By Kavita Basi

Kavita BasiI was taken into the accident and emergency wing of the hospital on March 17, 2015, with a life-threatening subarachnoid hemorrhage. I was only thirty-eight years old and had always been a healthy person. I was successful, career-oriented, and travelled the world while working too many hours with no time to relax and think. Then, one night, I suddenly became extremely ill, and my whole world fell apart. I was in the hospital for nearly two months, and after four intense brain surgeries, I had difficulty understanding what was happening to me and why.

My memoir covers my journey to recovery and how my perspective has drastically changed, as I now see the important things in life, the materialistic things don’t matter to me and I want to focus on the true meaning of life. I had to relearn how to do the simplest tasks, like climbing stairs, retuning noises due to losing some sense of hearing, severe constant headaches as a result of watching any TV, leaning how to use my mobile devices without having motion sickness. My personality changed, and I was left with short term memory loss, intense mood swings, an emotional state of mind, being very direct when talking, having the black and white thinking and losing that middle ground of understanding. This new life also had a major effect on my relationships, family, and view of work.

Another main principle of this book is to deliver information from reliable sources to educate readers and raise awareness of this troubling illness. Throughout my struggle to recover, I force myself to have new experiences and show by example that anyone can bounce back from such adversity and live life to the fullest, as it should be lived. This is my story of learning the most valuable lesson of all, that life is precious and should never be wasted.

I decided to add QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) to my book to bring together my love of future forecasting and interactive design and my desire to reach and hold the interest of future generations and people recovering from brain trauma.

Visual media has played a large role in my recovery. I haven’t been able to read in the same way since the onset of my illness.

My doctor says this is normal and typical of people who have suffered brain injuries. My hope is that by offering this interactive approach to the book, I will offer readers a more layered experience of my story. http://www.kavitabasi.com