Spotlight is back for another issue, jam-packed with stories of inspirational success and charitable deeds, as well as continuing to raise awareness about our culture and legacy and getting our readers' opinions across!

We hope you enjoy sharing Spotlight with us. Thank you to everyone who wrote for this issue. Spotlight is always on the look out for contributors, so if you are interested in writing for us or just have suggestions, please email us at spotlight@networkbangla.co.uk!

- Sulthana Begum, Chief Editor

Rumki Chowdhury is a 22 years-old self-published author whose book, Her Feet Chime, is out now. Having struggle through rejections from literary agents, she tells Network Bangla how you can create your own success if you have the determination.

Her Feet Chime, takes place in Bangladesh and contains Bengali words, reflecting on Rumki's Bengali heritage and the fact she was born there. She moved to USA aged 3, where she spent most of her life until she very recently moved to London, where she hopes to achieve her goal of attaining a PhD to become a professor of English Literature or writing. In fact, she will be attending Queen Mary College of the University of London this winter for her Masters in English Literature.

Growing up as a Bangladeshi-American, it is an inevitable struggle to maintain one's culture through the values one is taught by his/her parents, while surrounded by a westernised environment. Rumki explains, "I grew up to know that the best way to learn more about my background is through incorporating the cultural traditions within my writing."

She owes her inspiration to her family. "I am fortunate to have two compassionate parents and an inspiring brother, Robin. Although Robin has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disorder which weakens his muscles and prevents him from walking, he continues to live life to his fullest. He exhumes hope and I inhale it."

When she initially wrote Her Feet Chime three years ago, hoping that one day it would be published, her critics were her family. She then took the book into her fiction writing course and had her peers and professor helped her develop the story further. "I am most grateful to my parents, brother, cousins, peers, Dr. Philip Cioffari, and most of all, to Allah," says Rumki.

Writers can begin at any age. For Rumki, the love of stories started at around age nine, when her vivid imagination led her to creating, telling, and acting out stories about pirates, princess, and monsters with her brother and cousins. She would then record them on paper for safekeeping. At age 12, she entered a speech competition in her New York school. "That was when the realisation came to me: writing is my passion," Rumki explains. "I believe anyone has the potential to be anything they really desire to. It is about having the will."

Stereotypically, Bengalis have more respect for those who go into the fields of law, medicine, and/or engineering, but Rumki believes that writers are just as equally respected by our community. She points out how Rabindranath Tagore is immensely recognised and appreciated in Bengali literature. Further in her own life, her aunt, Dr. Najma Chowdhury of Dhaka University, wrote in and edited Women and Politics Worldwide, published under Yale University Press New Haven and London. For Rumki, her aunt is a living proof that Bengalis are embracing of writers from the community, breaking into the world of literature and media.

So what inspired her to write Her Feet Chimes? What led to the idea was a search for the Bengali version of the Cinderella story. For Rumki, the Cinderella fairytale instils a belief in possibilities. She was aware of the different cultural versions of the Cinderella story including that of the Korean, Caribbean, and Egyptian.
"One day, I stepped into my university library, in hopes of finding the Bengali version," Rumki reveals. "Instead, I found the Indian version. I then searched the web, only to be disappointed to find no results. I then decided to write Her Feet Chime, the Bengali version of the Cinderella story for young adults."

Now the classic question, the bane of all writers desiring to be published- how did she deal with the rejection letters? Rumki explains she spent months contacting agents, but they all gave the same answer. Then, she spoke to one of her professors who had self-published her work with one of the world's largest self-publishing companies, Author House. She recommended that Rumki give it a try. And here she is now, self-published.

"I do not want any aspiring writer to be discouraged by my struggle in finding a literary agent and having work published traditionally," Rumki emphasises. "In fact, I pray that an aspiring author takes advantage of the experience that the literary world provides of searching for an agent. In the near future, for my successive projects, I may try finding a literary agent once more."

Rumki stresses that diligence and determination is crucial when aspiring to develop an idea, put it on paper, and have it published.
"There is a lot of time, effort, and energy required of any written work, whether it is a research paper, short story, poem, article, or novel. One needs to have patience in order to develop a work to its full potential and to venture through the process of having it published. If an aspiring author, poet, or journalist is excited about an idea and has a passion for writing, then diligence and determination should come easily to him/her.

"I respect how Network Bangla is supporting and making readers conscious of the success of Bengali achievers. It is this enhancement of cultural awareness which we should all aspire to create."

With her book she hopes that readers of various backgrounds become more aware of the Bengali culture. Please visit www.rumkichowdhury.com for excerpts, book availability, and other information. Photo credit to Kruti Kansara.

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