Stories are all around us and sometimes when something touches your heart, words start flowing. To me a good poem is one that allows for the reader to become the protagonist of the story and emotions within. Today’s woman dreamer, Manorama Choudhury, a creative soul, shares her wonderful journey as an artist, poet, philanthropist and homemaker. A truly multi-faceted woman, Manorama shares how she finds creative inspiration in her life, her top tips to writing a good poem, and one of her original works! Enjoy her story!

1) You have quite the artistic and creative soul, known for your wonderful poetry. You devote a lot of time to volunteering and community service. Tell us your story. How did you find your artistic and poetry passion, and how do you balance with your full time work and family obligations? 

Thank you for seeing all these artistic qualities in a homemaker which many times goes unnoticed. I believe creative souls are of different breeds. In this life and in this body I am blessed with a creative soul. I am so grateful to the creator. I give credit to my parents for the community service mindset that I have inherited from them. I grew up in a modest lower middle class family. I had heard of my grandparents (both sides) struggling for their daily bread but they always pushed for their children's education. Since my parents were more educated they were able to have gov’t jobs. There was no room for splurging with their income but I had seen them going the extra mile when taking care of visiting needy relatives and neighbors. A perfect example of their charitable heart I can think of is always cooking extra food for those stray dogs, cats or cows that often found shelter in front of our home. They always believed and so do I in the teachings of Gita. “Nothing I acquired I would carry when I leave this world except for my karma.” So always be generous to give back to society. My contribution of any kind to support the charitable programs here is only a drop in the ocean. 

My parents also emphasized the importance of different forms of art and literature as part of a holistic education. Everyone often makes room for compromise in their day to day, but my parents believed passion is the true companion of life. I always loved being a consumer of art, but it was my husband who always saw something special in my own creations and inspired in me the confidence to share it with others. He is very supportive and loving and caring for whatever I do. My mother worked out of necessity and I would miss seeing her all day throughout my childhood years. So my priorities in adulthood were clear: to devote as much personal time as possible in raising my two daughters. 

In the early years of our marriage, my husband started his journey into entrepreneurship with no bank balance. But he was always very confident that I did not need to share the responsibility of financial needs. So I was by choice a homemaker though I like to call myself a home engineer. After studying for multiple degrees along with an MBA from Bentley University, I chose to raise a family. I knew how important the early years were for a child’s cognitive development. Our ancient scriptures say and science proves that brain development happens till the age of 16. After that only marginal growth happens. I believe our brain is like an empty computer and all that it is fed by 16 it will retain for its lifetime. After 16 information overload forces one to filter and save what is important to that point in life. If you keenly observe, kids will practice many of those values and habits they have learned during early years into their adulthood. It often feels like kids never listen to your advice. They may think they are adults

going through life, but emotional development comes with time which they have yet to experience. But common sense and life skills can’t be taught in books or found in google search, it always comes from trial and error and learning from the environments around us. From the beginning, I took on the responsibility to create that environment for them to learn from. 

Until my kids left for college my primary job was to be with them. Learning and growing with them, while doing a permanent Uber mom job. After they spread their wings, I started questioning the purpose of my next stage in life. Poetry came to me first rather easily. I am sure it was a hidden talent that I had just never nurtured all these years. In my first year I mostly expressed myself in Hindi or English but in the past year I spent significant time writing in my mother tongue, Odia. For the past 30yrs I have not been deeply in touch with Odia until I began exploring the language through poetry. So it is quite a learning experience. It is through my passion for poetry that my love for language flows. 

2) Poetry is one of the most challenging forms of writing. How do you find inspiration for a new poem? And, what are the characteristics of good poetry in your opinion? 

Here I must mention there is a subtle difference between writing and crafting. For writing poetry when emotions are felt, words come to you. Stories are all around us and sometimes when something touches your heart, words start flowing. Crafting poetry is a different skill, mostly writing on a given topic or for a given audience. To me a good poem is one that allows for the reader to become the protagonist of the story and emotions within. An author should not be caged in one body. He or she should be able to get into anyone’s heart to convey universal emotions. For inspiration one must read a lot and understand the Rasas mentioned in our ancient texts. Rasas are nothing but our different emotions at any given time. Infact one major segment of my Odia poems are on ‘Ashta Nayikas’ both in classical and in modern context. As Odia is a classical language, its poetry has different nuances and grammatical rules for writing in Chhand/meter. There is always so much to learn and one lifetime is never enough. 

3) What are some of the most exciting creative projects you have worked on? 

Creative minds are at work all the time. For example, I believe a beautiful ambiance brings positive moods and my artistic nature will get this urge to decorate. My husband often teases that I create extra work for myself. From the food that I cook and arrange along with flowers and fall leaves I find in my yard, basically everything plays a role in decorating my dinner table. This passion for creating beauty from existing works finds its way into many aspects of my life. 

The complex designs I had created out of my handmade masks early on in the pandemic is one project I will always remember. All of us remember how early 2020 felt as we all succumbed to the grave fear of fighting against an unseen virus. Anxiety, restlessness, fear, depression, sadness were the only emotions many of us felt while others just became numb to it all these negative energies spread like wildfire. Until we found our strategy to fight, the only choice we had was to protect ourselves. Lock down and mask up was mandatory. Very soon everyone in the community realized a huge shortage in supply of masks gave birth to an overwhelming demand for handmade masks. My charitable heart bled as I seeked for ways in which I too could help. I am not a frontliner. But my basic skills in sewing, thanks to my mother, came handy. I joined hands with the Sew We Care team to create handmade masks to give out to different communities around us. In ten weeks time I made 2700+ masks. Sewing day in and day out was a tedious job. To keep myself motivated every week I would create posters with all the masks I made that week. Masks served as colors for my empty canvas while serving mankind. More than a year later at a Sew We Care gathering I came to know so many of them remembered me for my mask arts and drew inspiration from it. Knowing that filled my heart with a joy unspeakable. I pray we don't see those bitter days again but it was a ray of light to see this creative project born out of that necessity. 

