08/28/2026
Mohan resides in the Darjeeling region in West Bengal, India. As a person living with epilepsy in this area, he has a unique perspective on tradition, science, community, and acceptance. Here is a snippet of the story he sent to us:
"Every individual encounters a time in life when they begin to paint vibrant pictures of their future. That moment arrived for me as well, a time when I was brimming with energy, dreams, and genuine excitement."
"The year was 2016, a year permanently marked in my mind. After years of intense familial and personal hardships and financial struggles, I was finally mapping out a secure, prosperous future. I harbored a fierce desire to bring lasting joy to the faces of my aging parents, to prove my potential, and to find true success. I was stepping out into the warm sunshine of boundless possibilities, where the future seemed ready to embrace me."
"But destiny had a different script for me perhaps. One regular morning, while sitting down for a Morning Meal with my family and watching a football match, unprecedented and unaware the first terrifying sudden storm of a seizure violently struck me. It triggered, the entire room spun out of control. Within seconds I could understand what was happening, my sensory organs failed, my consciousness snapped, and a total blackout ensued."
"When I finally awoke on a hospital bed, the first image that greeted me was the absolute terror, shock, and despair written across my family’s faces. The bright future I was preparing to chase vanished instantly into a thick fog of uncertainties. This single, unannounced electrical tempest shattered all my plans and expectations in one clean, devastating swipe."
"From that fateful day forward, my battle was no longer about scaling a career-graph or achieving conventional success ; it transformed into an existential fight for survival against the random electrical storms within my own brain. Every single day since, I have been fighting an invisible battle, where no physical weapons are drawn and no tangible enemy stands before me. It is a lonely warfare where the battlefield is my own Brain and the adversary is a microscopic flaw within my nervous system."
"To those observing from a safe distance, this condition is easily dismissed as mere “shaking” or a temporary “fit.” But in truth, it is an agonizing ordeal that completely destroys the body and spirit, leaving one entirely fractured from within."
Find his full story here: https://www.cureepilepsy.org/personal-stories/mohan-raj-thakuris-story/
