But acting was too close to her heart and she returned to tote up an impressive oeuvre of more than 45 television serials, 50 telefilms and six films.

Akashitora’s initiation into acting was on a stage in Sivasagar when she was just four. Playing the role of little Krishna, she impressed the audience so much that one admirer gifted her a gold coin. She never looked back after being adjudged as the best actress and debater in a Gauhati University youth festival in 1987. So convincing was she as a Naga woman, Kemi, in a drama staged during the festival that the name stuck.

As a writer, Akashitora focuses primarily on women. “Some people have branded me as a hardcore feminist. But at the core of my being, I am just a humanist,” she said.

Not surprisingly, her new novel will be a tribute to her father and his ideals. “Even 15 years after his death, I feel his presence. Today I am what my father stood for.”