Who would think that Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who is today synonymous with opulence and eccentricity, India-love and post-colonial ‘re-membering,’ had to struggle with his choice to embrace a career in fashion, studying at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata?
The struggle began when his father, Shukumar Mukherjee, a chemical engineer in a jute-wool mill, lost his job when plastics took over. Sabyasachi was just 15. The son of a refugee from Bangladesh, Shukumar was raised by a single mother. Financial instability thus became a backdrop to Sabya’s student years.
There was also a time when his mother, Sandhya Mukherjee, a bohemian artist who taught at the government art college in Kolkata, had slapped the young schoolboy following his suicide attempt, telling him, “Depression is as common as the common cold.…
