Dr. Sujata Chatterjee – The Journey from an Anaesthesiologist to an Author

Dr. Sujata Chatterjee began her journey as a writer at the age of 8 years, inspired by her maternal grandfather. She started writing poetry, and her first poetry was My Arithmetic Fever. Then slowly she started writing more essays and poems, which found their way to the school notice board. The school and college magazines published her articles and poems. Throughout, her grandfather, who himself wrote poetry was a great inspiration for her. Her little scripts of paper were replaced by a diary. During this time, she joined the medical school, and the college magazines and the notice board began publishing her poetry and articles. She passed Journalism from the Delhi School Of Journalism and began writing from the column A Patient I Can Never Forget, in the esteemed magazine, Women’s  Era. Her article “I Am A Survivor” was published in the Woman’s Era in the March 2022 Women’s Day issue and “Awareness of Covid-19 in Women”, in the November 2022 issue.

Then, as her medical career took a priority, poetry and story writing took a back seat, until she passed M.B.B.S. She went to Mumbai, Tata Memorial Hospital, for her post-graduation. During this time, she got married and had a baby boy, after completing her P.G.

Her ambition was to publish her poetry and stories and to reach out to readers. So, her first book, Flights of Fantasy, a collection of short stories, was published in 2013, with 13 stories of different genres. Her second book, Looking Through the Prism, was published in 2017, and then, The Waves of Fortune in 2018. Both these books were anthologies of poems, some of them award-winning poetry. In 2022, her book Wind Chimes was published which had some award-winning poems.

She participated in various contests and won many accolades. She was awarded the Shonghoti Sammanana Award and the Swami Vivekananda Excellence Award for Literature. She was awarded the Literoma Laureate Award and Literoma Author Award by the Literoma.  She was awarded the National Book Honor Award, the Top 100 Inspiring Authors of India Award, Top 50 Influential Authors Of India Award by the Indian Awaz and The Spirit Mania respectively. She won the Nari Samman Award from Literoma and the Women Empowerment Award from the Hello Kolkata Media House. She was awarded by the Asian Literary Society and also ICMDR Awards.

Her books found their way to the Delhi World Book Fair and Kolkata International Book Fair 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, Kochi International Book Fair 2019, New Town Book Fair 2019 and 2021, Allahabad Book Fair 2018, and Agra Book Fair 2018.

In the meanwhile, she edited a book, The Traveller’s Diary, which is a collection of travelogues from various authors from all over the world. She also wrote for several anthologies like, Speak Your Mind, Broken Bits of The Moon, The Teacher I Admire Most, Life On Tracks, Lyrical Dewdrops, Colors of Life, Penning Thoughts, Musings- Mundane and Mortal, No One Fights Alone Part I, Emotionally Yours and many more. The Speak Your Mind was an anthology of poems and articles regarding the existing problems in India. She had contributed a poem on Organ donation and a story on Euthanasia or Mercy Killing. Musings- Mundane and Mortal has been featured in Asia Book of Records for a total of 1000 writers from all over the world to pen down in a single anthology.  She had written a story on Humanely Yours in this Anthology in Vol 4. In No One Fights Alone, she has contributed an article on Autism.

At present, she resides in Kolkata with her husband, who is an Oncologist. She is a practicing anesthesiologist and a specialist medical officer at the KMC (Kolkata Municipal Corporation) Community Health Centre. She is still writing articles and poetry and is concentrating on a book on survivors that deals with Cancer Patients.