Fire in the Semal Tree is a reflective visual and literary journey inspired by a Semal tree standing outside author Sangeeta Singh’s bedroom window. What began as a fascination with its blazing red flowers gradually became an intimate study of birds, insects, animals, changing seasons, and the delicate ecosystem surrounding the tree.
Through photography and prose, Singh captures fleeting moments of nature while reflecting on the deeper parallels between the life of the Semal tree and our own journeys. The tree becomes a quiet witness to countless lives that arrive, connect, and move on, offering reflections on relationships, memory, and the passage of time.
More than a book about a tree, Fire in the Semal Tree invites readers to slow down and notice the beauty and stories unfolding around them. It is a celebration of observation, patience, wonder, and the intricate connections that make up the natural world and our own lives.
In this exclusive interview, let’s hear from author Sangeeta Singh about her journey behind Fire in the Semal Tree and how one Semal tree became a window into nature, photography, human connections, and the quiet stories of life.
1. What first drew you to the Semal tree, and when did you begin to see it as more than just a tree?
The Semal first drew my attention because it was impossible to ignore. It stood in all its glory, just outside my bedroom window. For a very long time, I had noticed how every night, the peacocks roosted on the tree, sometimes calling out to each other.
Then the leaves fell and the blooming season began. The green buds slowly turned red. The tree was soon full of red flaming flowers. I was mesmerized by its beauty at first. From inside my room or while going out on the premises, my eyes would turn towards this ‘blazing fire’, and slowly this became a deeper curiosity.
I began observing it more closely, camera in hand, and left no opportunity to click the blooms or the constant visitors. Slowly, I noticed the birds that visited, the squirrels, the animals, and the small changes every day. The Semal tree slowly turned into an amphitheatre with many small dramas unfolding around it. It dawned on me that I was witnessing and photographing not just a tree, but an entire ecosystem.
Slowly, the Semal became a quiet companion and a witness to the passage of time. Though it stood rooted in one place, constantly changing characters entered this world, some briefly, for different durations and requirements. This exchange of lives perhaps made me realise that the tree and its relationships were actually life playing out before me. It became a way of looking at life itself.
2. The book captures birds, blossoms, insects, changing seasons, and many fleeting moments around the Semal tree. What inspired you to document this hidden world through photography?
At first, my desire to photograph the flowers and visitors was merely a photographer’s instinct to capture the drama playing out before me. The tree changed every day. From green nubs to green bulbs, to green buds with red just peeping out, to a full blaze, the visage was fascinating. So was the constant stream of visitors.
At every new stage, the story changed. When it flowered, it attracted a different cast of visitors; once the flowers fell, the barren branches told another story, and the cast of visitors changed—each time giving more delight to the photographer in me.
Photography gave me a reason to pause and pay attention to these fleeting moments. The camera became less a tool for capturing beautiful pictures and more a way of learning to look—to notice behaviour, relationships, patterns, and tiny moments that might otherwise have gone unseen.
Slowly, photographing the Semal became an attempt to document the life around it: a small, constantly changing ecosystem full of movement, colour, and stories. The camera taught me that nature can be sought not only in distant forests, but many times it can be living right outside your window. You only have to slow down enough to see it.
3. Photography plays a central role in the book, but the photographs are accompanied by reflections and prose. How did you approach bringing these two forms together?
For me, the photographs and the reflections grew together quite naturally. A photograph would often start a chain of thoughts, most often about the relationship between the tree and an animal or bird I had witnessed—how a bird often displayed characteristic traits common to its species, or how sometimes a different aspect of the bird or animal was displayed.
A few months ago, in my first book—Walking with Wings and a Camera—I had elaborated upon the characteristic features and behaviour of several birds and noted the stories connected with them in folklore and books. Perhaps each encounter with the Semal was also an attempt to carefully weave into words the essence of that bird and species.
The camera captured what I saw. The words captured what I felt and thought about it. In view of the emotions the tree evoked every day, I did not want the prose to merely describe the photographs. I wanted it to take the reader a little deeper—to consider the moment as an experience, perhaps a reflection of our own lives.
4. One of the central ideas in the book is the parallel between the life of the Semal tree and our own human journeys. How did observing the different “visitors” to the tree lead you to reflect on relationships, people entering and leaving our lives, and the connections we carry with us?
The more closely I observed the Semal, the more I began to see a parallel with our own lives. The tree remains rooted in one place, while its world is constantly changing. Birds, insects, squirrels, and countless other visitors arrive, share a moment of its life, and then move on. Some return; some never do.
It reminded me of how people pass through our own lives. Some stay for years, some only for a brief while, yet each leaves something behind—a memory, a lesson, a feeling, or a connection.
The Semal made me realise that perhaps life is not only about who stays, but also about learning to value the encounters while they last. In that sense, the tree became a quiet metaphor for our own journeys and the many lives that intersect with ours.
5. The book invites readers to slow down and truly observe nature. What do you believe we miss when we move through the world without taking the time to look closely?
I think we miss the quiet stories that are unfolding all around us.
When we move too quickly, we see a tree as a tree, a bird as a bird, and a passing moment as just another moment. But when we slow down, we begin to notice relationships, patterns, expressions, and small acts of life that we would otherwise overlook.
Perhaps more importantly, we miss the opportunity to be present. The Semal taught me that observation is not merely about seeing more; it is about experiencing more deeply.
Sometimes, all that is needed is to pause and look again.
6. Through Fire in the Semal Tree, what do you hope readers take away?
More than anything, I hope readers learn to pause and look a little more closely at the world around them.
I hope they discover that beauty and meaning are often present in the most ordinary places, if we give ourselves the time to notice. And perhaps, while watching the many lives unfold around the Semal, they may also recognise something of their own journey—the people they have met, the connections they have made, and the moments that have quietly shaped them.
If the book makes someone look at a tree, a bird, or even another person with a little more attention and wonder, I would feel that it has done what I hoped it would.
7. This book grew from your personal experience of observing and photographing one tree over a period of time. How has this journey influenced you as a photographer and as a writer?
This journey has changed me both as a photographer and as a writer.
As a photographer, I learnt to look beyond the subject itself. I began noticing how light falling at different angles and at different times of the day could completely transform an image. I learnt that photographing a bird or an animal is not always about capturing the subject alone; its surroundings, habitat, and the ambience of the moment are equally important. And the long hours of waiting for the right moment taught me something photography cannot be learnt without—patience.
As a writer, my journey moved from simply documenting birds to observing the relationships between the tree, its visitors, and the many forms of life around it. Somewhere along the way, I began writing less about what I saw and more about what those encounters made me feel and understand.
The Semal taught me stillness, wonder, and empathy. It taught me that when we observe life closely, we begin to see not just individual moments, but the intricate web of relationships that connects them. In that sense, the journey changed not only the way I photograph and write, but also the way I see.
Pause, look closer, and discover the quiet stories unfolding in the natural world around you.
Order your copy of Fire in the Semal Tree by Author Sangeeta Singh on Amazon today and experience a beautiful journey through photography, nature, reflection, and the many connections that make life meaningful.
