About

Nandita Chakraborty was born in Kolkatta, India in a small conservative family which has always been associated with the arts. Her father won many accolades in Indian cinema; his film In Search of Famine was the first Indian film in a regional language to win the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1980.

Nandita’s sense of creativity started at a young age. The whole house would be surrounded by action and glamour, where well known artists would spark her creative mind at the dinner table or at her mother’s dressing table.

Along with her siblings, she was sent out to boarding school at the age of seven in the hills of Meghalaya, India. A few years down the track the family settled in New Delhi, where she attended Sri Venketeswara University in New Delhi to study political science by day – and at night she would attend her fashion and visual merchandising school.

In her third year in college, she went on to pursue a Diploma in Visual Merchandising, leaving behind her career in political science. She began to work with a well -known designer in India, finding fame and fortune in that path – but it still didn’t leave her creatively satisfied. Lying awake in her bedroom, she would often write poetry to herself. Secretly she wrote short stories about her adventures in her designing career. Often these would either land in the dustbin or make their way into the hands of junk dealers making paperbacks for grocery shopping.

In 2000 she came to Melbourne where she started her own fashion boutique, later went on to work for banking. It was not until 2008 she joined RMIT to do a short course in creative fiction writing under the mentoring of Rosalie Ham Attending several book clubs, writing seminars and participating in many writing competitions, she met with some remarkable writers. Later she began to write short stories for the local newspaper and magazine in Melbourne.

In 2011, she met with an accident while rock climbing, falling 40 meters and acquiring traumatic brain injury. After several months in rehab, she continued working but in 2016 she was back in rehab. She has a disability which cannot be seen, also known as a blind disability, and suffers from vestibular migraine with permanent cognitive issues, resulting in fatigue. Also known as the accidental writer for her successful novellas Meera Rising and Rosemary’s Retribution. The novellas were the product of her therapy rehab in 2016- 2017.