Dried Leaf

Dried leaves are shed off by trees as useless. Taking as waste, these are either burnt or buried. But if you look closely, you will see, life still thrives in them! Destiny had squeezed out hope and dreams from the lives of Mrs. Chattterjee and Shubham Sarkar; two people who were just dragging one day into another, trying to live the life offered to them. Mrs. Chatterjee, a woman in her late thirties, a mother of two grown kids, a wife of a well-established man, facing the challenges of her life with firm optimism, had everything that a woman could ask for, still felt deprived. Soon, she discovers such truth; her intelligence and her maturity was put to such test that breaks her and leaves her with no option but to re-search and re-define herself. Shubham Sarkar, son of a very well-reputed father, had a troubled past that teased him not just in dreams but in his days too. Reserved and self-centered, this man in his mid-twenties, didn't have faith in relations. His differences with his father and his mother's unnatural death had graced him with a dissatisfying, disorderly life till he meets Mrs. Chatterjee. Set in a dignified locality in the urban heart of Kolkata, the story relates how two distinct personalities meet, develop a relation, discover their strengths and weaknesses, finds solace in each other and how in spite of a sea of differences between their thoughts, intelligence and maturity, they influence each other's lives. How they remain attached and separated at the same time by the mighty force of destiny. One fine winter afternoon, Mrs. Chatterjee's doorbell tweeted to reveal Shubham at her door. Taking him to be sales representative, she shuts the door on his face. But, soon she realizes that she was expected to entertain him as he was her guest. A reluctant Shubham was forced to knock the Chatterjee's door by the father of his friend, who was Mr. Chattterjee's boss. What started as a compromise soon sprouts into a fondness and develops into a bond stronger than they had anticipated. Shubham, who had a past connection with Mrs. Chatterjee that triggers protection, care and love in her heart. She eventually realizes her weakness towards him and lands in a situation where a obligate mother, a dutiful wife , a moral and just person confronts a desiring woman inside her; an aspect of her character she had never imagined to be existing in her. Shubham, on the other hand, with no faith in the institution of marriage or virtue of love, believed in easy going, short lived, non-committed type of associations. His emotions towards Mrs. Chatterjee comforted him and he desires to have her in his life, selfishly, irrespective of all consequences. Life brings both of them to point where they needed to decide the path they would follow. Would Mrs. Chatterjee fall a prey to love and leave behind her family? Or something else was in store for her? Would Shubham be able to restrain himself ? Or give into his desires? Or destiny had chosen a distinct route for him? Whatever they do, whichever way they go, one thing is firm, life will not stay the same for them after. Dry leaf returns back to life in a different form; in an immortal, immaterial shape. Similarly, Shubham and Mrs. Chatterjee too fights the odds to get back to life with a new but definite identity, discovering their own selves.