Renuka

Renuka tells the story of a Bengali-American girl's encounter with a girl about her age in India. The story opens the American girl's eyes to what life is like in India.

Mandira Chattopadhyay writes for Ananda Sangbad and her fiction has appeared in Pittsburgh Patrika, Sangbad Bichitra (India), Kallol Patrika (India), Anandalipi (India) and North American Bengali Conferences Brochure (NABC). She was raised in Calcutta, and holds an MA in English Literature from Drew University. At Bucknell University she took a year-long training in creative writing and won the best student fiction writer award from there in 2002. She lives with her husband in central Pennsylvania and is currently completing a graduate degree in cultural anthropology. In addition to creative writing, she has extensive experience in musical and theatrical performance and won a number of awards in the performing arts, where she always took the leading roles. She had extensive training in vocal music in India where she received a 5-year diploma. Her works of fiction, poetry and other featured articles have appeared in Pittsburgh Patrika, Sangdad Bichitra (India), Ananda Sangbad (India), Kallol Patrika (India), Anandalipi (India) and North American Bengali Conferences (NABC). Last year one of her stories was featured in the NABC program, a conference attended by some ten thousand people, to much acclaim.