Hemali AdhiyaGood, God! One year already! Our hands shiver as we pen down this journey filled with a crazy load of lows & highs. Notice how we said lows first(lols)! Well, that’s how we felt! But as we reached closer to our first anniversary, destiny affirmed to us that Love Smitten is meant to be.
We distinctly remember how we wanted to write something that came from our hearts. Love Smitten is a deep-rooted dream that came to reality powered by a miracle. That is a different story altogether. Hopefully, we’ll cover it in our God’s love section someday!
One July evening, we realized we had made all the necessary arrangements to launch the e-magazine. It took us around a month to set everything up since we didn’t have any external help.
Why did we want to start Love Smitten?
Since the two of us met, Cupid struck us with the arrow of love coated with curiosity & positive partnership. After a year of marriage, we knew for sure that we work well as a team, not just personally but also professionally. We wanted to write without anyone telling us what to write… something that would be just our baby. And that’s how Love Smitten became a reality. And since it was love that made this possible, we made this our mission to spread love.
The State of Utter Confusion
It took us more than a month to figure out how exactly to start Love Smitten. This would be a good place to add that this journey has taught us how to start from minus! Ideas sprouted every single day, with no direction on their implementation. It all seemed impossible back then, only until recently. We kept moving forward and figured out months later that trial & error is the only and the best ways to survive in the online world.
After a long-lasting struggle to understand how online content works, we found a sudden jump in audience response.
The upsurge because of our methods gave us the confidence to keep going. We shifted to render to our readers more original content as opposed to what is already available online. Undoubtedly, that makes it harder for us to compete with some famous names. But then, remember what we said in the beginning? We wanted to write something that came from our hearts.
What we’re saying is, all the quotes, articles & stories that we publish are original. We want to stay hopeful that what’s just ours today will be everyone’s tomorrow! You see, the journey is still going on as we haven’t reached our destination yet (We have miles to go before we sleep- Robert Frost). Our poems are original too, not just in the English language but also in the Hindi language.
Although, poetry is such an art, that it is hard to resist including some verses by famous poets every once in a while. Ideas came in like the waves of a storm, and we started falling short of hands. With our existing full-time jobs, it became stressful. That is when our mother stepped in with her creative mind & hands. She offered to help us with the designing tasks, which surely helped us get breathers!
And then we had more members joining us. Our sister, a psychologist, offered to share with our readers a psychological perspective. We proudly call that section “Love Therapy.” Work piled on, and two young, bright interns joined us. All of them have added such fresh flavor to our e-magazine that we’re overjoyed! Pretty soon, we’ll be adding more people to our thunderous team.
Future Plans
Wish we knew that for sure, but we don’t. Nonetheless, we assure you, things are only going to get more interesting! One thing that we really want to add is a translation of all our work in the Hindi language. Some readers prefer reading in regional languages, and we don’t want to be a disappointment, for love has no language! We’re also working on our book, but that, of course, will take time.
Thank you all for your support through this journey
Both of us are beyond thankful for all the support you showered upon us throughout the year. God willing, all of you will continue staying close to us and never hop out of our journey.
We’re as married and committed to Love Smitten as we are to each other. And so, we’ll continue to stay in love, learn from our mistakes and stay strong so that we can bring in the best from our experiences. In fact, let’s share some fun facts about us with you guys.
Fun Facts
- The things we both cannot live without -> Travelling and food.
- Activities we try doing together -> Workouts, watching new series, movies & working.
- Do we argue when it comes to Love Smitten -> Only sometimes (Psst… we argue about other things more- wink).
- Things we always take care of -> Staying in touch when away and resolving conflicts the same day.
- Who proposed ->No matter how much the woman loves a man, it feels so special when the guy does it!
- Things we are obsessed with -> I (Hemali) am obsessed with the sitcom FRIENDS (It’s what I watch when I am on either end of my mood. I (Rajesh) am obsessed with staying updated with the latest, and so I spend a lot of time studying.
- Whose idea was Love Smitten -> We can never put a name on that; it came to both and how! (The miracle story… remember?)
- Are our writing styles different? -> Way different! I (Hemali) can write at any time of the day or night, provided there’s a free slow of thoughts. I (Rajesh) write best only in the silent hours of the night.
Final Word
We will bring you more of this if you want us to- Let us know in the comment section below. Before we sign out of penning our one-year journey, we have two other things to thank you for- Thank you for viewing us enough to touch our 10k views!
Secondly, thank you for making Love Smitten’s First Anniversary contest- “Clash of the Titles” a grand success. We truly did not expect this massive participation. Must say, we’re in quite a spot to pick the best, so much that we had to extend the contest with a lucky draw. Stay tuned to us, for we announce the results on the 19th of July, 2020 (The day we turn one!).
See you on the other side of our second year.
Lots of love,
ℌ𝔢𝔪𝔞𝔩𝔦 & ℜ𝔞𝔧𝔢𝔰𝔥
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