In the rat race of life, it’s only on special days like Women’s Day and Mother’s Day that we get to take a breather to pause and re-look at life and feel good about being ourselves. In short, celebrate ourselves.
In what sequence should I begin – Should it be the linear, chronological detailing of Schooling, Graduation and Post-Graduation and the series of job roles I had been through? Should it be the various cities that I have lived in and the various experiences I have had therein?
If you ask me, while it is important to note the various stations that an individual halts at in the course of his academic and professional paths, it is more important and perhaps more difficult to trace the various significant experiences and people one is encountered with to evolve into the person they are at any given time. Perhaps more than mere academic acquisitions and professional degrees, it is these lessons in the school of life that educate us more.
However, tracing significant and epiphanic moments in one’s life is a time-consuming ordeal and certainly warrants it to be a biographical novel! Here you are to take a quick peek into my life and so I will keep it short and sweet with clinical precision.
I shall not talk to you about the innumerable sunsets in the terrace of our house that I have grown up spending, singing and communing to the blue sky above, sharing my dreams, fears and secrets with it. I shall not share with you those innumerable moments of trials when life looked me in the eye and wanted me to stand tall and strong in the face of personal disasters, crises and defeats.
You will not even know how one particular star in the sky is from where my grandfather would smile at me; how I have always believed that he still smiles at me with teary eyes right from that star that started to shine more brightly ever since he had departed from us forever. I wouldn’t tell you about the lonely walks I have taken under the blazing sun at various days coming to terms with difficult situations, talking to myself. I would not talk to you about all the tears I cried walking in the rain and hiding them from the world around.
It is perhaps better to tell you that I started my education from Auxilium Convent School, Dum Dum, Kolkata and moved on to complete my plus Two from Bethune College, Kolkata. I used to be an ardent participant in debating, dramatics, creative writing, singing and other cultural activities in school right from the beginning. After this I went on to graduate in English Honours from Loreto College, where I also shouldered the responsibility of being the President of the Literary Society of the college, and organized various inter-college quiz and creative writing contests. That was also the first time when our team published the college magazine; so it was in a way my first tryst with editing and content development.
Subsequent to this, I completed my Masters in English from the University of Calcutta, and Post Graduate diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan.During this time I was freelancing as a journalist with various well-known dailies of Kolkata like the Statesman and the Hindustan Times.
After completing my Post Graduation studies, I worked briefly with 123greetings Kolkata as their Creative Visualizer before moving to Delhi, where I spent the next 7 years of my life, making it my home, and being a part of it. During this time I first worked with Macmillan India Ltd in their School Publishing department, first as a marketing coordinator for their UNICEF Communications Project Meena and then as an editor.
After Macmillan, I worked with SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd as an editor and manager of SAGE’s Journals section, reporting to their Vice President, Editorial.
After these 7 years, I moved to Bahrain primarily because I got married to a gentleman of my country and city who was a resident of that beautiful island country. Here I worked as an editor with various publications like Bahrain This Month, Woman This Month, Weekender, Mayadeen magazine, Sabaya Magazine, Bahrain This Week and StartUp Bahrain until end of 2017, when I decided to launch my own company. It was around then that I had published my first anthology of poems, Mosaic Vision.
During these years I have had the privilege to conduct various high-profile interviews of country ambassadors, industrialists, etc which in a way has taken me back to the bygone days of university where as a journalist for the Hindustan Times, I had interviewed renowned film actors, singers, and other celebrities like the late writer and Sheriff of Calcutta then.
Early last year, my entrepreneurial venture, CreaTree Services was born. It is my hand-made enterprise and today it is a well-known name that provides quality services in Events Management, Advertising, Marketing, PR and Publicity.
All along these years of my stay in Bahrain, I have been an active member of the Bahrain Writers’ Circle, particularly the Second Circle (the poetry wing) and have participated in its international Colours of Life Poetry Festival every year since 2012, and its international Art-Poetry collaborative venture, Confluence, since last year.
I spend my waking hours these days growing my babies: my 7-year-old son and my company, hoping to leave behind each for each other. I am grateful to God for a very loving and supportive family.
At leisure, I write and am working on my next book. Needless to mention I have enjoyed every bit of my life’s journey so far and pray to the Almighty to bless me with more energy every day to better myself at what I do and be of greater help and meaning to the lives around me.
(Vaijayantee Bhattacharya is an entrepreneur, author, poet and PR professional. She is the Founder & CEO of CreaTree Services, a Bahrain-based company. She is also the author of Mosaic Vision, a poetry anthology.)
To know more about Vaijayantee’s journey as a poet, Click on:
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the organisation itself.
