A Sense of Magnolias

A narrow corridor smelling of damp plaster, cigarettes and stale food was the last place where he would dream of finding love. It was a job interview, after all.

Yet, his lasting memories from that morning were of her complexion like the flowers on his magnolia tree, her hauntingly beautiful eyes filled with pain, her longing for the Himalayas.

And an email ID that did not reveal her name.

So he wrote to her of what he knew best: his home in a small Himalayan village, his childhood. His cat.

Running like a gentle rivulet through every email was his understanding of the deepest of all human emotions: love. A love infinitely patient. A love that flowed into the cracks of your heart till it was shining and whole again. But in a world suddenly brought to its knees by a scourge, would he ever find her again?

About the author: Sohini Sen has been an editor with The Telegraph, and the Kolkata head of the technical communication group of a global IT consultancy firm. Now a full-time travel writer and photographer, instead of chasing deadlines, she gets chased by camera shy yaks, and was once ceremoniously kissed by a dolphin. She has also had the unique experience of seeing three Rafflesia flowers in bloom. She loves the Himalayas and longs to live among them some day.

Sen is the author of The Talking Table and Other Stories (2012), Yatra Pathe Rabi (2014), Ladakh: A Photo Travelogue (2016), Zanskar to Ziro: No Stilettos in the Himalayas (2017), Invincible City (2023) and A Drop of Golden Sun: Representing Tagore’s Gitanjali (2023).