47 years on, man remains in voluntary confinement

For close to half a century now, he has kept himself confined to the four walls of a room, not leaving it even when war raged outside and deaths took place in his family.
    
When others fled for their lives during the Chinese aggression, Thula Borah, now 63, remained locked inside the room in his house at Deuri Gaon near Tezpur in Assam's Sonitpur district.
     
He chose not to leave the room even during the troubled period when enemy troops almost stormed the surrounding areas and people were being evacuated.

Borah had flunked matriculation examinations and, unable to bear his mother's wrath, became a recluse since 1962.
    
Borah didn't come out of his room even when his mother expired or when his brother got married.
    
"I had tried to goad Borah to come out of the room but failed to convince him, though he gave no reason for his voluntary confinement," Satyan Goswami, a senior police officer, said.
     
Goswami was posted in Borah's area during the early part of his career and was familiar with Borah's confinement.
     
His family members said Borah has never set his foot outside the room in the last 47 years.

"We leave the food inside and he eats according to will. He washes and also cleans inside the room itself," Borah's family said.

Borah used to write poetry -- simple couplets of patriotic flavour-- and read occasionally, but these habits have faded with time.

"His physical strength and memory have given way now after years of solitary confinement. He does not even recognise all of us," a family member said.

He was a 16-year-old lad when he took shelter in the room and now he is a quiet 63 year-old, who had never misbehaved with anyone.

His brother said though doctors, who were consulted, said Borah might be suffering from depression, he never allowed himself to be examined medically.