In Antarctica

Chhanda Chattopadhyay Bewtra was born in Purulia, West Bengal. After some initial ‘homeschooling’ by her grandfather, she moved to Delhi and finished all her educations. She received her medical degree from AIIMS and soon after, migrated to United States for further studies and research in the field of pathology. She settled in the Midwest in Omaha Nebraska and joined the Pathology department in Creighton University Medical school. She has worked there for 40 years practicing pathology, teaching medical students, postgraduates and sub-specializing in the fields of cytology and gynecologic research. She has written numerous book chapters, published in academic research papers in prestigious journals and presented papers in many national and international academic meetings.

Chhanda has been keen on traveling from the very beginning. In America the easy access to ‘road tripping’ and attending various medical meetings have allowed her to travel to all the 50 states plus the contiguous states of Canada and Mexico. International meetings and sabbaticals have provided her opportunities to travel in faraway places like Japan, Brazil, Greece, Thailand, Fiji , Australia, Ghana, Poland, Madagascar and many other countries. She has visited from Antarctica to Timbuctu and also many places in India, her favorite country to travel. She will find any (or no) excuses to travel to a new place! All her ‘life milestones’ like birthdays and anniversaries are celebrated only by traveling to a new place.

Chhanda has always been interested in photography. In 1995, Chhanda was introduced to another new hobby of birdwatching by one of her students. Both these have worked very well with her interest in travel, and she has checked more than 1400 new species of bird all over the world. She has given lectures, written articles about birds and birding and inspired many friends and colleagues in birding. Some of them have even surpassed her records. Chhanda strongly feels birding and diagnostic medicine have many similarities and mutually help each other.

Naturally, Chhanda wanted to share her travel experiences and started writing about them. She has been an avid reader all her life and writes fluently in both Bengali (mother tongue) and English (her adopted language). Her stories have been published in local and national newspapers and magazines including the prestigious Bengali magazine, Desh. She has also been associated with the famous Bengali webzine Parabaas since 2007 and many of her travelogues in Bengali are published here and later compiled and published as a book titled ‘Tadoba theke Timbuctu’.

Being fluent in both languages, it was easy and natural for Chhanda to translate back and forth. It started early when she translated her favorite short stories by Tagore in English for her young daughters and later translated all seven volumes of Harry Potter stories in Bengali for her mother. Soon, more serious translations were published in Parabaas and culminated in two novels by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay—‘Distant Thunder’ and ‘Ichhamoti’. Chhanda has also translated other authors including Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Prachet Gupta and Nabaneeta Dev Sen. She has translated and published one of her novels ‘Thikana’. Recently Chhanda has translated Hindi stories by the famous author Nirmal Verma. Chhanda loves translating.

Chhanda also loves to quilt and has gifted handmade quilts to all her friends and family members. She regularly donates quilts to the sick children and wounded veterans in various hospitals. Drawing is another of her hobbies inspired by alpanas and rangolis learned in her childhood. She is the wedding henna painter in her extended family. She can always be found ‘doodling’ in her free time or during a boring administrative meeting in her department. Many of her ‘doodles’ are used as screensavers or hang in the offices of her colleagues. Chhanda has recently retired officially but still loves to write, translate, travel, birdwatch and learn new things. She is an avid MOOC learner and recently has enrolled in a singing class where she is the ‘oldest’ student. She also has been a volunteer in the Children’s hospital in Omaha for last 25 years. Rest of the time she spends with her three very active grandchildren.

Publication:

  Articles in Parabaas:
   In Bengali
   In English