The poetess' farewell words and her grin express her grief and anxiety of losing her mother. She puts on a strong front by disguising her nervousness behind a grin. "See you soon, Amma," she says to her mother before leaving. Das was born in 1969 into a wealthy Bengali family in Calcutta (now Kolkata). At the age of five, she lost her father when he died of heart attack. The death of her father left her mother with no choice but to bring up Das and her two siblings on their own. Despite these hardships, Kamala's mother continued to encourage her children to pursue their dreams and not to worry about anything other than learning new things. Kamala went to Boston University after graduating from high school in 1987. It was here that she met her husband Ajay Mehra, who was studying electrical engineering at Northeastern University at the time. The couple got married in 1993 and has one son together named Akash. In 1995, after earning a degree in journalism, Kamala returned to India to take up a job as a reporter for the Indian newspaper The Hindu. In 1997, Kamala became interested in writing poetry and started publishing her poems in various magazines.