Third Lane is a bilingual literary initiative started by a bunch of armchair enthusiasts, who decided one fine morning, that it was time to get some skin in the game.

Greatness has often been known to have humble beginnings – a scribbled lyric lodged at the back of a notebook, a doodle peeping from the corner of a page, an idea tossed out carelessly over a cup of coffee.

Third Lane, too, began as a wistful conversation between a group of friends with too much time on their hands and a shared love for all things creative. Somewhere down the line, we took deep breaths, ignored well-meaning warnings, picked the brains of encouraging and vastly more talented peers to lend shape to this idle whim. Greatness, however, has proved somewhat elusive so far – but we have been told that one must wait for it.

Neil Gaiman had once said in a gem of a speech, “When life gets hard, as it inevitably will, make good art. Whatever happens, just make good art.”

And when we look around, we find that storytellers everywhere have blurred boundaries, broken forms, stepped out from shadowy fringes and creeped out of stubborn boxes to do just that – make good art. The internet today is a powerhouse of independent content, literary innovation and experimental art forms.

We, at Third Lane, wanted to celebrate this beautiful mess of creativity around us, and at the same time provide a homeground for all the voices out there – relentlessly trying to find new ways to pin down the story in their heads.

We are squeaky new, and have nothing to fall back on but your support. We have a home here for all kinds of literary and art work – the kind we delight in not being able to understand, the kind we need thick black frames and dictionaries for, the ones that make us laugh, the ones that make us uncomfortable, and even the misfits that have not yet decided what art form to be, in this confusing world of labels. We welcome it all.

So pick up that pen. Get those brushes out. Dust off the old lenses.

Make some art.