In the sprawling narrative of modern life, there are stories we tell over coffee in bright office cafeterias, and there are stories we whisper in the dark, fearful that saying them aloud might make them true. This anthology is a collection of both.
Bringing together the works of Meheli Malakar and Supratik Sen is an exercise in contrast and convergence. Malakar takes us into the high-rises and the hushed bedrooms of the corporate elite. Her stories, like Lost Souls and Allure of the Corporate Jungle, peel back the glossy veneer of ambition to reveal the profound loneliness of marriages defined by transactions rather than intimacy. She writes of the "corporate jungle" where desires collide with professional reinvention. Her characters are navigating cultural dualities and the shifting expectations of a globalized world.
Conversely, Supratik Sen drags us away from the air-conditioned boardrooms and into the grit of the streets and the silence of forgotten rooms. His narratives, such as A buried story cremated and Crime in the City, are unflinching examinations of honour killings, systemic corruption, and the desperate arithmetic of survival. Sen explores the hidden emotional truths of everyday lives, centering on trauma and the quiet strength of ordinary people facing extraordinary moral crises.
Yet, as you read these stories in sequence, a singular thread emerges: the fragility of human connection. Whether it is a wife grappling with her husband's secret desires in Malakar’s Pain and Pleasure , or a daughter fighting for the dignity of her neurodivergent son in Sen’s Srinika, the struggle is the same. It is the universal fight to be seen, to be understood, and to survive the institutions—marriage, family, the law—that promise to protect us but often fail.
This book does not offer easy answers. It offers the "familiar contradictions of city life: success paired with loneliness, intimacy layered with secrecy". It is a journey through the myriad fragrances of life and the dark corners where we hide our deepest fears.