Dr. Ketaki Datta is an Associate Professor of English, Bidhannagar College, Kolkata. She is a novelist,short story writer, critic and a translator. Her debut novel "A Bird Alone" has won rave reviews in India and abroad. Her poems have been published in anthologies published by Brian Wrixon, Canada. She had been to Lisbon on an invitation from IFTR [Ireland chapter] to read out a paper titled "Human Values and Modern Bengali Drama", which got published in the Festival Issue of The Statesman in India. "Indo-Anglian Literature: Past to Present" [Booksway, 2008], "New Literatures in English: Fresh Perspectives"[Book World, 2011], "Selected Short Stories of Rabindranath Tagore in Translation"[Avenel, 2013], " The Black and Nonblack Shades of Tennessee Williams"[ Book World, 2012] , "The Last Salute" [Sahitya Akademi, 2013], " The Voyage" are a few of her notable publications. Her short story has been selected for publishing in New Asian Writing Anthology, 2013. She has also been interviewed by NAW[ New Asian Writing]. One Year for Mourning is a novel which contains my multilayered experience with life, immediately after my mother's demise owing to Chronic Renal Failure. When in 2006, I completed my debut novel " A Bird Alone" , my mother was overjoyed and asked me to write on her after her death. However, this novel is not wholly biographical, it is replete with fictional elements . One Year for Mourning bears my love as in it I recount the last days of my mother, when I was always by her side, giving her CAPD relief. She died in 2007, and till date, not a single day has passed while she is absent in my inner thoughts and musings! I stay in Kolkata but my mother died in North Bengal , where I was posted for 14 long years. I was born in South Kolkata, but, my father's transferable job of a Radiologist took me away to North Bengal, where I stayed for quite a few years of my life. Now again I am in Kolkata and the small room with a cosy balcony which overlooks a serene locality and a Metro-Station in proximity inspires me to read, think and write everyday. Teaching is my bread and butter, reading is my favorite pastime and writing is my passion.
