In August 2019, Vidya Balachander wrote a piece on hing (asafoetida) for Whetstone magazine’s W Journal, which is dedicated to food origins and culture from around the world. As much as she despises using the word, the piece went ‘viral’. It generated a lot of curiosity and Whetstone media founder Stephen Satterfield thought it was time for a dedicated magazine that told stories from South Asia. Balachander was chosen to lead this vertical. They named it Rasa, a word whose meaning had relevance in more than one language. Rasa translates to ‘essence’ in Tamil, ‘good taste’ in Sinhalese and similar resonance in Indonesian Bahasa. “We wanted the name to resonate as an essence, quintessence and flavour,” says Balachander.