As the festive season calls for indulgence, we say indulge the things that you’re expected to suppress: your high-reaching hopes, your idiosyncrasies, your non-conforming opinions, your vulnerabilities and even your fears. In this issue, we consider the benefits of looking inward and reflect on the relevance of social norms that dictate the length of a woman’s hair through a pixie cut-sporting Mallika Chandras experiences and discover the motivations behind six people learning new and unfamiliar languages. Sukhada Tatke shares her life-altering experience of swimming in the outdoors for the first time and writers Rana Safvi, Priya Malik, K.R. Meera and Nadika Nadjaq create exclusive works of microfiction in Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil to highlight Indias diversity of mother tongues. Spotlighting the modern-day approach to marriage and weddings, we also put together a special section that examines the mindset of women who are breaking with convention like the resilient Asha Parekh, who determinedly shunned matrimony in an era when getting married was the ultimate dream of many women and a queer, kinky, non-monogamous Jaya Sharma, who is still stirred by dreams of a traditional wedding. Now on the cusp of a new decade, make the resolution to allow your focus to shift to your internal sphere so that, eventually, you can find meaningful joy in the world around you. Celebrate yourself with our latest issue, now on stands.