Dr. Partha Pratim Kalita | The Anatomy of Becoming
- How did your journey as a writer begin? What inspired you to start writing?
Author: My journey as a writer is rooted in the life I have lived: a childhood in Bamundi, my parents’ quiet sacrifices, and the long road towards becoming a doctor. Medicine brought me closer to people at their most vulnerable, while my own experiences taught me how much of a life remains invisible behind qualifications and achievements. Writing gives me a way to preserve those experiences and understand what they have meant. In The Anatomy of Becoming, I wanted to tell the story behind the doctor: the boy who struggled, the people who sustained him, and the husband and father he became.
- What genres, themes, or subjects do you prefer to write about, and why?
Author: I am drawn to memoir, reflective writing and subjects that connect medicine with everyday life. Family, resilience, love, loss and the search for meaning are themes that matter deeply to me. As a physician, I value writing that makes medical knowledge understandable. As a storyteller, I want to explore what people feel and carry within them. Both interests grow from the same concern: helping someone understand an experience that may otherwise feel frightening, lonely or difficult to express.
- Was there a particular book, author, or incident that influenced your decision to write?
Author: The strongest influence behind this memoir is life itself. My mother’s insistence on education, my father’s struggles to provide for us, and my brother’s generosity gave me experiences worth remembering long before I thought of putting them into a book. Later, medicine and the pandemic deepened my understanding of courage and vulnerability. I also remember participating in poem recitation competitions as a student, where prize money sometimes helped pay overdue school dues. Looking back, that memory gives words a very personal significance: they were already connected to hope and opportunity.
- What challenges or obstacles have you faced in your writing journey, and how did you overcome them?
Author: One of the hardest parts of telling my story is revisiting experiences that are painful or deeply personal. It is easier to record an examination rank than to describe financial insecurity, disappointment or fear. Another challenge is finding language that conveys emotion without allowing it to overwhelm the truth of an experience. In this memoir, I have tried to meet those difficulties through honesty: returning to concrete moments, acknowledging my own limitations, and giving the people who supported me their rightful place in the story.
- Can you recall a memorable moment or incident related to your writing that deeply impacted you?
Author: One memory that feels especially powerful when I revisit it in writing is holding my son, Atharva Aabir Kalita, for the first time during the pandemic. I had been caring for patients while living with the fear of carrying infection home to my pregnant wife. His arrival brought a new meaning to everything that had come before. Writing about that moment helped me connect the doctor’s effort to preserve life with the father’s understanding of how precious a single life can be. It is a memory in which exhaustion, fear and gratitude meet.
- What message, thought, or emotion do you try to convey through your books or poems?
Author: I want readers to feel that a difficult beginning does not have to define the limits of their future. But I also want them to recognise the people behind every journey: the parents who make sacrifices, the siblings who quietly give something up, and the partners who stay through uncertainty. The Anatomy of Becoming carries both hope and gratitude. Its central thought is that becoming someone is a continuing process, shaped by hardship, by our choices, and by the love and help we receive along the way.
- Which of your writings is closest to your heart, and why?
Author: The Anatomy of Becoming is especially close to my heart because it holds the most personal parts of my life together. It takes me back to the boy studying by lamplight in Bamundi and follows the journey into medicine, marriage, the pandemic and fatherhood. More than a record of milestones, it is an acknowledgement of what my parents, my brother and my wife have contributed to my life. Writing it gives those sacrifices a place beyond my own memory. I hope my son will one day read it and understand something of the family and experiences from which his story began.
- If you had to describe your identity as a writer in one line or belief, what would it be?
Author: I write to give an honest voice to the experiences behind the person the world sees.
- How do you see yourself evolving as a writer in the future? Are there any upcoming projects or genres you wish to explore?
Author: I would like to grow into a writer who can express difficult experiences with greater clarity and emotional restraint. I am interested in exploring the human side of medicine further: the uncertainty of illness, the responsibilities of caregiving, and the ways families cope with fear and change. I would also like to continue making health information accessible to readers. Whatever form my future work takes, I want it to remain grounded in lived experience and attentive to the people whose stories deserve to be heard.
- What advice or message would you like to give to aspiring writers or readers?
Author: To aspiring writers, I would say: begin with what you have noticed, felt and understood. Your life does not have to look extraordinary before it becomes worth writing about. Pay attention to the details, be honest about what you know, and be willing to revise until your words say what you truly mean. To readers, I would say: look beyond the achievements in someone’s story. Often, its deepest meaning lies in the quiet effort, the help received, and the people who made the journey possible.