Lila Bahadur Chhetri was born on 1 March 1933 in Guwahati, Assam Province, British India. She was a writer, known for Basain (2005). She died on 13 March 2025 in Guwahati, Assam, India.
At least two generations of Nepalis know Basain (2005) almost by heart because it was a literature textbook at Tribhuvan University. Like thousands of others, Chettri's family migrated to Assam from the mountains of eastern Nepal, and the novel was about push factors like indebtedness, poverty and discrimination that were driving Nepalis out..