Since then I have varied my time over a wider range of smaller projects. With the Indiart program through Ekal.org, I have been learning new art techniques and skills to add to my repertoire. One of my artworks made it to the cover page of an Odia Novel for which I am so grateful to the author and publisher for this honor. I have also lent my voice to a few Odia classic short story audiobooks on Youtube which was exciting as it was new for me. 

4) As a woman dreamer, what is your next big dream? 

There are many dreams we often see but keeping the passion alive to chase it until it is fulfilled is key. Now that I have come to a place in life where I have wholly delved into my creative pursuits, my next dream is to really expand and create bigger stories and impacts from what I already know. My deep rooted passion for handwoven fabrics drew the attention of a friend who is a faculty member in the anthropology department at UCSC and a founding member of joininghand.com. She has invited me to join their core team in the effort to help indigenous weavers by creating a global market for them for which I am excited to contribute my knowledge and network in whatever ways I can to give back to the community. 

My passion for poetry has blessed me with many new friends across North America and abroad and I am immensely grateful to them for continuously encouraging me and my writings. Now that I have gotten more comfortable with my writing, my next goal is to publish a book where I can craft an even bigger narrative within which I can convey my little moments of life. I have also begun exploring presenting my poems through the art of music which has been a new perspective for me to express myself through. Two of my songs are in the process of releasing this year! 

But my primary goal will always be to stay happy and content and to not get lost in the competitive world while chasing any dream. So while I work towards my next goals, I know they may change with time to continue aligning with my life philosophy.

5) Please share one of your original poems (and a couple of your paintings) - we would love to feature some of your work in the article! 

Though most of my favorite ones are in Odia, let me share here the one dear to me in Hindi. I have a feeling most of the readers will relate to it. 

See one of her original poems here

माँ तेरी ख़ुशबू !

जहाँ तक मेरी याद चली जाती है

माँ, तेरी ख़ुशबू ही ख़ुशबू याद आती है...

रात को सोते समय बालों में ऊँगली फेरते हुए

तू परियों की कहानी सुनाती थी

थोड़ी देर और, थोड़ी देर और कहती मैं

तेरी गोद में लिपटी रहती थी

आज भी कोई किताब पढ़ूँ

तेरी आवाज़ कानों में गूँजती है,

और वही तेरी ख़ुशबू, महक आती है..

मैं जब छोटी थी, चित्र बनाती थी

तू ऊँगली पकड़ कर मुझे फ़ूल, पत्ते, हाथी, घोड़ा,

तितली आदि बनाना सिखाती थी

जहाँ मैं रंगों को फैलाती, तू उन्हें संभालती थी

आज मैं अपने बच्चों को लिखना भी सिखाऊँ

तेरे कपड़ों में फैली वही रंगों की ख़ुशबू

वापस याद आती है..

खेलते खेलते कभी चोट लगती,

तेरी आँचल में आकर,

मैं सिसक सिसक कर रोती

कभी दवा, कभी हल्दी लगा कर

तू मुझे अपने गोद में झुलाती

आज मेरे बच्चें जब गिर कर रोते हैं,

दवा भी तेरी ख़ुशबू की याद लाती है..

तैयार हो कर जब बाज़ार में जाते थे

मैं तेरा हाथ पकड़ कर उछल कूद कर चलती थी

ये भी ख़रीद दो, वो भी ख़रीद दो

न जाने कितनी ज़िद करती थी

आज अपने बच्चों के संग टहलने भी जाऊँ

हवा में भी तेरे perfume की ख़ुशबू आती है..

त्योहारों में जब तू ढेर सारा खाना बनाती थी

पास बैठ मैं मिठाइयाँ चखती थी

आज जब मैं होली दिवाली मनाती हूँ

हल्दी, चंदन और प्रसाद भगवान को चढ़ाती हूँ

उन मूर्तियों में सिर्फ़ तेरी ही सूरत नज़र आती है

अगरबत्ती में भी तेरी ही ख़ुशबू सुहाती है..

सब से ज़्यादा तेरी ख़ुशबू मेरी रसोई में आती है

हर एक मसाले में कई नुस्ख़े, हिदायतें याद आती है

मेरी रेसिपी की डायरी में तेरे हाथों से लिखी विधि

अब भी मेरे बच्चों को बनाके खिलाती हूँ

स्वाद चाहे कैसा बने,

तुझ जैसे बनाने की कोशिश ज़रूर करती हूँ ..

कल को मेरे बच्चे, मुझे, तुझ जैसा याद करें

इसलिए, तेरे जैसा बनने की कोशिश,

मैं हर रोज़ करती हूँ

तेरे नक़्शेक़दम पर चलती हूँ

माँ, तेरी याद, तेरी ख़ुशबू मैं हर पल जीती हूँ..

manorama choudhury

Thank you Manorama for sharing your story with us! We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!

Bio - Manorama Choudhury is a first generation immigrant, now U.S. citizen, originally from Berhampur, Odisha. She has always emphasized the study of the interdisciplinary arts with her B. A. in Psychology and Political Science and Masters in Business Administration from Berhampur University and from Bentley University, with specialization in marketing and data management, and an additional diploma in Interior Design. Manorama spends a lot of her time on philanthropy work with charities that focus on education and health and wellness programs in rural India.

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