Lakshmi Nandan Bora

Born on 15th June 1932 in the North-eastern state of Assam, Lakshmi Nandan Bora was an accomplished writer, novelist, and a man with educational qualifications of great magnitude. He was a scientist by profession and writer by passion. Dedicating his life to science, he pursued B.Sc. in physics from the cotton college state university, Guwahati, and later went up to take M.Sc. from the Presidency college in Kolkata. He earned his Ph.D. in meteorology from Andhra University and was entitled as the first person in the University to have achieved a Doctoral degree in the department of meteorology. In his professional career, he served as a faculty member at the Assam Agricultural University and served in the Department of Physics and agrometeorology as HOD in 1992.

He served as a visiting professor at Johannes Gutenberg University for two terms. Over twenty-nine novels and twenty-six short stories were composed by him. His interest in literature was first seen in 1954 when he wrote his first short story, Bhaona, published in Assamese magazine, Ramdhenu. The year 1958 saw another work of Bora when he penned his first book, Dristipura, following which he wrote Nishar Purabhi in 1962. In 1963, he expanded his genre and wrote the novel Gonga Silonir Pakhi which was translated into 11 languages. Matt Meghar Chaan and Bishesh Eraati were other two novels written in the years 1970 and 1979. In the year 1986, he wrote an award-winning novel Patal Bhairavi Story soon >> Read More... which earned him the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award in 1988.

He published another novel named Kayakalpa in 2008, for which he was bestowed with Sarawasti Samman by K.K. Birla Foundation. Besides, he has written numerous books on agriculture and the environment and various plays. He served as the President of Assam Sahitya Sabha from 1996-97, following which he was appointed as the chairman of the Assam Pollution Control Board, where he served from 1997- 2003. He was also a member of the Planning Commission of Assam. He was the recipient of the Government of India’s fourth highest civilian honor, Padma Shri in, 2015. At the age of eighty-eight, Laksmi Nandan Bora died on 3rd June 2021 owing to COVID-19 complications.