Why I Started Naadarasika

I get asked pretty often whether Naadarasika is a "rasa website." It's not, exactly, and I think that's worth explaining, because it's the whole reason the site exists.

I grew up around a lot of old Indian words for feelings — words my family used casually, the way you'd say "homesick" or "nervous." At some point I noticed most of my friends had never heard of them, even the ones who were genuinely curious about where language for emotion comes from. That gap is basically the entire premise here: old words, still-current feelings, and the fact that almost nobody's written about that connection in a way that isn't either a textbook or a tourism brochure.

The nine rasas — Śṛṅgāra, Karuṇa, and the rest — were just the clearest, most structured starting point. They're a genuinely old, genuinely thought-out attempt to name specific emotional experiences. But they're one doorway, not the whole house. Naadarasika is also going to be about old words that aren't part of that list, about stories and art and history that don't map onto any of the nine, and honestly about whatever else feels worth writing about as this goes.

I started this on July 1, 2025, with basically nothing — no plan for interviews, no games, no map. Those got added because they turned out to be good ways to explore the same idea from different angles, not because I had a five-year roadmap. I'd rather build this the way most things worth reading get built: slowly, in public, adjusting as I go.

If you're here because you searched for a word to describe a feeling you couldn't quite name — that's genuinely what this is for.