It's so real. It must have happened. Or it's happening. Or, it's bound to happen. I trust Srijato's every word in this novel-GulzarPushkar, an offspring of the most incredible of times, has next to nothing to call his own. Except for a seasoned but out-of-work and disheartened father, and a defiant, uncompromising mother with a truly astounding gift for music. It is only in the gradually widening chasm between his parents that he discovers his world of poems, which he desperately tries to hide from everyone. Everyone else except Saheli that is, only she gets to read his poems. Saheli, his schoolfriend who he is in love with. Abhijit, another friend from school, is unwilling to leave it all up to fate and insists on dragging Pushkar to meet Nirban and their independent publishing house— at least to ensure that Pushkar’ s poems manage to see the light of day. In this entirely strange, magical and leisurely course of life swirling all around Pushkar, there is but one entity with whom he shares all his secrets. A milkwood tree, a chatim is privy to everything in his life. And so time moves on, leading him to eventually confront a truly secret equation of life— the change made possible by the transformative power of love. A House of Rain and Snow is a testament to an era, a witness to an astounding journey of a young poet. | A House of Rain and Snow by Srijato Bandopadhyay, Paperback | Indigo Chapters