Lakshmy Ramanathan’s new novel blends romance and conservation

Lakshmy Ramanathan loves a good romance, to both read and write. “As a sentiment, nothing moves me more,” says the Bengaluru-based author and high school English teacher, who has just come out with her third book, Love Bites and Pugmarks in Kabini (Bloomsbury).

At its core, this novel, set in Karnataka’s Kabini Forest Reserve, is the story of the stormy relationship between wildlife photographer Dhruv Thimayya and Mira Ponappa, who runs a quaint homestay in the area. It also dwells on larger conservation issues, something Lakshmy, a former journalist, is deeply passionate about.

“Hopefully, people will be intrigued by the intersection of romance and conservation issues and pick up the book. When I decided that my male lead would be a wildlife filmmaker, I realised that I could bring in a couple of conservation issues, which are close to my heart,” Lakshmy says, adding that she came up with the idea after watching behind-the-scenes footage of the 2020 documentary In the Footsteps of Elephant. “It made me aware of the hours filmmakers have to put in, the patience they possess, the rigours of the craft itself and the solitude they have to embrace.”

Saya, the black panther of Kabini, with his kill
| Photo Credit:

Shaaz Jung

While Love Bites and Pugmarksin Kabini’s central characters, Dhruv and Mira, are figments of what Lakshmy refers to as her “very hyper imagination,” certain scenes are drawn from her childhood memories of having spent some time on an estate. She also explains why she chose to write a love story unfolding between two slightly older people, rather than focus on young love. “Having hit 40 last year, I could no longer write a romance between 20-year-olds because I’m not a part of that world. Even though love and romance are universal, I can’t get inside the head of a very young person anymore.”

According to her, it was exciting to step into the heads of characters nearing their forties, an age when a very different line between clarity and complication is crossed. “Though we know ourselves better, we also have certain walls raised and are fixed in our lives, ways and routines, what we like and what puts us off. And also making two people, who prefer the solitude of the wild, fall in love was interesting.”

Bengaluru-based author and high school English teacher Lakshmy Ramanathan 
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Once Lakshmy had the plot in her head, she began researching extensively about Kabini, the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, the black panther, human-animal conflict and poaching, among other things, information that organically segued into her novel.

“The magic of writing fiction is that everything just comes together with a lot of my reading and research feeding into the plot line I had woven in my head,” says Lakshmy. She also conducted exhaustive interviews with wildlife filmmakers, photographers, and range forest officers, as well as spent considerable time in Kabini to “get a sense of the relief, the topography of the dry deciduous part of the forest, the nuances of the rocky outcrops, the game roads and the places where the black panther of Kabini actually frequented.”

Lakshmy’s first work of fiction, After the Storm, is a romance set against the backdrop of the 2015 Chennai Floods
| Photo Credit:
B. Jothi Ramalingam

Lakshmy, whose first work of fiction, After The Storm, is a romance set against the backdrop of the 2015 Chennai Floods, says it took her around two years to write this novel and another year, to send it to publishers and wait for their response. “Basically, four years went into this book, from the start to the launch,” says the self-confessed workaholic who, even when she is not actually writing, is constantly plotting scenes in her head.

The cover of the book
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Being someone who also holds a day job, she found herself writing into the night, over the weekends and during school vacations, a process that is “ exhausting, but also very exciting,” says Lakshmy, who says the “moment of magic,” which occurs during fiction writing pushes her to keep doing what she does, making time to write despite her hectic work schedule.

”Somewhere, the characters assume a life of their own and begin to dictate to me, what direction they should take, what words they would speak, what they would do, even during a romantic scene. It is pure magic when the dialogues and actions of the characters start dictating your book. I wait for that moment; it is what pushes me to write,” she says.

Writing also allows Lakshmy to hold on to something she aspired for, way back in high school: to make some kind of a change in society. “That is why I write about the issues that I do,” she says. “Literature has to have some relevance to our times and our society, an idea that I bring to my classroom, too.”

It is why she became a journalist in the first place: after completing a bachelor’s in literature at Stella Maris in Chennai, she pursued a diploma in journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, also in Chennai. Even today, nearly a decade after she quit being a full-time journalist, “my writing involves a lot of reportage because I can never stop thinking like one,” says Lakshmy, whose first book, a work of non-fiction titled ForBumpier Times: An Indian Mother’s Guide to 101 Pregnancy & Childcare Practices, was published in 2015.

Lakshmy’s next book is likely to explore elephant corridors
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Lakshmy, who says writing is something she will never give up on because “it ties back to my original purpose of wanting to make a difference in my own small way,” has already started researching her next novel, another work of conservation fiction. While it is too early to say too much about the novel, she offers a small hint. “I am looking at exploring elephant corridors.”

Published – February 06, 2026 06:35 am IST