Gargi Bhattacharya
was born in 1969 to a Bengalee physicist couple in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
She was a very naughty child. Being a dark skinned girl child, she
was oppressed and didn't receive proper education in comparison to
her brothers. She used to study in Ashok Hall (Birla's school) in
Kolkata, but was prematurely withdrawn and put in a low quality
government school meant for Bangladeshi refugees closer to class X
board exams as she was a girl child. The new school was Bengali
medium higher secondary school founded by her grand aunt. In this
school, popular film actresses, Dolon Roy was her classmate and
Laboni Sarkar was her senior. She wanted to study glaciology or
volcanology, but was not allowed to study anything other than
physics or mathematics. She thought she would discontinue studies
after completing her higher secondary in science stream due to
various coercive pressures about the subjects she would study. Her
father forced her to start a career as an LIC (Life Insurance)
agent instead of encouraging her to study. Her parents shifted to
South 24 Paraganas (Garia - now South Kolkata) as her father was a
social worker. Gargi had snakes thrown at her regularly at this
place as a child due to her dark complexion besides constant
verbal abuse. She was tortured at her new school as well for the
very same reason. Students from various different classes would
come to see her (she was treated as an exhibit) and call her a
'negro'. This was the case only in the new school, NOT Ashok Hall.
Her parents would partake in this torture. These only made her a
stronger human being.
Her brothers were sponsored for their education abroad, but Gargi
was discouraged and NOT even provided with the text books for her
school. She was left to fend for herself during her teenage years
while her mother would frequent institutions like Harvard and
NASA. She was a narcissist bitch who used to encourage Gargi's
cousin sister instead of her. When people questioned her, she
would respond by saying Gargi did not have any talent. Gargi's
rightful property inheritance was also given to this cousin by her
mother. In spite of this, she completed M.Com PART 1, dropped out
of ICWA and started a career in Computer Animation. Her uncle
inspired her to complete graduation and learn computers, while her
husband encouraged her to complete masters in Environmental
Sciences after her marriage. Renowned ecologist Prof Raman Sukumar
was her guide for her masters thesis. She started pursuing her
graduation much later in the academic year owing to her earlier
decision to stop studying after higher secondary. At that time,
only commerce graduation was available to her. She met a poet
called Mahua Mallick Roy on Internet who inspired her to become an
author. Eventually she started Sonajhuri where she herself, and
other budding writers, started writing along side famous writers
and poets. They wrote, they fought, they had a cuppa and robust
discussions that led to Sonajhuri touching the milestone of 100
continuous monthly issues. With immense support from readers,
Sonajhuri became hugely popular with more than 100,000 monthly
hits. She had to close it down due to her failing health. People
say Sonajhuri was not a magazine, but an event. At the time of
closing down the domains www.sonajhuri.com and www.sonajhuri.net
were worth USD 12,500 and USD 7,900 respectively in the year 2010.
She had learnt painting and sculpting from a student of noted
artists Ganesh Haloi and Atul Basu. She sold her oil paintings in
India, and currently sells her NFTs through opensea.io. Opensea
has approved her paintings on their platform.
Her father was a scholar under renowned physicist Prof Satyen Bose
(known for Bose Einstein theory) and was also a social worker. He
had worked with criminal tribes - Lodhas in Nayagram, Midnapur in
early 80s. Prof Bose was annoyed by his activities as he was doing
everything else but Physics. So, her father eventually completed
his PhD under noted physicist Prof Manoj Banerjee who was a
student of Nobel Laureate Prof E P Wigner.
Renowned journalist Padma Bhushan Tushar Kanti Ghosh was her
maternal grandfather's first cousin. One of her aunts (Mira Mitra,
Maya Horin novel's character Mira Ranganmoorthy's name was
sketched on her) is married to noted singer Shyamal Mitra's
brother. Gargi is married to Bidhu Shekhar Shastri's (India's
first Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore's associate and scholar)
family. As a yogini (spiritual seeker), she is spiritually
connected to all the living beings in this universe. She is a
fervent devotee of the revered Hindu sage Sri Ramana Maharishi.
Fate had something else in store for her. So, instead of being an
LIC agent, Gargi worked in Computer Animation in Kolkata, India.
Her hobbies include ghost hunting, communicating with spirits,
bird watching (ornithology), unplanned picnics in forest and lots
of adventures (adrenaline rush, action, thriller and ghost
movies).