There are landscapes that exist only in the borderlands of waking—where rivers move as if remembering, and the air is heavy with the scent of things long since gone. Here, paths split and rejoin like the veins of a leaf, each turn promising both revelation and exile. In such places, the world bends into improbable shapes: taverns bloom where no road should lead, strangers speak in riddles that feel older than language, and the smallest accident can alter the entire course of a life. Melancholy seeps into the roots of things, yet beauty persists—often in the very moments when we are most certain we’ve lost our way.
Handcrafted Misery is Anirudh Nair’s attempt to chart such a realm. A graphic novel steeped in antique sorrow and surreal encounter, it drifts through glades, forests, waterfalls, and flickering lamplight, gathering fragments of wonder and unease. He is shaping it slowly, but with certainty—allowing the work to find its own currents. When it is ready, it will be less a tale than an invitation to step into the strangeness, and see where it takes you.
