Sharmila Mitra, a former senior school English teacher, lives at her 85-year-old ancestral home in Kolkata, India. She lives with her mother, going on 80, and the remaining thirteen non-human members of her family---dogs and cats rescued from Kolkata roads and adopted as children. Poetry has always been her interest, but during her teaching years, as she grew and learnt with her young adult students, she began to take her creative thinking outside her classrooms. She has a few awards won at international writing competitions, and two volumes of poetry, to her credit. She picks her themes from what life throws at her.