A psychologist by profession, Niharika Mazumdar (29) always nurtured a literary ambition. But her ambition actually took shape during a period when she had little else to do. Today, she is the author of two poetry books.A severe health crisis last year left this lecturer and practising therapist from Apeejay College fo Fine Arts confined to bed for nearly a month. In April 2025, she was found to be suffering septicemia after which she had to undergo a surgery of an abcess in the back and a prolonged treatment thereafter. “I had difficulty in sitting and walking and all my internal organs were getting infected. My speech was affected and I had difficulty even in sipping in water. My parents were taking me from one doctor to another. In fact, a doctor had even said I had little chance of survival”, she recallsIt was in that condition that Niharika’s poetry began to flow. “For someone like me accustomed to teaching, counselling and keeping busy, the enforced pause was unsettling. The poetry helped me through that emotional turmoil and it became my medium of catharsis. It perhaps also helped me recover too”, she recalls.“It was my mother Indrila Banerjee Mazumdar, a homemaker, and a colleague from my college who introduced me to a Shark Tank 21-day writing challenge. I had to write a poem everyday for three weeks. These 21 poems eventually became the foundation of my first book – Gravity, Where’s Her Name? The book explores femininity, relationships, anger and the often-unspoken emotional side of being a woman.”After completing the first challenge from the hospital bed, she went on to take the second one. “After I got discharged, I could not go out for work for another month. I was required to daily visit the doctor for my dressing and I had restrictions in movement during this healing period. At that time, I produced my second book – The Science of Feeling. I always wanted to transcend psychology into my literary space. The publisher responded positively to the manuscript, particularly to my attempt to make emotional experiences accessible and relatable. I got the hard copy of this book about a week ago”, she said.Sharing her educational background, Niharika said, “I did schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Gandhinagar. I did BA with honours in psychology from HMV College. I studied MA in psychology followed by PG Diploma in Counselling from DAV College. I was an avid reader from the very beginning”.Growing up, she says she had read almost every book she could find in school and college libraries and always aimed to built a home library. “It was my mother and grandmother who ingrained in me the interest in literature. My father Joydeep Majumdar, a hotel management consultant, too had a huge collection of books at place. Born in a Bengali family, I was introduced to several translated works of Rabindranath Tagore.”Niharika’s interest in psychology also has a personal connection. Her younger brother has autism, and her experiences with him were among the earliest influences that made psychology meaningful to her. She feels creativity has become a way of moving through pain — not by denying difficult emotions, but by giving them an outlet.