Sayli Udas Mankikar

Yesterday was one of those rare, grounding moments that stay with you long after they pass. I had the honour of meeting His Holiness @DalaiLama and presenting him with my poetry book Warm Apples.

“Sink” is from imagining Jakarta as rising seas threaten home. Living in Mumbai, mins from the coast—what happens when the water rises? This poem holds that shared vulnerability, where distant climate futures turn personal & unsettling. notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

Bite The Dust came from a dust storm I experienced in Delhi caught on the road, eyes shut, struggling to breathe, as if the air turned against me. Even after, the city is buried in dust. This poem is my attempt to hold that suffocating, quiet devastation. notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

The Last Loan comes from when I travelled to the drought-prone Vidarbha, Maharashtra, to farmers who were committing suicide cause of the inability to pay off their huge loans. Understanding their griefs, personal stories, moved me a lot. notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

Water security starts at the local level, and women are at the centre In the tea gardens of the Darjeeling Himalayas, women are not just managing household water, they are leading solutions. Through @ICLEISouthAsia’s community-led project “Community-Led Climate Resilient Water Security in Two Tea Garden Districts in Northern West Bengal,” women are trained as barefoot hydrogeologists, shaping decisions, and guiding sustainable water management in the region. By combining local knowledge, technical expertise, and inclusive governance, communities are strengthening climate resilience and building a model that can be replicated across hill regions. This World Water Day 2026, ICLEI South Asia recognises women’s leadership, community action, and equitable water management. Swipe ➡️ to know how women and communities are driving climate-resilient water solutions in the Darjeeling Himalayas @ICLEISouthAsia wishes everyone a meaningful #WorldWaterDay

Happy World Poetry Day 🤍✨ For years, I wrote quietly, just for myself. Then I stepped out & Warm Apples was born. A book of climate, memory, loss & hope. Grateful to those who pushed me to share. To every hidden poet: this is your sign—your voice matters.

On a trek I met a Himalayan family who spoke of winter like a festival — snow meant full streams, songs, children on the slopes. Now the peaks stay bare longer. Elders remember the snow; children barely do. “Who moved my snow? What made it go?” notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

My first Maldives scuba dive felt like entering a new planet—reefs alive with colour & movement. Coral bleaching in Thai seas feels like watching that underwater city fade. This poem holds that memory—a quiet warning while the reef still fights to live. notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

My husband’s uncle & family had to flee their home overnight in USA cause of a wildfire. A sky the color of ash, alarms blaring, minutes to choose what to carry & what to leave behind. This poem holds that moment—smoke, loss & fragile hope that follows. notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

Seeing the Himalayas for the first time made me feel tiny & awed. Now when I read about melting snow, it feels surreal like a dripping ice cream flooding the world. I wrote a poem about heat, melting mountains, “natural” disasters that aren’t so natural. notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

The most powerful climate conversations aren’t about data. They’re about lived memories — sparrows disappearing, Mumbai’s floods, Delhi’s missing winter mist. Climate storytelling shows us what’s truly changing. 📍 BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt

I grew up in Mumbai, walking by mangroves that quietly hold the line between land and sea. They store carbon. Soften cyclones. Protect us — without applause. This poem is gratitude. Warm Apples is now live on Notion Press & Amazon (India, US, UK). notionpress.com/sg/read/warm-a…

Had the privilege of sharing Warm Apples with @deespeak @UNEP Goodwill Ambassador @ Mumbai Climate Week. We spoke about climate narratives & why culture must move to the centre of climate action. Storytelling isn’t soft—it shapes imagination, political will & change. Thanks Dia!

I’ve been asthmatic since childhood. Air was never abstract — it was intimate, fragile, sometimes frightening. I wrote this on a high AQI day in Delhi, when hospitals were full of people fighting to breathe. Dancing with death. My breath. notionpress.com/sg/read/warm-a…

@AshwiniBhide @origin_bio @malhar317 @YashRathod_75 @PMOIndia @narendramodi Wow lovely ma’am

Happy to share.. @origin_bio, an AI start up by my son @malhar317 & @YashRathod_75 for safer cell & gene therapies was invited for #CEO roundtable at @PMOIndia & Malhar was privileged to speak with Hon. @narendramodi & explain their potential role in #CancerCure & healthy #India.

