Andrew Hamlin
Northwest Asia Weekly
Sati Mookherjee (Photo courtesy of Sati Mookherjee)
Bellingham, Washington, population 92,000. Kolkata (formerly Kolkata), India, has a population of nearly 4.5 million. Comparative Study. But poet Sati Mookherjee found some striking similarities, spending his school year in the former and his summers in the latter.
“I had never thought about it before, but my first memories were all about sunlight,” Mookherjee recalled while reading her new book, The Eye, at a university bookstore on October 5. [first] Bellingham’s memory is the sun-filled floor-to-ceiling windows of our 1950s ranch house (where my parents still live), covered with a green carpet. I remember feeling my toddler’s body rushing toward my mother, her arms outstretched, and I remember feeling my father’s gaze on me, warm as light.
“My earliest Kolkata memory is of standing in the kitchen of my grandparents’ house with trapezoidal sunlight streaming through the floor and my grandmother on her knees and rubbing my legs with pungent mustard oil. This must have been part of the noon bath time .”
She praised Bellingham’s beautiful natural environment, but noted that Kolkata is a historic world city, just like New York City, in terms of its population, multilingual culture and long-standing gathering place for artists, writers and musicians .
She has always had feelings for Seattle, where she was born and where she frequently visited growing up.
“Childhood memories are all about Pike Place Market. Bangladeshis love fish, so buying fresh fish has always been the reason my parents visited Seattle.
“To be honest, I was terrified of the cartoon heads of dead fish and the steep, wet hills that rose from the market. I still remember those moments when we parked on a hill with our little gearshift Volkswagen Bug, that It’s the feeling of an abyss between the brakes and the gas pedal, and that little car is going to fall back into it.”
Mookherjee studied writing and medicine at the University of Washington (UW), but decided to focus on writing at the end of medical school. She does work with her husband at the Sendan Centre in Bellingham, providing mental and behavioral health services to young people.
Through her UW writing course, “My mentors at UW were Robert McNamara and Linda Beeders. I can’t articulate what their lessons were, except that they both embodied a life of writing, It is characterized by a deep dedication to craftsmanship and great generosity to other writers.”
The poetry in Eyes is inspired by real events: her own grandfather, his exile from India, his travels, and his musings on life. The key to the work, according to the poet, is the bold, brutal editing.
“The ‘eye’ was originally three times, if not four times, its current length,” she explained. “It also weaves two stories: the story of a Burmese woman (actually a friend’s parents) during World War II, and the story of Franco’s Spanish fictional Roman family. I worked on it for about eight years, and then all The consensus among its critics is that, while well written, the poems never really get anything significant.
“So I threw away two thirds of the manuscript and really tried to listen to what was left of the beating heart, which is the theme of the orbit, the ripples and intersections of our personal cyclical journeys, across the planet, in and out of birth and death .”
When asked for advice for the fledgling poet, Mookerjee admits she doesn’t, but feels like an expert anyway.
“I feel like I’m just getting started, so I can only describe what I’m trying to do, not give advice. I think the most important things are: a) read widely, b) keep writing, and c) have a group of trusted Writers, you can share your work with.”
Sati Mookherjee will be reading her book “The Eye” on October 5th at 6pm at the University of Washington Bookstore at 4326 University Road NE Seattle. The event is free, but registration is required.For more information, please visit ubookstore.com/events.
Andrew is available at info@nwasianweekly.com.
