An Interview with Reetwika Banerjee | ‘Padma Shri’ Nominee, Travel Blogger, Filmmaker, and Bestselling Author from Kolkata, India
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Introducing Reetwika Banerjee
Reetwika Banerjee is a Cybersecurity Specialist by profession. But travel, photography, filmmaking, and writing at leisure make her complete. Born in India, Reetwika has traveled to many countries globally, exploring nooks and corners of the cities not so frequented by tourists. She loves to lock her memories as a trail of captivating travel tales. Two bestselling titles, ‘Bengal on Wheels’ and ‘Mystic Himalayas,’ are receiving rave reviews, while the third ‘Unexplored Europe’ is under the cover (planned release in October 2021).
Reetwika has received multiple awards and top media coverage for her short films and travel books. She has recently won ‘Apollon Sirmiensis Honour 2021’ from Serbia, ‘Swami Vivekananda Excellence Award 2020’ from Ministry of Youth Affairs India, ‘Power is You 2019’ title from the USA, to name a few. Above all, Reetwika was nominated for ‘Padma Shri,’ one of the highest civilian honors conferred by the Indian government in 2020 for her literary contributions.
To read Reetwika’s travel tales, please visit GetBengal (Bengal Tourism spin-off) and Tours and Journeys. You can also check out her travel tales series bestsellers on Amazon provided below. Reetwika also loves to listen to her readers and their reading journeys. Please feel free to reach her at reetwikab@gmail.com
How I met Reetwika
Reetwika and I currently work in competing consulting firms. However, around a decade back, we had been colleagues at one of our prior employers. On a misty morning around 6 AM, I first met Reetwika at a breakfast table in Trivandrum, the capital of the state of Kerala, dubbed as God’s own country, where we were undergoing a two-week new joiner training program at our former employer. After those two weeks, though we got posted in different cities in diametrically opposite parts of India, we never lost touch with each other. We stayed connected over social media and I literally saw her grow from a cybersecurity analyst to a startup author, then a best-selling author, then an award-winning travel tale writer, then a successful filmmaker, then a philanthropist, and finally a ‘Padma Shri’ nominee, one of the highest civilian honors conferred by the Indian government in 2020 for her literary contributions. I’m extremely proud of her and her contributions to the field of literature and society at large and I hope she keeps inspiring us by reaching higher pinnacles in the years to come.
The Interview with Reetwika
How did you get into writing despite being in a pressing IT industry?
Haha, to be honest, I have been answering this in all my interviews. Writing happened as a child’s play for me. My mother is a natural storyteller and is an eminent author in Bengal! Whenever we returned from a trip, she always inspired me to pen down my thoughts and travel memories in a small notebook so that I can voyage onto a virtual tour anytime in the future. I never realized when it turned to addiction. Though the meaning of ‘virtual’ changed over the years, the essence remained the same.
How did you get into travel and photography?
Since my childhood, I have traveled across lengths and breadths of our country and bordering nations with my parents. I heard the same tradition about my maternal grandparents, who also traveled a lot at their times. Probably such an addictive inheritance instilled the travel buff in me. Lolz. And then it was my father who injected the craze of photography. He is a camera freak even today in his 60s.
What is your philosophy behind traveling?
Do not just travel for the sake of travel. Explore like an explorer, relax like a holidaymaker. And yes, do not forget to lock your memories. Later, when the world is breathless (something like today), or you are not on your feet, these visual memories would be better refreshers than actual tiresome trips.
What was your first camera?
Oops, it was a very simple Agfa click camera. That shows how many grey hairs I have grown now. Haha!
What gear are you using now?
I have DSLRs. But somehow, I still prefer to use Nikon’s P900 point and shoot for my travel photography. Believe me or not, it is a mini telescope! It also offers excellent image stabilization. My Himalayan tours would be half accomplished without my P900.
What is your favorite type of photography?
Nature and Heritage Photography has always been my favorites.
What is the most beautiful place you ever visited and photographed?
Ah! I feel tricked now. The earth itself is a paradise for an explorer, and one life is not enough to relish the whole of it. Having said that, I belong to such a place (Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state of India) which has the world’s third-highest peak (Mt. Kanchendzonga/Kanchenjunga) to private sea beaches of Bay of Bengal, natural habitats of Red Panda (endangered species) to world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, British capital heritage city Calcutta to tribal forests of Purulia, ancient Nawabi and Sultanate ruins in Murshidabad/Maldah to landscaped tea gardens of North Bengal, terracotta temples of Bishnupur to Tagore’s Shantiniketan – all within a radius of hardly 500 km. So, honestly, even after exploring many cities and countries of the world, I still feel my homeland, Bengal, is the most beautiful place that I have visited and photographed. Still, a lot to cover.
What would you like to give a beginning traveler/photographer as a tip?
Aim a humble start. Try to be a good photographer first, then a gear fanatic. If you are technically sound, any camera can capture the best click for you.
Endnote
So that brings us to the end of our interview with Reetwika Banerjee, ‘Padma Shri’ nominee, travel blogger, filmmaker, and bestselling author from Kolkata, India. To read Reetwika’s travel tales, please visit GetBengal (Bengal Tourism spin-off) and Tours and Journeys. You can also check out her travel tales series bestsellers on Amazon provided below. Reetwika also loves to listen to her readers and their reading journeys. Please feel free to reach her at reetwikab@gmail.com
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