My father (80)passed away  at 3.25 am on Nov09  at Coochbehar. His Haemoglobin  level was falling  very low last few months inspite of repeated blood transfusions . Finally after a bone marrow scan Doctor traced it to Chronic Myeloid Leukemia ( CML) .By the time it was found out ,his health already deteriorated  with heart , kidney not functioning properly. He was under the treatmnent of Dr Subhash Saha . He was given imatinib by Dabur pharma – an oral chemo drug . After the fourth capsule , my father could not take it anymore and passed away. May be the doctor could have been more wise not administering this considering his health and prolong his life may be by another few weeks letting him taking the treatment from home. He was desperately pleading to  come back home but we persisted with the treatment at the hospital . He has been so active that we could never imagine he would be no more.

This August we celebrated his 80th Birthday .He has been the Commissioner at the Coochbehar Municipality . Earlier he held several important social  responsibilities  like being the President and Secretary of Coochbehar Kshatriya Samity , National Federation of P&T  Employees Union and so on . Born in Rangpur District in Bangladesh he was one of those taking the brunt of India Partition. He was a brilliant student never missing a centum in maths ! That’s why I felt so happy when my son too scored a centum in his 12th CBSE Board exam. However post partition he was forced to take up  a job very early during his graduation. He worked with the State Government for some time before joining the P&T department and  retired as the Head Postmaster of Coochbehar Head Post Office.

He was a person of extreme discipline , honesty and integrity . Disillusioned with the communist rule in Bengal he  joined the Congress party later in life. He always received tremendous respect and affection from everyone in the society irrespective of  their political affiliation. I lose count of how many needy people  he helped with his own personal resources . He never cared for his health when it came to duty for people’s happiness.

His leaving has been really royale .So many flowers , garlands and wreaths were placed over him  with  messages pouring in  and there are so many to accompany him till he is taken to the creamatorium made me feel proud of being his son. The procession carrying him went  past the entire city stopping at Coochbehar Municipal Corporation, Kshatriya Samity , Khagrabari Shiva Yagna  temple, and the district Congress party office   with his body wrapped in party tricolor and slogans of “Upen Barma Amar Rahe” .

As a father he always  gave me whatever I asked for since my childhood – right from toys  to expensiive  books , coaching or funding my studies at premier institutes ( education loans were not available that time) inspite of his very modest salary and many other responsibilities . Once he was to go to an outstation  for departmental training for six months when I was very young –about four years or so . Fearing he would go on training without taking me with him I used to tie my tiny hand in his sacred thread while sleeping ! I wish I could do so this time too  and not let him go – but  by now I lost the purity of childhood ! I keep praying that he is born soon in the best circumstance in my surrounding. My Daddy is the best. I really regret so many days I could not call him , I could not spend the kind of time he would have liked me to spend with him , I am really really sorry dad … but now you would be always with me through my prayers.