In this novel, the tale of the river is entwined with the people through vignettes of their dynamic lives that are infused with myths,
legends, and archaeological anecdotes. Characters like Malati Gond, Neelkantha, Kuber, Bhanu Shitulia, Parvati, and others might never
meet each other, but the story of their lives will remain strung together by the common thread of the ever-flowing Mahanadi. The chronicle of Mahanadi is a journey through travails and misfortunes into life’s joys and mysterious beauty.

Anita Agnihotri writes in Bengali in a wide variety of genres including poetry, novels, short stories, and children’s literature. She has received several prestigious awards, such as the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Award and the Bhuban Mohini Dasi Gold Medal conferred by Calcutta
University. Her collection of stories Seventeen received the Economist Crossword Award in 2011.

After the meal, his wife Punari took out slices pieces of amla, dried in the sun with sea salt, from the wooden case. By the time, Avadoot Singh had finished his glass of buttermilk in quick gulps, taken out of some rags stained with black soot from the side of his motorcycle, and was scrubbing and polishing the spokes of its wheels with them once more. In any case, on the forest road, heaps of red dust would settle on his head and body, and also on the tyres and handles of his motorcycle.