Ronita Chattopadhyay

@ronita

Gave myself permission to be a poet; Love books, mountains and tea; working at the intersection of process documentation and qualitative research in India

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Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 4d

Leslie Sainz

Ars Poetica

You skewer
all the present moments

with a fork. They squirm
spectacularly, like second languages.

A fate -
can you stomach it?

Anyway, you eat it. You eat it anyway.

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 9d

Coming home

Late evening photo of cars visible through a rainy haze on the windshield of another car

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 16d

Praying

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 18d

Spotted this beauty today. Learnt it is called Bauhinia.

Photo of a white flower with green leaves and stems

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 19d

Anne Carson

Short talk on walking backwards

My mother forbad us to walk backwards. That is how the dead walk, she would say. Where did she get this idea? Perhaps from a bad translation. The dead, after all, do not walk backwards but they do walk behind us. They have no lungs and cannot call out but would love for us to turn around. They are victims of love, many of them.

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 23d

Scenes from a mela

Black and white photo showing stalls with people in late evening

Another view of a different section of the mela (black and white photo) showing stalls with people buying and some passing by

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· 25d

Sometimes, faith can be a beautiful thing especially when friends pray for you and your family.

A hand with threads tied around the wrist along with grass (dubbo) for Bippadtarini pujo where people pray for protection from adversities

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Jul 10

Spotted this late evening - relic from earlier times

A lit signboard for a photo studio located within an old house with the words Ek Chhobite biye (Bangla; marriage through/by a single photo) referring to the earlier, frequent/common photo shoots for unmarried girls for arranged marriages. Besides the house (multiple floors, balcony), tall decorative street lights and the boundary wall of a neighbouring house with plans are also visible

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Jul 6

And here's the poem in @the-engine-idling.bsky.social Collaboration issue

Ronita Chattopadhyay & Kaushik Ramu

nothing life threatening but...

what is this inner wiring
of losses and griefs that I sit with
in this waiting room
that is both ruin and refuge?

i am here after a fall,
weighing pain in a babble of
Bangla, Hindi and Kannada -
some of which I understand
with so much that remains unfamiliar

outside, by the welcome mat,
everybody's shoes are lined up
as I mouthfeel words with a p and f -
and that holds me for a while

and reaffirms this sanitised safety
of cheerful colours on walls
and rows of steel chairs
anchored to disinfected floors

i want to turn the skin of waiting
into wonder, feeling for the pulse -
there is probably no word for such work
but there should be

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Jun 21

Rainscape

Blurred photo taken from a moving car during a heavy downpour showing a part of the road side with a small wall and trees

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Jun 4

Finding hope.

A black and white photo of a lily flower with stem and leaves against a railing box set with a view of the road, houses and trees in the background

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· May 26

Thanks @fbereaud.bsky.social for curating and also ensuring Murals has a physical version along with Press Pause Press. Glad to have been a part of this. Thanks @thehooghlyreview.bsky.social @tejaswineerc.bsky.social and @ankitrajojha.bsky.social for this and so much more

Cover page of the book with text The Hooghly Review Special Issue and December 2024 on top, Title - Murals, curated by Francois Bereaud; with one main image with multiple elements including groups of women and men (vertical) and another (horizontal) both set against a brown background

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· May 22

And this gorgeousness

Photograph of a red lily with stems and leaves with a box railing and view of two buildings in the background (on the other side of the street)

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· May 21

Happy International Tea Day

Photograph of a cup of tea with spoons and a slice of cake on a table with a chair and a long sofa in the background

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· May 16

I started sending out poems and prose pieces in end 2022. This CNF piece was published in 2023 in the amazing @streetcakemag.bsky.social and will always be special.

Coming home
(Ronita Chattopadhyay, streetcake magazine)

It started when I lived in Mumbai. My eyes would burn and tear up, often at the most inconvenient of times. My life became this constant struggle of evading light. Ophthalmologists across multiple cities were clueless.

Was it some kind of allergy?
Allergy to light? Pollution?

Then, one guy in Ahmedabad said - "It is almost like your eye lashes are trying to go back inside your eyes. " It wasn't farfetched. I was born with my eye lashes turned inward. An old, experienced general physician had come up with the most unexpected, practical solution. "Put sticking tape below her eyes and it will stretch the soft, baby skin and the eyelashes will come out on their own."

It had worked. For a while.
I guess, in the end, we all just want to come home. Don't we?

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· May 7

Maybe reading this will help. The story of the women who shaped Khabar Lahariya - the grounded, local news newspaper and digital news channel; A Simon and Schuster Publication

Hand holding book; book cover with title The Good Reporter A Memoir of Journalism in 21st Century Disha Mullick with Geeta Devi, Harshita Verma, Kavita Bundelkhandi, Lakshmi Sharma, Lalita, Meera Devi, Nazni Rizvi, Shyamkali, Suneeta Prajapati; visuals of stand with public address system, animals, six women and two men placed across the cover

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· May 6

So glad to have been matched up with another poet (Kaushik Ramu) and have our poem in @the-engine-idling.bsky.social collaboration issue. And that was a quick positive revert. Thanks Danielle. Special thanks to @pleomorphic2.bsky.social who tagged me for this. So you helped make this happen too!

