A note

Dear TLJ readers,

There are always a million things that catch our eye, whispers and quieter thoughts that we want to bring to you, every month. This time was no different. We wanted to bring to you little-known, but forever-loved foods and take you with us on a little day trip away, but after Issue 1, good advice from a reader told us to streamline it all within the rough coordinates of a theme. As a fledgling journal, we were jittery to execute it.

Ten days into the month, and we still weren’t sure how to pick a theme and what, if any. Then we stumbled on the Instagram account of one @lenskumar and found he'd done a #Sankranthi series. Nostalgia hit. Our hearts filled up, thinking of how we used to celebrate the festival growing up. Both of us are in different cities now, doing different things and sometimes barely have time to think back to home. We don't celebrate our festivals the same way anymore— a feeling that especially hit us on this Ugadi that just went by a few days ago. Many little things we used to do though, have stayed with us in little bits of our eyes or in the faint smell of an old kurta at the back of our cupboards. It made us immediately get in touch with @lenskumar, aka, Shiv. 

In the meantime, we had already received submissions from Niloy and Amit, both of who have worked with the Journal before— the former in Issue 2 and the latter, in our 2016 pre-monthly avatar. Both their pieces spoke of a going back of sorts, a re-look at what's been ours...how we have owned them, resuscitated them, and built upon them (or not). This is what we set our sights on— on what's been ours. Pragya's poem talks of this in a deliciously encompassing way, with Radhika's already-made illustration (quite literally, what's been hers) and Sanithra's on-the-spot doodle.

Serendipitously, Shreyas' #36DaysOfVowels and Madhav's think-piece on the body came in as shots in the arm. For the latter's story, we are stoked to have on board the very efficient, professional, and all-round-super artist Araki Koman. It turns out she's been toying with ideas very close to Madhav's pitch– the piece we asked her to come aboard to collaborate on.  

Here's to serendipity and things working out, as they eventually will.  We hope you enjoy this pre-summer issue.

Heartfuls of cold buttermilk, and roohafza to you all.
Anusha & Vangmayi