For an ISB graduate, writing papers on corporate governance principles, globalisation, monetary economics and e-governance and other political mumbo-jumbo, must be as easy as eating pie. Sagarika Chakraborty, Kolkatta based lawyer turned, business management graduate — now also turned writer with her book, A calendar too crowded , a fictional account of the voices of women through 25 short stories and poems. Sagarika says that writing is in her blood. “I used to write a lot during my childhood and when I was in law school I used to do a lot of research work, which included writing fiction. But this book feels more natural.”
The material for the book, she says came from many phases of her life buried in the snippets of her journal. “The people I met, my relationships have all been mentioned in this novel,” she adds. Sagarika mentions that the book is spread out like a calendar — from January to December and stories revolved around the important days of the month. “January 24 is the National girl child day and January 22 is the anti-abortion day, so I have stories that depict these ‘days' into larger perspective,” she says. For national girl child day, Sagarika narrates the story of the modern-day Indian girl, where she's accused for the way things are, around her — she is to blame for being boisterous and ‘modern'. Similarly, a story for the International widows day on June 23 is about a widow from UP, who is constantly harangued and called a witch — a practice, Sagarika claims is widely prevalent in many rural areas in the country. “The book has no names, except for mythological references, characters have no names and this is because I wanted the book to be a sum of all the voices I have heard and met in the labyrinths of my mind,” says Sagarika.
The book, she summarises, is an attempt to go beyond the statistics of dates and numbers and bring out the true intent behind. Hoping to get into nation building, Sagarika is now working a non-fiction legal handbook.
The book is available for purchase at Flipkart, Crossword and Landmark and is prices at Rs. 189
