany came alive for her. "I was also tired of seeing trees being cut down all over India so I wanted to write something to remind people about the relationship we had with plants," Rai says. This is exactly what her new book, Sacred, does.

In the cornucopia of Instagram-led wellness, where plant, fungi and everything "herbal" or "natural" make for soft ...