Author Bio – Dr Bhaskar Bora
Life changed in an instant for reasons not known, not understood yet. There was I, deemed as a successful doctor in the UK, a successful entrepreneur and by many standards, a self-made man. Life was rosy and the sun was shining. With a successful career, a beautiful family, and an abundance of resources, it could only get better.

However, there was a different painting that was being painted for me in the heavens above. It was July 2019 when that seemingly innocuous operation went wrong, and I was left with paralysis from the waist down and severe neuropathic pain due to a spinal cord injury. Before I could understand the implication of my changed normality, I got a diagnosis of cancer of the thyroid. Multiple operations and several months of hospital stay later, I was forced to take Ill Health Retirement, losing everything that I had gained as a career. The journey from a sports car to a wheelchair, from the pinnacle of success to the depths of despair, was complete.

Those dark hospital days, however, proved to be the much-needed fertile soil for the seeds of a new appreciation of life, a springboard for positivity, and a new faith in affirmation. The day I wet my bed and had to be stripped naked to be changed by the nurse was the day I decided that enough was enough and I have to take the bull by the horns. I have to live life again and nothing could stop me anymore.

We all have pain but how we suffer depends on us. I have decided to suffer with a smile, with the hope of healing not just myself but also a few others who may have also lost their way in adversities. My message to the world is that with a positive outlook every adversity can be changed into an opportunity. If we desire, believe and persevere enough, there will always be a second chance. Through my poetry, my books and my talks, if I can inspire one more person, my job is done.

What the universe throws at us, we cannot control but how we react to these curve balls define who we are.

Author Bio - Merry Baruah

I am an Associate Professor in the Dept of English, Cotton University. I have authored several papers and book chapters for academic volumes. I am associated with WWF (India) as a translator for their academic resources. I have acted as Resource Person for Katha India Regional Writers’ Workshop (Eastern Zone); delivered a lecture on Creative Writing at an FDP organised by Dibrugarh University; formerly Visiting faculty at TISS GUWAHATI campus; North Eastern Christian University, Dimapur.

I am interested in creative writing and my work has been published in the Indian Review among others.

Author Bio – Santanu Phukan

I started my career as a teacher immediately after my postgraduation at Tinsukia College where I taught for a year and three months. Thence, I moved on to Diphu Govt. College, after being selected by the APSC, where I served for five years. In 1990 I moved to Cotton College where I served for the rest of my career and retired in 2021 as the head of the Department of English at what has now come to be known as Cotton University.

In a career spanning thirty-seven years, I have always considered my students as my friends and have looked upon myself more as a mentor than as a teacher. I attribute whatever small measure of success I may have attained to this.

Apart from my love of literature, I also enjoy translating literary works from Assamese to English, writing poetry, travel, photography and the culinary arts. I am enjoying my retirement immensely for it has finally given me the time to dabble in my hobbies.