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বৃষ্টির ঘ্রাণ
80 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2020
23 people want to read
About the author
Caesar Bagchi
24 books14 followersসিজার বাগচী-র জন্ম ১৯৭৭ সালে। দক্ষিণ কলকাতায়। পূর্বপুরুষের বসবাস ছিল অধুনা বাংলাদেশের ময়মনসিংহে। অল্প বয়সে পিতৃহীন। কলেজে পড়ার সময়ে লেখালিখি শুরু। ফিচার, গল্প, প্রবন্ধ, সমালোচনা, চিত্রনাট্য, কথিকা, উপন্যাস। সহজ তরতরে ভাষায় লেখা সব গল্প-উপন্যাসের বিষয়ই আলাদা। এবং তা উঠে আসে রোজকার জীবনযাত্রা থেকে। বড়দের পাশাপাশি ছোটদের গল্পও লিখছেন নিয়মিত৷ নানা পেশায় যুক্ত থেকেছেন। দীর্ঘদিন সাংবাদিকতার চাকরি করেছেন ‘আনন্দলোক’ পত্রিকায়। বর্তমানে ‘আনন্দমেলা’য় কর্মরত৷ লেখালিখি ছাড়াও বাংলার লোকসংস্কৃতি নিয়ে কাজ করতে ভালবাসেন।
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September 18, 2025
📘 Chapter 1: Storm at Puri
A sudden beach storm near Puri forces Shaon and her husband Prashanta to seek refuge on a deserted guesthouse veranda. Sand stings like arrows, the lights go out, and Prashanta fumes over ruined plans while Shaon shivers, prone to cold.
A drenched young man leaps onto the veranda at a lightning flash just as Shaon wrings her sari, exposing her form. This charged, awkward face-off foreshadows crisis. Prashanta finally reaches the guest room with the stranger’s candle and towel.
🏠 Chapter 2: Shelter and Introductions
Inside the messy guesthouse room, the youth—Ranojoy Chatterjee from Jadavpur—offers a towel and practical help. He’s a former IT analyst turned idle photographer. Prashanta, status-conscious, name-drops their upscale hotel and complains about connectivity and safety.
Ranojoy keeps his eyes off Shaon out of courtesy after the awkward moment, but his gaze lingers in charged silence. When the hotel car arrives, Shaon pointedly ignores Ranojoy’s request for her phone number and departs—yet exhales a long, involuntary sigh seeing him in the dark with a lit cigarette ember.
🛕 Chapter 3: Konark Encounter and the Fall
After a fevered night, Shaon insists on visiting the Konark Sun Temple. Ranojoy reappears, lectures engagingly about Narasimhadeva I and devadasi models, and shows Shaon his shots—hidden among them are candid, aestheticized photos of her that foreground her curves.
Enraged over consent and gaze, she orders deletion. Ranojoy counters coolly and speaks precise facts about her life—college, MA, marriage, son, loneliness—triggering a vertigo spell. She collapses and revives to find Prashanta tending her, hearing that “the boy” caught her and even bought water before disappearing.
🧠 Chapter 4: Suspicion and Fear in Bhubaneswar
Back at the hotel, Shaon reels: how does Ranojoy know so much? Does he have ties to her buried past with Shubhankar? She withholds this from Prashanta, fearing his cold calculations and tendency to control narratives under the guise of “planning.”
Left alone while Prashanta works calls and meetings, she broods on whether Ranojoy connected with Prashanta after her fainting, and whether secret links might expose her scarred history. The unease circles back to Shubhankar and a storm years ago.
🌧️ Chapter 5: Shankarpur Backstory with Shubhankar
Flashback: as MA students, Shaon and poet-scholar Shubhankar secretly travel to Shankarpur. In a violent rain by the sea, they share an overpowering kiss, then first intimacy at the hotel—followed by weeks of dread until her next period, a mixture of bliss and fear.
Shubhankar, from a venerable North Kolkata family, writes a poem about that day. Both families tacitly accept the match. Shaon’s father silently knows more than he says, believing Shubhankar an excellent prospect—until sudden trouble begins.
🧩 Chapter 6: Disappearance and Parental Crisis
Midway through MA Part II, Shubhankar stops attending university. Calls go unanswered until his mother curtly says he’s unwell and forbids further contact. Alarmed, Shaon feels her life hitch entirely to his.