Two figures in black doing a high five (I think) within a yellow diamond shape with black border with the text: Find us in Issue 9 of the engine(idling Coming Soon!

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 27

Garous Abdolmalekian (poet)

Pattern

Your dress waving in the wind.
This
is the only flag I love.

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 23

And I am spending World Book Day with Eunice De Souza, one of my favourite poets.

Hand holding a book titled Volcano Collected Poems (Penguin publication) with cover in black and a stream of golden yellow and orange lava; with an introduction by Vidyan Ravinthiran and a blurb by Jeet Thayil

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 21

A small reminder of the beauty around us

Photo of an Aparajita flower (purple-ish blue with light yellow) with branches and leaves and a box railing in the background

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 18

Looking forward to reading this @fbereaud.bsky.social @stanchion.bsky.social

Hand holding a book showing the cover; Francois Bereaud A Question of Family
The debut novel by the author of San Diego Stories; visual of seats on the cover

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 15

For all celebrating beginnings and new year across India and beyond...Poila Boisakh, Baisakhi, Bihu, Vishu...For all holding on to hope.

Photo with one white lily in focus and two more on the side with their stems and leaves against a box railing and a view of another buildiing

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 11

Readings and a documentary screening in one unforgettable evening. For those interested in learning more about the acclaimed Indian writer Mahasweta Devi. April 17, 2026 - Mumbai

Mother of 1084 Performing the Documentary

In celebration Mahasweta Devi's hundredth anniversary

Screening
Talking and Naveen Kishor

17 April, 2026 19.00
at the GSA warehouse
Laxmi Mills Estate, Shakti Mills Lane
Mahalaxmi West, Mumbai

Seagull Books G5A
(With a black and white image of Mahasweta Devi)

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 5

Sunday at a ghat.

Black and white photo of steps with people, tree branches and leaves, and an expanse of water with boats along with glimpses of land and buildings on the other side.

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Apr 2

This is for Wanphai, a friend, who was like a shooting star. Thanks Sanjeev Sethi and Jack Caradoc for including this poem in the Indian edition of The Candyman's Trumpet.

Ronita Chattopadhyay

I want to write a poem

where a friend still sits in his cafe
encouraging people
to peel boiled potatoes
and make food together
and drink tea and savour life,
where he is still making up games
that could help a troubled mind,
where he is still ever willing to discuss meditation and music and madness.
Actually, I want to write
a different poem, not this one.
I want to write a poem
about a friend, a life
where cancer does not win
the last round.

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Mar 29

And the Yearbook Indian Poetry in English 2024-25 (published by Pippa Ran) is here and I somehow found my way into it! Grateful to the review committee and the editors. And to RIC Journal where it was published first. @saudaminideo.bsky.social

Ronita Chattopadhyay
A List of Things My Mother Has Broken Recently

Several cups and mugs and plates.
We now have tea cups without saucers and saucers without their tea cups.
She has beheaded a Buddha bought from a curio shop in Kolkata.
And a snow globe from Salzburg is now empty of its make-believe snow flakes.
She has also burnt food. And countless utensils. Even though she knows she no longer needs to step into the kitchen to cook.
But I digress. (And that could be another lived poem replete with its own telling imagery.)
Do I worry? Yes. Constantly. Do I get angry when all this happens?
No.
I would rather have her forgetful, breaking and burning stuff,
alive,
more than anything else.

(RIC Journal, April 2024)

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Mar 21

Ghosting by Andrea Cohen

Ghosting

How cavalier
people are -

with language
and with silence.

Any ghost will
tell you -

the last thing
we mean

to do
is to leave you.

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Mar 19

While so much else is difficult, I am glad to be a part of this. Thanks to the editors, review committee and the publisher and everyone else connected. Copies can be purchased at amazon.in/Yearbook-India…

Yearbook Indian Poetry in English 2024-2025 Editors Sukrita Paul Kumar, Vinita Agrawal
Review Committee for 2024-25 edition: Kinshuk Gupta, Mamang Dai, Pramila Venkateswaran, Sivakami Velliangiri, Smitha Sehgal
Pippa Ran (publisher)
White background with a circular figure with a top half in blue and bottom with multiple slightly wavy lines

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Mar 18

Saw this on the other place. Sharing here for Chennai people.

CMI Arts Initiative invites you to
The Call of the Ghatam A Lec-Dem by Sumana Chandrashekhar
Join us for a conversation cum demonstration on Sumana Chandrashekhar's journey as a female Ghatam artiste and her recent memoir Song of the Clay Pot followed by a short solo performance and demonstration.
Thursday March 19, 2026
Time 3.30 pm
Venue Seminar Hall CMI
(About the speaker: Sumana Chandrashekhar is a Ghatam player, music researcher, author and storyteller based in Bangalore)
Photo of the artist with Ghatam included

Ronita Chattopadhyay @ronita· Mar 17

For you.