The Silent Express

 I’m excited to share my latest novella -  The Unfinished Melody . At just over 30 pages, it’s a compact story you can finish in a single sitting — but I hope its echoes will linger long after the final page. Set in the misty hills of Darjeeling, it weaves together themes of love, obsession, betrayal, and music that refuses to be silenced. Here’s the blurb: In the misty hills of Darjeeling, where music drifts through the cold winds and shadows cling to every corner, Abhimanyu searches relentlessly for Aarushi—the woman he loves, the voice he cannot forget. Her melodies once lit the world with promise, but now her trail has vanished into silence and whispers of tragedy. A lodge with a cursed room. A death dismissed as suicide. An investigator who senses murder where others see despair. As love collides with betrayal and music mingles with blood, Abhimanyu is pulled into a haunting web of secrets that threatens to unravel not only Aarushi’s fate, but his own. Dark, atmosph...

When most of us think of Dussehra or Bijaya Dashami, what immediately comes to mind is the burning of Ravan’s effigies or the final immersion of Goddess Durga after her victory over Mahishasura. Yet, tucked beneath these widely celebrated images is a far less-known facet: in some regions, especially in Bengal and parts of Odisha, Bijaya Dashami also marks the beginning of a ritual called “Bijoya”, a practice of reconciliation. Historically, after the immersion of Durga, people would visit relatives, neighbors, even estranged acquaintances, to exchange sweets and embrace one another with the words “Shubho Bijoya” (Auspicious Bijoya). The underlying belief was that just as the Goddess departs to her celestial abode, humans too should dissolve their grudges, letting go of bitterness before life resumes its usual rhythm. Interestingly, this echoes a much older mythological strand. In the Ramayana, after the war in Lanka, Rama performs a rare ritual called “Shami Puja”, praying under the Sh...