Seeking counsel, Shaon approaches her father, who urges a direct visit. At Shubhankar’s home, she meets devastated parents who beg her to stand by him and even promise marriage—hinting at a family “high lineage” problem and an inherited darkness they can’t yet name.
⚖️ Chapters 7–10: Fracture, Stigma, and Escape into Marriage
The family “problem” unfolds as hints of mental illness or breakdown. Shaon faces the terror of becoming the scapegoat for an elite family’s hereditary burden, even as her own father remains pragmatic and protective.
Under pressure, the college romance collapses without closure. Rumors and patriarchal reputation push Shaon toward a “safe” marriage with the older, calculating Prashanta—who offers stability but little intimacy or dialogue.
🧊 Chapter 11: Return to Present—Marital Cold Wars
In Bhubaneswar and then Kolkata, Shaon’s marital rhythms resume. On their first night, Prashanta realizes Shaon was not a virgin. Feeling betrayed, he often tortures and rapes her.
Shaon learns from a friend that Prashanta is having an affair with a woman whose husband is in debt. He often doesn’t come home at night. Shaon knows he spends those nights with his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Ranojoy’s uncanny “seeing” cracks a decade of denial. Shaon seeks revenge from her husband, despite suspecting Ranojoy’s carnal desire and womanizing tendencies.
☕ Chapter 12: Kolkata Crossings and Chance Meetings
Back in the city, Ranojoy persistently appears at cafés and gym-adjacent spots. Shaon begins to warm to him. They start meeting—and share a passionate kiss.
🛏️ Chapter 13: The Flat and Crossing the Line
Shaon finally visits Ranojoy’s bachelor flat. Repelled by its mess—dirty sheets, underwear on the bed, ash—she imposes order, making him clean. It’s a symbolic seizure of agency before surrender.
As rain batters Kolkata, the two enter a night of intense intimacy. The storm echoes Puri’s, but this time it’s chosen transgression, not accident.
📱 Chapter 16: Exposure and Retaliation
Shaon uses Ranojoy’s phone to WhatsApp intimate pictures to Prashanta.
She then stops meeting Ranojoy and rejects his calls. But Ranojoy appears at her house, forcing a meeting.
He claims Prashanta injured him by striking his bike and insists he never exploited Shaon. She confesses she only wanted revenge—to prove she’s still desirable. She tells him she’s not the right choice; it was infatuation.
Ranojoy disagrees—he’s in love. Shaon reveals the humiliation and torture she suffers.
A woman named Sanghamitra appears, claiming to be Ranojoy’s girlfriend and warns Shaon to stay away.
Prashanta weaponizes “planning” to infantilize Shaon’s choices and dismisses her vulnerabilities.
That night, Shaon deletes a tense message from Ranojoy about Prashanta—an act of stealth, fear, and maternal instinct. She cannot unknow the truth, but she can control the trace.
🌧️ Chapter 17: The Showdown at Gariahat
On a rain-glossed street, Shaon and Ranojoy argue fiercely. She threatens police; he demands trust and urges her to see proof that Prashanta orchestrated Sanghamitra’s intervention and the attacks.
Shaon realizes how easily urban networks are weaponized by a resourceful husband.
When confronted, Prashanta beats her and threatens to ruin Ranojoy’s life.
Later, Ranojoy tells her Prashanta wept before his father and elder brother—an act.
🚪 Chapter 19: Breaking Point and Exit Plan
After another scalding exchange, Shaon calmly tells Prashanta their problem isn’t Ranojoy—it’s the hollow marriage.
She declares she’s leaving, keeps her door key, and warns she’ll tell their son Bubai the truth if needed.
Prashanta sneers that her path is one-way. Shaon replies life has always been one-way—and walks toward it with open eyes.
🏚️ Chapter 21: Mother’s House and the Ache of Aging
Shaon's mother persuaded her to return to Prashanta's house.
Shaon eventually returns to Prashanta’s house.
🌅 Chapter 22: Aftermath and Seasonal Sign
When Prashanta leaves for a “business meeting”—which Shaon knows is a trip with his girlfriend—Shaon is alone.
