Debraj Koley’s Icchemati, translated by Sohini Kundu, unfolds in a small

fishing hamlet on the India–Bangladesh border, along the river Ichhamati.

After a cyclone and during the lockdown, volunteers set up a community

kitchen for the villagers. During their surveys, they meet a woman and her

young daughter who roll beedis for a living. This is the story of the two women. The story portrays the tragic intersection of poverty, gendered violence, and border politics. The Ichhamati becomes both witness and barrier — a river that connects and divides, carrying away countless unseen lives. The narrative exposes invisible human crises along the margins of

nations, where hope survives against all odds.