Thalolam Yahoo Group -

Malini wrote: "Watching Jaya TV at 4 AM just to hear someone say 'Vanakkam' like my grandmother."

It was from Divya.

Divya’s posts were poetry. She wrote about the feeling of wearing a new pavadai (skirt) during Margazhi (winter festival season), about the bitter taste of vendaikai (okra) gone soggy, about her father’s vintage Lambretta scooter. Rajiv read each post three times. Thalolam Yahoo Group

"Rajiv, Twelve hours isn't so long. We've waited twenty-six years already. Check your email tomorrow at 2 AM. I'll be awake." Malini wrote: "Watching Jaya TV at 4 AM

The next morning, his inbox had 47 messages. Most were from Senthil and Malini, teasing him: "Oho! Love in the Thalolam group? Lakshmi, is this allowed?" But one message was different. Rajiv read each post three times

The group had started in 1999 with a single post from a stranger named "Kannan" that read: "I am alone in a basement in Texas. Does anyone remember the taste of 'Maa Vilakku' (flour lamp) on Karthigai Deepam?"

"Thalolam" — a Tamil word meaning anguish or restlessness . It was the perfect name for a group of twenty-something diasporic Tamils scattered across the globe. They had never met. They probably never would. But every night, they poured their loneliness into badly formatted emails.