Rheea'l life gets a short in the arm
An interview with the Bengaluru-based author, who has just released her debut novel.
Growing up on short stories right through her childhood, Rheea Mukherjee wanted to pen her own book one day. She spent a few years in Florida and then moved to Bengaluru after completing an undergraduate degree at Colorado State University in Social Work. Now this author has released her book titled Transit for Beginners, a collection of 15 short stories that center around the irony and angst of Indian urban existence.
“I went to California College of the Arts and completed my MFA in creative writing. I was a voracious reader. I was 22 when I wrote my first short story. I learnt a lot in the US- took fiction and non-fiction workshops, reading global literature and understanding my role as an artist in context to the larger world.
When I moved back to India I was serious about being a writer, and continued writing short stories. I had strong reoccurring themes and a style that was getting more confident. I’m a dark writer, playing with the idea of sustaining a Gothic style in the Indian context. Mental illness, sexuality, abuse, and loneliness are strongly present in my work. My narratives primarily expose vulnerabilities and ironies we live with. It studies the process of how we resolve things,” reveals Rheea throwing light on her style of writing.
When the funky haired lass isn’t working, she admits, she likes to dabble with theatre. “I’m also a good cook, and am doing a lot of vegan baking these days. I have a baking blog also. I’ve adopted two dogs, Nimbu and Henna and can’t stop gushing about them,” she shares with a twinkle in her eyes.
She also shuffles her time between her other two ventures Bangalore Writers Workshop and Write Leela Write, a design and content laboratory. “When I moved here, I wanted to start facilitating workshops. Students take turns submitting their stories and the rest of the class takes a week to write their impressions down. When we get together again, we discuss the story in depth. I started BWW with Bhumika Anand, but two years later I left BWW and started Write Leela Write with Kalabati Majumdar,” states the busy bee, adding about her work at WLW, “It’s a laboratory because we have our hands in a lot of pots: branding, creative workshops, visual design and creative conceptualisation,” she states.