Translated fiction: An accidental meeting brings two academics, Ketaki and Aditya, together

This is the story of two people who live in Navabhum, or the New World. Navabhum is often called Gaurbhum or the Land of the Fair-complexioned.

They live in Navabhum but were not born there. They were born in Purabhum, the Old World.

Which makes it difficult to say where they are from. Well, maybe it doesn’t matter where one comes from. Especially if you are talking about emotions like the flavour of love, which encapsulates all feelings, all you need for that is two hearts that beat. It can happen anywhere – on earth, in the heavens or even the space between heaven and earth.

It’s true that hearts exist in certain bodies, and bodies grow in a particular soil, breathe in a particular air, connect with a particular kind of sunlight and water, and are formed and take shape in a particular manner.

This is why anyone who settles in Navabhum still bears the fragrance of the soil they were created in. The real smell lingers no matter how much you wash, scrub, or spray yourself with perfume.

Every soil bears a colour of its own, sometimes white, sometimes yellow, sometimes brown and sometimes red. Once a colour has set in, it won’t go away, no matter how...

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