Self-Union and Self-Separation — a complete poetic universe, pressed once, and never again.
Composed slowly between 2013 and 2017. Ten movements — from the first rain of awakening to the final melting at the end of love. Hand-bound, foil-stamped, numbered by hand — and offered, once, to two thousand readers who will keep it.
आत्म-मिलन – आत्म-विरह is not a title we will reprint. It is a finite edition, numbered by hand, made in small pressings and held in small numbers. When the last set is claimed, the press closes the book. There is no second run, no anniversary reissue, no paperback to follow. The number on your set is the number it will always be.
We make it this way on purpose. A universe that took five years to write is not meant to be everywhere. It is meant to be somewhere — on one table, in one home, returned to on the quiet evenings.
Pressed once. When the last set is sold, the universe closes.
This edition does not go on sale. It does the opposite. It opens at $300 and climbs, in published steps, as the numbered sets are claimed — until it reaches $580 for the last sets in the pressing. The price you see is the price now. It only moves one way.
Reserved so far
340 / 2,000
Your number would be 0341
Current price
$300
160 sets remain at this price
Next step
No. 0501
then the price rises to the next rung
The price never falls. Reserving your number locks today's price. No coupons, no private deals — the reader who arrives first is rewarded for arriving first.
Edition I
Ten clothbound books · the complete work
The full ten-book universe, each volume hand-bound in cloth and stamped in antique gold, gathered in a foil-pressed slipcase made for the shelf you return to. Includes the author's note and a certificate of authenticity.
Edition II
2,000 sets · numbered and signed by hand
Everything in the Hardcover Universe, raised to its finest form: each set individually numbered, signed by the author, finished in a distinct binding, and presented with a hand-written note and a letterpress certificate. When the 2,000th set is claimed, this edition closes permanently.
Both editions contain all ten books in full. The Signature edition adds hand-numbering, the author's signature, the written note, and the closing guarantee.
The complete universe, each volume bound in cloth and stamped in antique gold.
Heavy board, dressed in cloth, pressed by hand in antique gold.
Your set's number, recorded and verifiable against the pressing.
Hand-written, folded into the set — a few lines, in pencil, at night.
Ten ribbons, each in a colour chosen for the voice of its movement.
Warm to the eye, made to be returned to, made not to yellow.
The universe opens with a first rain and closes with a slow melting. Between them, eight more movements — devotion, liberation, the body, separation, the philosophy of love, its many moods, a second language, and the long return of memory. Read in order, they are not ten books. They are one life, learning to feel itself.
awakening, and the first stirrings of love
Raindevotion, and the beloved who lives in the mind
Devotiona woman's voice, and the right to be fully seen
Voicethe body, and where the soul begins
Bodyseparation, and the strange sweetness of absence
Absencethe philosophy of love
Philosophythe moods of love — anger, jealousy, repair
Moodsthe feelings that arrived in another tongue
Tonguememory, and the return of the first rain
Memoryto dwell, and to melt
MeltingThe rain that opens Book One returns, as memory, in Book Nine. The tree that melts on the first page becomes, by the last, the self. The universe remembers itself.
There are gifts that are used, and gifts that are kept. आत्म-मिलन – आत्म-विरह is made to be kept — a numbered, signed, finite object that does not date, does not depreciate, and does not appear in every second home.
For a milestone, a wedding, a farewell, or the person who already owns everything, it offers what is increasingly rare: something genuinely limited, beautifully made, and impossible to buy once the edition closes. Each set can carry a personal inscription alongside the author's note, and arrives presented for giving.
Every set carries a hand-applied number and a certificate matched to it. The total pressing is fixed and published; we do not exceed it, and when it is complete, we say so. Your number is yours — on the set, on the certificate, and in the record.
Each set is hand-numbered from 1 to 2,000. The number on your set is the number it will always be — there is no re-issue to dilute it.
The Signature edition is signed by the author and accompanied by a hand-written note, folded into the set before it is sealed.
A letterpress certificate of authenticity, matched to your number and held in the press's record. Verifiable, always.
These are books to keep for years — to underline slowly, to gift carefully, to return to when the day becomes too loud. Sit with one before you decide. The work will tell you whether it is yours.
कभी शब्द कम पड़ जाते हैं,
तब कविताएँ जन्म लेती हैं।
There are evenings when words run thin,
and the poems take their place.
From पहली बारिश · First Rain
तुम पास नहीं हो,
फिर भी हर ख़ामोशी में
तुम्हारा नाम बजता है।
You are not here,
yet in every silence
your name keeps ringing.
From विरह रस · Virah Ras
तुम मेरी कविता नहीं,
तुम वह ख़ामोशी हो
जिसमें कविता जन्म लेती है।
You are not my poem.
You are the silence
in which a poem becomes possible.
From मानसी · Manasi
मैं पिघलता रहा,
जब तक मैं और तुम
एक ही पानी न हो गए।
I went on melting,
until you and I
were the same water.
From रमना और पिघलना · Ramna Aur Pighalna
When the noise of the day softens, these are the books that remain on the table — unhurried, warm, waiting. The edition is open now, at the lowest price it will ever be, with its numbers still close to the beginning.
No. 0341 of 2,000 · the price only rises from here.