TALKING WITH POET NANDITA DE NEE CHATTERJEE

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

NANDITA DE NEE CHATTERJEE: Literature is to my mind the oxygen of life. It is vital to awaken our sensibilities to the world around us, its people and the events that are unfolding. It takes into account the science, art and commerce of living. It introspects on and analyses the very essence of existence. Literature gives us a very accurate picture of the history of mankind, whichever genre it may choose to portray. Apart from the social and political scenarios it depicts,  it’s a mapping of the mindscape of the peoples of the world. It represents the ethos prevalent in a particular place or time. In fiction a storyteller takes many liberties and hence it’s, as in good literature,  often ahead of its time. It distills the events of history and current issues and offers perspectives and questions norms and ideas unrelentingly.

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