When Portuguese ships rst touched Calicut's shores ve centuries ago, they carried more than trade goods. They brought the winds of transformation that would forever alter India's destiny. Issue 3.2 pieces together the fragments of that pivotal moment with the struggles of today's artisans, whose weathered hands still work the same looms their ancestors did, even as their craft slowly fades into memory. Through intimate reportage from three handloom clusters, we witness the profound cost of progress. Each story in these pages honors the keepers of tradition while confronting the uncomfortable truth that to understand our present wounds, we must rst acknowledge their historical roots. This issue is both elegy and call to action, inviting readers to see how every thread in India's cultural mosaic connects past to present, loss to hope