A book that captures the inspiring story of Dr Bhaskar Bora has been released. But this is not the conventional journey that documents a man’s life from grass to grace or talks about how hardwork and perseverance always pay off in the end, neither is it a story that talks about how one poor man became rich and famous. It is a tale of courage, vision, and a never-say-die attitude, even in the face of life’s most challenging adversities. They say when life throws lemons at you, you should make some lemonade. He is sharing the lemonade too. But this is not often as easy as it sounds.
The book, titled The Second Chance in Life, tells the story of a young man who almost lost everything after he had a spinal cord injury, culminating in paralysis from waist down. The odds were against him; nothing made sense anymore. In his 40s, Dr Bora was already a successful man by every standard. The ambitious young man who left India for the UK in 2004 after getting his medical qualification from the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital and embarking on several odd jobs and businesses later, grew to become a renowned medical practitioner, acquiring five medical practices and shoring up their turnover from a mere £480,000 to £2.3 million after just 7 years.
Asides his remarkable reputation as a family doctor which would go on to last 12 years, Dr Bora also opened a restaurant, Samsara Restaurant and Bar, in Sutton London- becoming the first Assamese to do so in the city and developed a real estate portfolio in London. Life was great, with an amazing family to cap it all, until tragedy struck. He sustained a severe spinal cord injury in 2019 after a spinal surgery that went wrong. It’s quite ironic that he’d be a victim of medical complications – being a medical doctor himself. This led to paralysis of both legs, a non-functional right hand, and a lengthy stay at the hospital.
Permanently disabled by severe spinal cord injury and cancer survivor
Just two months later, he was told he had cancer of the thyroid and required further operations. Today, he’s a celebrated survivor, but those moments were some of the darkest days in his life. The world fell apart as the once agile Dr Bora became completely physically disabled. In his own words, “When I first had this life changing event of the spinal cord injury, my initial feelings were of frustration, confusion, and fear of the future. It took me a while to adjust. Maybe being a doctor was both a good and a bad thing. Good because I had been dealing with many patients undergoing similar situations and I had counselled them. But it’s bad because I understood the gravity of the situation and what lay ahead in the future,” he says.
Forced to retire from his medical practice and give up most of his businesses, the future seemed really bleak. In 2000 when his father had a stroke and he had to take responsibility for the family, young Bhaskar worked as a taxi driver, owned a bus ticket counter and a pharmacy just to make ends meet. Today, with paralysed legs and arm, he had to relearn walking to be able to take care of his young family. With the help of crutches, he can now cover short distances. But through these trying times, Dr Bora has found a silver lining in a very dark cloud.
Like a new-found purpose, a higher calling unto the next phase of his life, he wants to use this book to inspire other people that no matter what life throws at them, there’s always a positive side to it. One can always find that positivity and make the most of it. He had everything he could ever ask for, but life had other plans. Writing the book took about three months due to loss of functionality of three fingers on his dominant hand. With the help of an editor, the book has now been published and available on Amazon worldwide in various formats.
Dr Bora hopes that his book, The Second Chance in Life, would help to amplify his voice and give hope to disabled people out there who may think it is the end of the road for them. The book is a message of hope; a trigger for the downtrodden to rise through the ashes, become everything they desire and to turn adversities into opportunities.
(The Book The Second Chance in Life, is available at Amazon.co.uk for £8.41 and free shipping)
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What a great story- a must- read and will inspire those who think they have lost everything