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— Page i —

— a private edition, of us —

Shijo Paul and Reeja Shijo

✦ ❦ ✦
⚜
The Collected
MEMORIES
OF US FOREVER
24th anniversary
⚜

tap the book to open ↓

To our dear Appa and Mummy
For us, home has never really been a place. It's always been the two of you🤩
No matter how much life changes, how old we grow, or where our paths take us you will always be our safe place
One of our biggest wishes is to see you both happy, healthy, and together for many more years.
I keep finding new reasons in old places,
and I am greedy for every year still coming —
the slow mornings, the borrowed sweaters,
all of it, with you, on purpose.
Ennum ingane thanne happy aayittu irikkanam🥰

— in the official record —

A Lifetime, Stamped

Time Liya has been away from her roots🤭

Office of the Heart
12 · X
est. 2002
delivered, daily
Many
years
That many
months
Many more
days
Infinite
hours

— missed both of you each second

— plate iv. of vii —

The Photographs

developed slowly, kept carefully

memory
— how it started💖
memory
✨️
memory
Retro dayzzzz💃🕺
memory
— how its goin🎉—
memory
— the long way home, on purpose —
memory
— rain, and nowhere better to be —
memory
— your laugh, mid-sentence —
memory
— an evening we let run late —

— an archive of small admissions —

Ticket Stubs

the nights we will not forget

Admit
02
together
act i · the engagement
5th october 2002
Betrothed in love...to a new begining💍
Admit
02
together
act ii · the Marriage
12th October 2002
United in love🌹
Admit
03
together
act iii · birth of Good news
Liya Maria is born (2004)
Thank you for bringing me to your sweet place🤩
Admit
4
tonight
act iv · Birth of terror
Here comes Levinani (2008)
Jesus gave the best wine later🙏
Admit
02
together
act v · the encore
Every Ordinary Tuesday
"dinner went cold. the conversation didn't."
Admit
02
together
act vi · the sequel
Same Café, Years Later
"we got the good table this time. we earned it."
Admit
02
together
act vii · still running
No Intermission
"nobody's leaving before the credits. there are no credits."

— sealed, by hand —

The Vow

break the seal, only if you mean it

&

— press here ↑ —

— a private clause, in two parts —

that no day, however small,
will pass without you guys reaching for each other —

and that, given the choice between
a thousand other lives and this one,
You guys would still pick each other. every time.

— witnessed, by Ammu and Levi 🤭

— colophon —

❀

to be
continued
— always —

this volume was bound on this afternoon,
in a small room, with a great deal of love.

— to the bestest in the whole wide world..

— fin. —