Ranojoy sneaks in through the window. They have sex.
At dawn, Ranojoy affirms he convinced his father about their marriage.
He reveals he got a job in Bengaluru and asks Shaon to come with him.
As city sounds recede, Shaon contemplates a one-way road. Mahalaya’s voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra floats in memory—a code for seasonal rebirth.
Ranojoy departs for Bengaluru, promising to return in a month. Shaon begins assembling a life from first principles—documents, boundaries, truth for her son, and care for her mother.
As Sharat air filters in, the Mahalaya motif completes the frame: two storms—Puri and Kolkata—become rites of passage from compliance to agency, aligning her personal Navaratri with the season’s arrival.
A sudden beach storm near Puri forces Shaon and her husband Prashanta to seek refuge on a deserted guesthouse veranda. Sand stings like arrows, the lights go out, and Prashanta fumes over ruined plans while Shaon shivers, prone to cold.
A drenched young man leaps onto the veranda at a lightning flash just as Shaon wrings her sari, exposing her form. This charged, awkward face-off foreshadows crisis. Prashanta finally reaches the guest room with the stranger’s candle and towel.
🏠 Chapter 2: Shelter and Introductions
Inside the messy guesthouse room, the youth—Ranojoy Chatterjee from Jadavpur—offers a towel and practical help. He’s a former IT analyst turned idle photographer. Prashanta, status-conscious, name-drops their upscale hotel and complains about connectivity and safety.
Ranojoy keeps his eyes off Shaon out of courtesy after the awkward moment, but his gaze lingers in charged silence. When the hotel car arrives, Shaon pointedly ignores Ranojoy’s request for her phone number and departs—yet exhales a long, involuntary sigh seeing him in the dark with a lit cigarette ember.
🛕 Chapter 3: Konark Encounter and the Fall
After a fevered night, Shaon insists on visiting the Konark Sun Temple. Ranojoy reappears, lectures engagingly about Narasimhadeva I and devadasi models, and shows Shaon his shots—hidden among them are candid, aestheticized photos of her that foreground her curves.
Enraged over consent and gaze, she orders deletion. Ranojoy counters coolly and speaks precise facts about her life—college, MA, marriage, son, loneliness—triggering a vertigo spell. She collapses and revives to find Prashanta tending her, hearing that “the boy” caught her and even bought water before disappearing.
🧠 Chapter 4: Suspicion and Fear in Bhubaneswar
Back at the hotel, Shaon reels: how does Ranojoy know so much? Does he have ties to her buried past with Shubhankar? She withholds this from Prashanta, fearing his cold calculations and tendency to control narratives under the guise of “planning.”
Left alone while Prashanta works calls and meetings, she broods on whether Ranojoy connected with Prashanta after her fainting, and whether secret links might expose her scarred history. The unease circles back to Shubhankar and a storm years ago.
🌧️ Chapter 5: Shankarpur Backstory with Shubhankar
Flashback: as MA students, Shaon and poet-scholar Shubhankar secretly travel to Shankarpur. In a violent rain by the sea, they share an overpowering kiss, then first intimacy at the hotel—followed by weeks of dread until her next period, a mixture of bliss and fear.
Shubhankar, from a venerable North Kolkata family, writes a poem about that day. Both families tacitly accept the match. Shaon’s father silently knows more than he says, believing Shubhankar an excellent prospect—until sudden trouble begins.
🧩 Chapter 6: Disappearance and Parental Crisis
Midway through MA Part II, Shubhankar stops attending university. Calls go unanswered until his mother curtly says he’s unwell and forbids further contact. Alarmed, Shaon feels her life hitch entirely to his.
Seeking counsel, Shaon approaches her father, who urges a direct visit. At Shubhankar’s home, she meets devastated parents who beg her to stand by him and even promise marriage—hinting at a family “high lineage” problem and an inherited darkness they can’t yet name.
⚖️ Chapters 7–10: Fracture, Stigma, and Escape into Marriage
The family “problem” unfolds as hints of mental illness or breakdown. Shaon faces the terror of becoming the scapegoat for an elite family’s hereditary burden, even as her own father remains pragmatic and protective.
