After over five years, I once again drew a header for the website of Alphabettes in 2023. Alphabettes is a loose collective of women working in the fields of lettering, typography, and type design. The header spells out the words Zan • Zindagi • Azaadi, or Woman • Life • Freedom, in Gurmukhi.

The design for the header is inspired by lettering I found in a Punjabi book at a neighbourhood book exchange a few years ago. The book, Punjabi Kahani da Aujj (Selected Punjabi Short Stories), was edited by Shamsher Singh Sandhu and Thakur Das Chawla, and published in 1976 by Chawla Publications, Phagwara.

From the moment I saw this book, I was taken by the juxtaposition of the geometric style in the book title and the soft, hand-drawn appearance of the editorial information. With help from my friend Purneetha’s mother, Jagjit Aunty, who supplied handwriting samples to help me understand the shapes and stroke order better, I translated the latter into this header’s design.