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Rochelle Potkar with Brian Mendonca
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- Brian Mendonca
Hosting Rochelle Potkar was a great moment for us. Like a sylph she has always been looking over our shoulders to guide us to take the right steps in writing poetry.
It was Rochelle who went about including me in her anthology of Goan poetry titled Goa: A Garland of Poetry (Onslaught, 2017). Unlike several established poets, Rochelle deigned to take on board new voices and themes for the hallmark collection. I was elated to see my poems 'Mapusa Market,' 'Rain,' 'Praia,' and 'Afternoon,' in print. I was anthologized!
Later, she encouraged me to send my poems to The Joao Roque Literary Journal. JLR published 5 poems of mine including 'Ebb tide on the Zuari.' (2018)
When I needed someone to write a foreword for my book Jasmine City: Poems from Delhi (2023), I reached out to Rochelle. She put me in touch with Amit Ranjan in Delhi.
And now we were asked to jointly release The Penguin Book of Poems on the Indian City (2025) which features poems written by both of us.
Unwrapping the book, one beheld two strands tying the covering. Both of us held one of the strands. 'Mumbai and Goa,' quipped Rochelle as she pulled her strand. I followed likewise.
Rochelle was the author featured in the 'Meet the Author' session. She was speaking to students on the topic, 'How to Write a Novel' dipping into her just published novel
The D'Costa Family (2025).
Enroute she spoke about magic realism, the Hero's journey, the value of vulnerability, and how the mind is always working on ideas.
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| Charcoal painting of Rochelle. |
I admire how versatile she is, and how she works assiduously to chisel her craft. She was here to teach the students
Haiku in 2017. She was very down-to-earth and made everyone feel comfortable. 'I am a Nuvem girl. I used to catch butterflies here,' she says. Before and after the event she spun reels creating a buzz on social media, generating traffic. She carefully acknowledged the impressions of the students about the book. She was delighted to take back with her a charcoal portrait of her done by Bhakti Palikar, a student.
One of the striking things she said was, 'A bad character is a good character.' I loved the way she kept leafing through the points she had written in a notebook. 'A lot of people bought the book for its cover.' she says matter-of-factly.
Swarms of students lined up to buy a copy of her debut novel (which she made available at a special student discount), get her autograph, and pose with her. She had to call for more copies. 'You have made me a crorepati,' she gushed, pointing out to the fact that book sales are far too precious to follow mundane reckoning.
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Pic taken at Carmel College, Goa on 19 September 2025. Picture courtesy Elisha Fernandes. Updated 22/9/25.
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