BELL & HOWELL 1500-C · microfilm reader · ser. A-04812
M·0142 · F·001
REC. 1979
Library of Personal Archives
REEL 03

Title frame · do not remove from reader

MEHTA, U.
A personal site,
preserved on film.


Subject
Mehta, Aarav, b. 2000
Location
Pune, India
Format
16 mm reduction, 24×
Custody
Personal Archives, M classification
Reel
03 of 03
Reference
M·0142

PRESERVED 23 May 2026

M·0142 · F·002
SECTION I
About the subject
PG. 003

I. ABOUT · THE SUBJECT · AS RECORDED

A short biography.

Aarav Mehta, born 1 9 9 9, of Pune, India. By trade an engineer; by inclination a writer; by habit a maintainer of small, careful things. Has been making objects on computers since the autumn of 2·0·1·9, and writing about them, in long sentences, for almost as long.

Subject reports steady output at approximately one substantial artifact every six weeks, with intermittent essays as the spirit allows. To date: 11 shipped works, 14 published essays, no abandoned projects under active responsibility.

Reply latency, by post or by wire: approximately 36 hours, with honest answers preferred over fast ones.

— preserved as recorded; no further annotation required.

M·0142 · F·003
SECTION II
Catalogue of works
PG. 004 — 007

II. CATALOGUE · ELEVEN WORKS · FOUR PRESENTED

From the file cabinet, four entries.

  1. i.

    THREADWELL v0.4.2

    Recorded FEB 1985 · Operational · Subject's largest object.

    Opinionated reader for long essays. Built solo over six weeks of nights; shipped to a closed list of forty private readers; continues to receive small typographic revisions every few weeks.

    stack · ts · pg · bun · 14,210 lines · 6 wk build

  2. ii.

    FIELDNOTES v2.1

    Recorded SEP 1984 · Maintained · Open source.

    Local-first writing tool for engineers. Open source on github; daily driver for the subject; approximately twenty-four hundred installs at last count.

    stack · svelte · sqlite · tauri · 6,140 lines · 24 wk build

  3. iii.

    MARGINALIA v1.0 final

    Recorded JUN 1983 · Retired NOV 1984 · Frozen.

    A study in editorial typography. Twelve hand-typeset long essays; retired with intention and preserved as it stood on the day it closed.

    stack · html · css · 3,016 lines · 8 wk build

  4. iv.

    EARLIER WORK 2019 — 22

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

M·0142 · F·004
SECTION III
Index of writing
PG. 008 — 010

III. WRITING · FIVE MOST RECENT

From the writing volume.

  1. 17 V 26On knowing when a piece of writing is finished.12 pp.
  2. 02 IV 26The website as a small private museum of the self.8 pp.
  3. 28 I 26Notes on building software you have to live with.17 pp.
  4. 14 X 25In praise of the long maintenance period.9 pp.
  5. 02 VIII 25What I learned writing a tool for myself.6 pp.

— nine further pieces, 2021 — 25. Available on request.

M·0142 · F·005
SECTION IV
How to reach the subject
PG. 011

IV. REACH · BY POST OR BY WIRE

The subject prefers to reply slowly.

By post
Pune, Maharashtra, India · 411 0XX
By wire
hello@aarav.me
By writing
read.aarav.me
By code
github.com/aarav
Reply, p50
36 hours
Reply, p99
72 hours
M·0142 · F·014
END OF REEL
preserved as recorded
PG. 014

— END OF REEL 03 —

M·0142 · MEHTA, U. · preserved 23·V·2026

filmed at 24× reduction · 16 mm safety stock · Library of Personal Archives, Pune