About ISBUND
ISBUND is a platform for stories of home, displacement and identity. We focus on the experiences of people living between cultures, languages and generations. These are the everyday stories that shape who we are, shared in kitchens, at gatherings and through conversations that stretch across time zones.
Share Your Story
Born from one story. Built for many.
There is a moment at every Kashmiri wedding when a grandmother or an aunt takes isbund (Peganum harmala) in her fingers, touches it to your forehead, and drops those seeds into the embers. She is warding off the evil eye and blessing you with everything good. The herb crackles, releases its wild fragrance and suddenly the room feels fragrant and warmer, like something magical just arrived. That moment is what we named this magazine after. It is the feeling we want every reader to carry away.
Welcome to ISBUND. We have been waiting for your story.
In 2021, Sheetal Raina launched ISBUND as a love letter to the Kashmiri Pandit diaspora — a community that lost its homeland but never lost its heart. Five years on, that love letter has become a conversation and the conversation has grown beautifully loud.
Today, ISBUND is for every soul who has ever lived between two worlds. Every person who code-switches at the dinner table, who feels nostalgia for a place they may never return to, who is figuring out how to pass something precious down to the next generation. If you have ever been asked where are you really from? you belong here.
What Drives Us
Roots
Because knowing where you come from is the first step to knowing who you are.
Resilience
Because rebuilding a life without losing your soul is one of the bravest things a person can do.
Identity
Because you are allowed to be many things at once, and all of them are valid.
Legacy
Because the stories we tell today become the inheritance of tomorrow.
Every diaspora. Every story.
The best stories are rarely the loudest ones. They live in the spaces between cultures, between generations, between who you were and who you are still becoming. ISBUND is where those stories finally get to breathe.
ISBUND is a labour of love, guided by Sheetal Raina and Aria Raina Kumar, and made extraordinary by every contributor who has trusted us with their story.
So, what's your story?
Meet the Team
Sheetal Raina
The spark behind ISBUND. Sheetal founded the magazine in 2021 with a vision to celebrate cultural heritage and give the diaspora a platform it deserves.
Aria Raina Kumar
Bringing a new generation's perspective to every page, Aria helps shape the conversations that connect communities across cultures and borders.
Write for us. Your voice belongs here.
Collaborate with us, contribute your story, or simply pull up a chair and join the community.
isbund@outlook.com