Snippets from @Mumbai_Climate #mumbaiclimateweek

🔸 CM Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi presided over the signing and exchange of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC)/Letter of Intent (LoI) and four MoUs at the inauguration of ‘Mumbai Climate Week’. 🤝 MoC (Memorandum of Cooperation)/Letter of Intent (LoI) MMRDA and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) exchanged a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) for technical cooperation on urban heat mitigation, passive cooling, nature-based resilience systems, and climate adaptation frameworks in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. 🤝 MoU 1 MMRDA and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability signed a strategic partnership to strengthen metropolitan governance for climate action and to develop a climate-resilient cities framework in collaboration with ULBs in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. 🤝 MoU 2 MMRDA and the Urban Land Institute entered into a strategic global knowledge partnership on metropolitan-scale infrastructure planning, land economics, and low-carbon urban development in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. 🤝 MoU 3 MMRDA and India Resources Trust (WRI India) signed a knowledge partnership for climate data analytics and modelling, evidence-based decision systems, and the development of a metropolitan GHG inventory and dashboard. 🤝 MoU 4 MMRDA and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group signed a strategic partnership focused on climate implementation accelerators and metropolitan climate finance mobilisation. @Dev_Fadnavis @JoshiPralhad @MMRDAOfficial @UNEP @ICLEI @UrbanLandInst @WRIIndia @c40cities #Maharashtra #Mumbai #MumbaiClimateWeek

ICLEI Asia Pacific, represented by the Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI, @emanibvkumar , signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Ocean Cleanup in Singapore on 31 January 2026 to strengthen collaboration in addressing plastic pollution, with a particular focus on plastics entering the marine environment through rivers. As discussed by Ms. @SoumyaCHATUR, Director, @ICLEISouthAsia, in her keynote address "Interventions at Scale” at the event “Towards Healthy Oceans” on 31 January 2026, through this partnership, the organisations will work together to eliminate solid waste from river systems, leading to healthy oceans. ICLEI will bring to the partnership its expertise on integrated and sustainable management of municipal solid waste, including plastics, and will provide upstream technical support to ensure sustainability of Ocean Cleanup's impactful work in rivers and oceans, benefiting both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The cooperation will result in the development and support of policies aimed at improving waste management, reducing plastic pollution and eliminating wastes from our water bodies. The MoU also provides a platform to explore co-development of programmes and projects within ICLEI’s broader engagement with its member municipalities in the Asia Pacific. Such programmes will especially target locations where The Ocean Cleanup envisages implementing river clean-up deployments, strengthening data collection, research, and analytical activities that support evidence-based policy and action on plastic waste management. ICLEI is proud to partner with @TheOceanCleanup in strengthening this collective action to address plastic pollution. #PlasticPollution #SaveTheOceans

This is Net Zero—a poem about progress, compromise, and the quiet math we do with nature. I’m sharing each poem by reading it aloud, paired with illustrations we’ve brought to life, because some words deserve breath, not just pages. get the book 👇 direct.notionpress.com/in/read/warm-a…

In a bit to enhance our commitment to meeting #SDG's in cities, @ICLEISouthAsia is technically supporting @UNDP_India and the Government of Tamil Nadu in launching the Social Innovation Platform (SIP) pilot at Tiruchirapalli with an inception meeting at Tiruchirappalli City Corporation (@TrichyCorp) on January 22, 2026. The inception meeting initiated by UNDP India was led by Mr. Madhubalan L, Commissioner, Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation and nodal officer for the project, Mr. Ezhilnilavan, Assistant Chief Health Officer, Tiruchirappalli Municipal Corporation. Teams from UNDP India and ICLEI South Asia attended the meeting to align on the project and presented its objectives, scope, and implementation approach—focused on strengthening governance, localising the SDGs, and institutionalising citizen engagement through a city-led Social Innovation Platform. For Trichy, this initiative aims to translate into stronger citizen feedback loops, more responsive grievance redressal, and clearer alignment between city priorities, budgets, and the SDGs. As the UNDP India-led pilot progresses, Trichy is positioned to emerge as a demonstration city for people-centred, SDG-aligned urban governance, offering learnings that can be scaled to other cities across India.