Under pressure, the college romance collapses without closure. Rumors and patriarchal reputation push Shaon toward a “safe” marriage with the older, calculating Prashanta—who offers stability but little intimacy or dialogue.
🧊 Chapter 11: Return to Present—Marital Cold Wars
In Bhubaneswar and then Kolkata, Shaon’s marital rhythms resume. On their first night, Prashanta realizes Shaon was not a virgin. Feeling betrayed, he often tortures and rapes her.
Shaon learns from a friend that Prashanta is having an affair with a woman whose husband is in debt. He often doesn’t come home at night. Shaon knows he spends those nights with his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Ranojoy’s uncanny “seeing” cracks a decade of denial. Shaon seeks revenge from her husband, despite suspecting Ranojoy’s carnal desire and womanizing tendencies.
☕ Chapter 12: Kolkata Crossings and Chance Meetings
Back in the city, Ranojoy persistently appears at cafés and gym-adjacent spots. Shaon begins to warm to him. They start meeting—and share a passionate kiss.
🛏️ Chapter 13: The Flat and Crossing the Line
Shaon finally visits Ranojoy’s bachelor flat. Repelled by its mess—dirty sheets, underwear on the bed, ash—she imposes order, making him clean. It’s a symbolic seizure of agency before surrender.
As rain batters Kolkata, the two enter a night of intense intimacy. The storm echoes Puri’s, but this time it’s chosen transgression, not accident.
📱 Chapter 16: Exposure and Retaliation
Shaon uses Ranojoy’s phone to WhatsApp intimate pictures to Prashanta.
She then stops meeting Ranojoy and rejects his calls. But Ranojoy appears at her house, forcing a meeting.
He claims Prashanta injured him by striking his bike and insists he never exploited Shaon. She confesses she only wanted revenge—to prove she’s still desirable. She tells him she’s not the right choice; it was infatuation.
Ranojoy disagrees—he’s in love. Shaon reveals the humiliation and torture she suffers.
A woman named Sanghamitra appears, claiming to be Ranojoy’s girlfriend and warns Shaon to stay away.
Prashanta weaponizes “planning” to infantilize Shaon’s choices and dismisses her vulnerabilities.
That night, Shaon deletes a tense message from Ranojoy about Prashanta—an act of stealth, fear, and maternal instinct. She cannot unknow the truth, but she can control the trace.
🌧️ Chapter 17: The Showdown at Gariahat
On a rain-glossed street, Shaon and Ranojoy argue fiercely. She threatens police; he demands trust and urges her to see proof that Prashanta orchestrated Sanghamitra’s intervention and the attacks.
Shaon realizes how easily urban networks are weaponized by a resourceful husband.
When confronted, Prashanta beats her and threatens to ruin Ranojoy’s life.
Later, Ranojoy tells her Prashanta wept before his father and elder brother—an act.
🚪 Chapter 19: Breaking Point and Exit Plan
After another scalding exchange, Shaon calmly tells Prashanta their problem isn’t Ranojoy—it’s the hollow marriage.
She declares she’s leaving, keeps her door key, and warns she’ll tell their son Bubai the truth if needed.
Prashanta sneers that her path is one-way. Shaon replies life has always been one-way—and walks toward it with open eyes.
🏚️ Chapter 21: Mother’s House and the Ache of Aging
Shaon's mother persuaded her to return to Prashanta's house.
Shaon eventually returns to Prashanta’s house.
🌅 Chapter 22: Aftermath and Seasonal Sign
When Prashanta leaves for a “business meeting”—which Shaon knows is a trip with his girlfriend—Shaon is alone.
Ranojoy sneaks in through the window. They have sex.
At dawn, Ranojoy affirms he convinced his father about their marriage.
He reveals he got a job in Bengaluru and asks Shaon to come with him.
As city sounds recede, Shaon contemplates a one-way road. Mahalaya’s voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra floats in memory—a code for seasonal rebirth.
Ranojoy departs for Bengaluru, promising to return in a month. Shaon begins assembling a life from first principles—documents, boundaries, truth for her son, and care for her mother.
As Sharat air filters in, the Mahalaya motif completes the frame: two storms—Puri and Kolkata—become rites of passage from compliance to agency, aligning her personal Navaratri with the season’s arrival.
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