In the vibrant chaos of Kolkata's Durga Puja in October 2025, software engineer Bijay encounters Sheela, a young woman from North Bengal lost in the Dumdum market on Nabami night. Dressed in a simple black saree amidst the festival's riot of colors and sounds, Sheela asks for directions to Dumdum Park, and Bijay offers to walk her there. Their brief journey sparks an effortless connection as they share stories of their contrasting worlds?his rooted in the city's hustle, hers in the serene hills and forests of Siliguri and Darjeeling. However, Bijay regrets not complimenting her beauty or asking for her number before they part. Overcome by the missed opportunity, he posts a raw account titled "Jab I Met a Girl" on social media, which goes viral and miraculously reaches Sheela, leading to their reconnection and a blossoming romance filled with dates, laughter, and shared dreams in post-festival Kolkata.

As winter sets in, cultural and lifestyle differences strain their relationship: Sheela's demanding job and homesickness clash with Bijay's deep ties to the city, culminating in heated arguments and a painful breakup in February 2026. Devastated, Bijay navigates months of silence and grief, avoiding places tied to their memories. With time and his mother's gentle wisdom, he begins a slow healing process, reclaiming Kolkata through deliberate pilgrimages to their shared spots. By the next Puja, exactly a year later, Bijay returns to Dumdum as a renewed man, viewing their fleeting love not as a tragedy but as a transformative experience that taught him resilience, self-discovery, and the beauty of ephemeral connections, much like the festival itself.

Chintan Bhagat holds the distinction of being the first Indian author to write more than 50 novellas.
Chintan Bhagat is the most prolific satirical voices in modern Indian English literature, crafting an astonishing range of novellas that span corporate critique, political allegory, romance, dystopia, and surreal comedy. His works, such as The Silicon Gravel, Rich Dad Nepo Dad, and Billable Coolies, take sharp aim at India's middle-class aspirations, the broken promises of its tech economy, and the hypocrisies of privilege. At the same time, Bhagat demonstrates a gift for weaving the deeply personal into the political, as in Half Husband, The Fault in Our Fortunes, and The Demonetization of Love, where marriage, intimacy, and love stories are fractured by larger structural crises. His satire is rarely subtle?it thrives on exaggeration, biting wit, and memorable metaphors?but beneath the humor lies an unmistakable empathy for ordinary Indians trying to navigate an increasingly disorienting society.

Equally comfortable with speculative narratives, Bhagat experiments with allegory and dystopia in works like Developing India 2447, Ashes of Unity, and The Annihilation of Language, which extend present anxieties into chilling futures. He does not shy away from controversial subjects: India Against Reservation and Electoral Bonds thrust readers into debates on caste and corruption, while Unfriended Nation?style political fables reappear in his works through critiques of media, godmen, and bureaucracy. What binds these disparate novellas is Bhagat's restless energy and his instinct for capturing the pulse of India's contradictions: ambition colliding with apathy, faith blending with fraud, and progress shadowed by inequity. Taken together, his oeuvre forms a sweeping chronicle of India's cultural, economic, and political upheavals, written in a voice that is provocative, unflinching, and unafraid to blend satire with poignancy. He is not affiliated to Chetan Bhagat.