VOL. III · NO. 04 · SAT 23 MAY 2026 · PG. 01 PUNE EDITION · PRICE: NIL · ISSUE 0142

The Mehta Gazette .

A personal broadsheet, published weekly when something needs saying — or built.

FRONT PAGE · THIS WEEK

Aarav ships another quiet thing.

Pune-based engineer marks seven years of slow output with the launch of Threadwell v0.4 to a closed list of forty readers — says he plans to keep going at the same speed.

U. MEHTA, AT HIS DESK, PUNE · APR 2025 · CONTRIBUTED.

PUNE. — Aarav Mehta, an engineer and occasional writer who has been making things on computers since the autumn of 2019, this week released Threadwell v0.4, an opinionated reader for long essays. The release marks the largest single artifact in his catalogue to date, and the third he has shipped at his own slow tempo of roughly one substantial thing every six weeks.

Asked, after the launch, what he was working on next, the engineer reportedly said that he was “mostly going to keep going,” and that he was in no particular rush to release anything else.

The catalogue, which now spans eleven shipped artifacts and fourteen published essays, may be examined in full in the pages that follow.

The reader was built solo over six weeks of nights in late 2024, launched in private beta in February of 2025, and continues to receive small typographic revisions every few weeks. It is, according to its author, “the largest thing in the file cabinet,” preserved as built.


SECTION II

Catalogue of works, 2023 — 26.

Selected entries from the file. Four below; further entries on request.

No. 011

2025 · OPERATIONAL

Threadwell.

An opinionated reader for long essays. Built solo over six weeks; forty private readers.

STACK
TS · PG · Bun
SIZE
14k loc
BUILD
6 wks
STATE
shipped
No. 007

2024 · MAINTAINED

Fieldnotes.

Local-first writing tool for engineers who keep notebooks. Open source; daily driver.

STACK
Svelte · SQLite · Tauri
SIZE
6k loc
BUILD
24 wks
STATE
active
No. 004

2023 · ARCHIVED

Marginalia.

A study in editorial typography. Twelve hand-typeset essays; retired late ’24, preserved as built.

STACK
Hand HTML · CSS
SIZE
3k loc
BUILD
8 wks
STATE
frozen
No. 002

2019 — 22 · WITHDRAWN

Earlier work.

Eight student and weekend pieces, consolidated under a single entry. Available on request.

COUNT
8
SPAN
3 yr
STACK
various
STATE
private

SECTION III

The week's essays, listed.

In reverse chronological order. Pages on request.

W·14 17.V.2026 On knowing when a piece of writing is finished. 12 pp.
W·13 02.IV.2026 The website as a small private museum of the self. 8 pp.
W·12 28.I.2026 Notes on building software you have to live with. 17 pp.
W·11 14.X.2025 In praise of the long maintenance period. 9 pp.
W·10 02.VIII.2025 What I learned writing a tool for myself. 6 pp.
earlier 9 further pieces, 2021 — 25. Available on request.

SECTION IV

Editorial, from the writer.

A brief, signed.

I am Aarav — Pune-based, twenty-five, an engineer who has been making things on computers since the autumn of 2019. I write essays when I have something to say, build software when I have something to use, and keep most of what I have made online, when I remember to.

I am interested in software that you can live with, in typography that knows when to stop, and in the small daily craft of building both. I am less interested in shipping fast for the sake of speed, in decorative animation, or in being rushed.

If you would like to write to me — about a project, an essay, or just to say hello — my address is hello@aarav.me. I reply slowly. I reply honestly.