Life was normal and one fine day it wasn’t. I was kidnapped on April 8,1993, when I was a general manager of Tata tea in Assam. Only to be released next year on March 2 1994.

I lived in custody of ULFA militants for 11 months praying for survival with every passing day.

On that fateful day, I was returning home from office, my car was stopped by some unknown people. We soon found out they were armed. Someone came over dragged me out of my car and took me away.

There were multiple reasons why I was picked-first I was the youngest son of Bharat Ratna Gopinath Bordoloi(first Chief Minister of Assam) And secondly, I was heading Tata Tea office as a general manager, looking after 22 gardens. The aim was to get good ransom.

The militants also thought t by kidnapping me, they will take tremendous mileage out of this and Tata Tea will succumb to their demand for money. The demand was a whooping 15 lakhs dollars.

Tata tea didn’t buckle down under pressure and did not give in to their demands but started development work instead .

During my confinement, they moved places, one area to another. Somehow I didn’t lose hope, I prayed. Not to any particular God I did prayers from all. This kept me going.

I also tried to understand them psychologically- why they joined the group, why they lead this kind of life.

The boys were on an average 16 to 17 years old. I taught them language, I tried to teach them basic education.

In the end they also seemed to develop some kind of respect for me . When my release took place, I came out but life and my way of looking at it had changed . I looked at peace in a different way. Peace will come but we have to also work towards prosperity, do away with inequalities, provide opportunities and let people co-exit.

I will be continuing these posts . Keep watching the space