WriteFluence

Udita Mukherjee resides in the nostalgia wafting from Kolkata. She completed her B.Sc. in Economics from Presidency University in 2020. Her short story ‘The Lemon and the Window’ was selected for the March 2021 issue of Kloud9 whose editor-in-chief is Ruskin Bond. The first play she wrote titled Appendix was selected by Bombay Theatre Company for The Theatre Project 2020 and can be found in the IGTV section of their Instagram page. One of her poems was amongst the top ten entries for a magazine published by Author’s Ink Publications.

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Her entry for WriteFluence’s FemmeFluenza, a contest celebrating womanhood and recognizing its struggles, was one of the winners. Blue Trunk Press has published a short story of hers in their anthology Square One. Another of her poems was picked by The Write Order for their book of poetry, Panacea. She is enthusiastic about bubble wrap and stories, in no particular order. She hopes to spread positivity and acceptance cloaked in dark humor through her writing. Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde have her heart, Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton have her soul.

I have been writing since… 

As far as I can cast my net of memories back

My favorite author(s) and book(s)? 

My favorite authors are Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Oscar Wilde, Agatha Christie, Amitav Ghosh, Virginia Woolf and Rohinton Mistry. My favorite books are Malory Towers, the Ibis trilogy, To The Lighthouse, A Fine Balance, Wonder and The Help.

My favorite genre to read / write will forever be fiction.

My journey as a writer: 

My short story ‘The Lemon and the Window’ was selected for the March 2021 issue of Kloud9 whose editor-in-chief is Ruskin Bond. The first play I wrote titled Appendix was selected by Bombay Theatre Company for The Theatre Project 2020 and can be found in the IGTV section of their Instagram page. One of my poems was amongst the top ten entries for a magazine published by Author’s Ink Publications. Blue Trunk Press has selected a short story of mine for their anthology Square One. During the lockdown, I participated and won a few contests hosted by WriteFluence which motivated me to keep writing in a period when my muses were proving to be more elusive than usual.

Why should we read you?

It will give you a chance to take a peek at the absurd hilarity I continually surround myself with. You will either relate and join me in this darkness or you will get to see what goes on in the minds of 13.33% of the population.

What advice would you give young and aspiring writers? 

There will be a lot of rejection along the way. It will always sting as much as the first one and that’s okay. You will learn to handle it. It will all be worth the one piece that does get picked up. So never give up if you believe in your stories!

Here’s an excerpt from Udita’s winning story Nosy that’s now published in Wafting Earthy:

He had always been a bit of a loner. The reason was simple enough and hardly in his control. You see, he had been born without a nose. As a young boy, growing up in a time when Ramayana blared through the television screens every evening like clockwork, like a ritual, his classmates didn’t even give him a chance. Surpanakha, they would tease as he walked down the corridor. The adults seemed to like him. Why wouldn’t they? He ate his green vegetables without fuss, swallowed the stinkiest fish without complaint. They say half the taste is in the smell, lucky for him, he could eat healthier than other kids his age. This definitely did not help his popularity.

Middle school started, kids started showing signs of maturity, they outgrew Ramayana and in turn, Surpanakha. Things were looking up for him when suddenly a small boy with round glasses and a lightning-shaped scar took the world by storm. Whilst others took refuge in the magical world of the books, he found himself under attack because of it. People around him found an escape from the harsh realities of life through the books even as he found himself imprisoned in his personal hell due to them. Voldemort, his classmates screeched at him, as if the character was created especially for this, to taunt him. The adults seemed to like him still. Why wouldn’t they?