Rochelle Potkar's Blog, page 3

The Navhind Times features The D’Costa Family

For The Navhind Times, Christine Machado asks me questions around my latest novel: The D’Costa Family. Indebted.The link to the article.
Or Zoom image to read the article and my Goan badmaashi.

The book is available on Amazon (Rs. 365/-).

Gunk galore

I heard something funny yesterday. And though I don’t waste time on nonsense strictly – always creating or constructing something new – sometimes I must stop and wipe the muck from my footwear. Especially dung.

A friend informed me that 10 years ago when I had got selected to IWP (Iowa’s prestigious International Writing Program) 2 Bombay poets and 2 un-poets (hahaha) who had been rejected in their applications spun bitter propaganda that I had “used” a peer’s help to edit my work (writing samples) before submitting these to Iowa, based on which I got selected.

Totally false. Truckloads of bull (shit) but it kept these crazy beings happy and they felt redeemed – high and mighty.

My writing samples of prose, poetry and haibun were written and edited 100% by me – Original wild work. Though I am a good editor being well trained in the e-learning industry on language hygiene (grammar, punctuation) I also believe in original writing – so no heavy-handed editing on my own work does it, forget asking another person to do that for me. How will my raw energy and wild style flourish then in my writings?

In Iowa, I was complimented for that same original rare Voice.

You can’t steal that away from me. Not in this lifetime. Not in any lifetime.

I understand it would have been difficult for you to digest that your non-friend (me) got selected to IWP based on her merit. So the scheme was to defame her, de-merit her, undermine her talent and quality of writing, work-assassinate or character-assassinate. Very much in tune with the misogynistic patriarchal playbook that if a woman succeeds and she hasn’t sucked up to you and done favors for you, she has to be brought down. She didn’t come handy to your needs. She didn’t pooh-pooh your insecurities.

And the shit-pit tried. They regaled in their delusionary tales and felt good for a transient while.

Then they went home.

I was aware of their bitter envy. I stayed as far as I could. I went to many cities around Bombay. Whatever ill the shitpits spoke of me, I was startled to discover that 10 times worse ill others spoke of them. Unthinkable misogynistic stuff that you can’t repeat. I felt redeemed for a while, until I realized this too is the gunk and dung I want to stay away from. Be it the hatred and envy for other’s success brewing in the Bombay pits or how dismissive others outside the city are of the Bombay poets. It’s a spiral of hatred and I love only love and ideas. Brilliant brainwaves. Inventive impetus. Stimulating stimuli. I feel life is a wasteland if not for those elixir-like drops of new thought, new horizons, new storyworlds.

I have also observed another thing: when a person is toxic, that toxicity first swallows them. Inch by inch they began looking ugly. A few vile humans do occupy a lot of their time getting jealous and bitchy about others but not investing a fraction of that time being constructive or creative. Laziness is in the core of some bones. Even at the cost of their own future and short time on earth. They destroy themselves with gossip just to feel good for a few lazy moments.

I feel pity. Not anger. And a bit sad. You are blessed with poetry but you chose hatred. Choose better. Be wiser. At least for your own health.

As for me, I continue to write and thrive and not think of anybody uninteresting. I prefer the real struggles of the writing industries (films or books) – bigger real-world battles of credit, remuneration, scope and scale of canvas, rather than lazy envy, laziest backstabbing.

I admit to one thing though: I have never thought of these poets in all these years. Because it was clear they hate all who succeed and would continue to do so until they died. So what new was there to think of them? Same pattern. Without any change. I gave my mind space instead to new stories and book ideas and continue living in peace and harmony. That’s my choice. I don’t even encourage or participate when others want to bring these shitpit poets down. That too is a waste of my precious time.

Remember bad thoughts – bad vibrations vibrating through your bodies. Self-sabotage Choose better. Be wiser. At least for your own health.

Book Review: The D’Costa Family

What a wholesome review of The D’Costa Family by author, activist and independent researcher Heta Pandit in The Saligão Balcão, Edition 39.
Her review is as quirky as the novel itself. Quite a tongue-n-cheek moment between writer and reader/reviewer I say!
Subscribe to her monthly newsletter, here: https://www.hetapandit.com/contact
The novel you will find on Amazon in ebook, paperback, hardcover options. Click link.

Women in their 40’s.

Scherezade Siobhan writes a very interesting article on women in their 40’s.

