Bong with a bang!

After having taught in colleges, managed her own dance troupe, travelled with her month old child to New York, juggled software jobs and single handedly kept people stranded in traffic jams entertained with her radio jockeying, Sulagna Chaudhury is still one of those who believe that life is stranger than fiction and love even more so. For a woman who does it all, Sulagna is one of the rare few who are still possessed with a sense of wonder about the ways in which strange occurrences have a mysterious way of falling into place. It is this wonder that she channelises into her first book and love story – Monsoon Masala.

The author who calls herself the ‘Bong with a bang’ first moved to Bengaluru a decade ago. With a 10-year-old career in RJing behind her, Sulagna only had to transcribe the thoughts that she was speaking into written words, to create a book. “My habit of talking to people all the time helped me in getting to know a lot about their lives. Some love stories have bigger stories embedded in them, like a tragedy, insurmountable struggles, unanticipated situations. Monsoon Masala, is one such love story. It’s all about the twists and turns in the lives of Akanksha Dutta and Siddharth Chatterjee and has just one take away – live each moment to its fullest so that when you retrospect, you don’t regret,” says the writer who is inspired by her father, her family, authors like Tagore, and immortal stories like Gone with the Wind.

A mother to a five-year-old and the figure behind the contemporary dance group Jhankar Beats, Sulagna did all of her writing while managing her corporate day job. She says, “An ordinary day in my life is both exhilarating and exhausting. My princess needs my full time attention and my weekends are full of choreography sessions with my troupe,” says Sulagna.

Bengaluru is one of the cities in which Sulagna’s story is set and is also the background of the script of her life now. She says, “It’s truly been a magical stay. Bindaas, bemisal and beckoning – that’s my definition of Bengaluru. I do not think I would have been able to write this story without living in this ‘close to heart’city of mine. After all it is the city where innovation mingles seamlessly with culture and technology blends itself in our super rich heritage.”