“At 40, life doesn’t have to follow a script. In this powerful piece, a psychologist shares intimate stories of people who broke away from expectations—challenging family norms, rediscovering purpose, and choosing self-trust over timelines. These are stories of reinvention, quiet rebellion, and the freedom that comes with becoming unapologetically yourself.”

https://thebetterindia.com/447261/reinventing-life-at-40-stories-of-breaking-free

She quotes me too as a journeywoman of words.

Mia Funk interviews me for The Creative Process.

What a pleasure it was to be interviewed by the visionary Mia Funk for The Creative Process @creativeprocesspodcast.

[Mia Funk @miafunkart is an artist, podcast host, writer, and creative educator. Founder of The Creative Process international educational initiative, podcast, and traveling exhibition, her varied work sees her leading workshops and mentoring students around creativity, critical thinking, environmental ethics, arts and humanities disciplines.]

You could follow a rich reservoir of her interviews of writers, poets, and artists from around the world here: https://www.creativeprocess.info/writers

To check on my interview (Language · Memory · Family) follow – https://www.creativeprocess.info/writers…/rochelle-potkar or click Link in Bio. Thank you Mia for your thought-provoking questions that framed this conversation.

Namrata interviews me over The D’Costa Family and the writing life.

Thank you, Namrata @Keemiya_C for one of the coolest super-fun conversations I have had on Writing and on The D’Costa Family at The WIP Show. Watch us on Youtube. You can also listen to this conversation on Spotify.

Ali Guli Maane is Winner 1/5 (Scriptors India contest)

Jury’s take on my short film script ‘Ali Guli Maane’ is here. I might stay motivated by this single clip for the next 5 years! [Like energy stored in a camel’s hump].

https://instagram.com/p/DKM2eizJsHF

Thanking Hardik Mehta, Anubhuti Kashyap, Scriptors India.

Bombay Hangovers in Hindi translation! (June 2025)

It’s been long in the making, as long as a book takes to make,
as long as a translator takes to make these stories her own, in mind, breath, and essence.
But finally, it’s near fruition.
Bombay Hangovers is now in Hindi, translated by none other than the gracious, sensitive, deeply intuitive Dr. Divya Joshi.

When Divya first read my stories, she expressed a wish to translate the stories, uncaring of the future – publishing-possibilities or not.
We had our own little journey knocking on the doors of every Hindi publisher big and small until one said Yes! That’s all we needed – that one Yes!
Endorsed by legendary authors and poets of our times:
Namita Gokhale, Anamika, Madan Saini, Rajaram Bhadu, Brijratan Joshi.
And so here we are. Book releases in June 2025.

*

यह सफ़र लम्बा रहा — उतना ही लम्बा, जितना समय एक किताब को आकार लेने में लगता है;
जितना समय एक अनुवादक को लगता है, जब वह इन कहानियों को अपने मन, साँस और आत्मा में समेट लेती है।

पर अब, यह अपने फल की देहलीज़ पर है।
‘बॉम्बे हैंगओवर्स’ अब हिंदी में है — और इसका अनुवाद किया है किसी और ने नहीं,
बल्कि संवेदनशील, सहज और अंतरात्मा से जुड़ीं डॉ. दिव्या जोशी ने।

जब दिव्या ने पहली बार मेरी कहानियाँ पढ़ीं, तो उन्होंने इन्हें अनुवाद करने की इच्छा जताई —
बिना किसी स्वार्थ के, बिना इस चिंता के कि प्रकाशन संभव होगा या नहीं।
हम दोनों ने मिलकर एक-एक हिंदी प्रकाशक का दरवाज़ा खटखटाया —
छोटे से बड़े तक — और फिर किसी एक ने “हाँ” कह दिया।
बस, हमें वही एक “हाँ” चाहिए थी।

और अब, वह पल आ गया है।
किताब जून 2025 में प्रकाशित हो रही है।

और इस पुस्तक को स्वयं नामचीन साहित्यकारों — नमिता गोखले, अनामिका, मदन सैनी, राजाराम भाड़ू और बृजरतन जोशी — का समर्थन और सार्थक अनुमोदन प्राप्त हुआ है।

My poem on Mumbai/Bombay in The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City (Editor: Bilal Moin).

The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City, Editor, Editor Bilal Moin is soon to release (30 May 2025).
My poem on Mumbai/Bombay finds its place in this anthology too. Pre-order your copy here.
Gratitude.

Ebook-reading of The D’Costa Family.

Glad to know this, as I await the paperback to be available on Amazon India.