Gardening was my father’s avid passion. He grew this mango tree on the terrace garden ! This also bears fruit every year – one of the best variety of mango , extremely good in taste though they grow only a few.

While  cremating  the dead ,  a  small portion of the forehead bone  is preserved along with ashes to be immersed later on in Ganga at holi places like Nabadwip dham or Hrardwar. The first four days these objects in an earthen container is buried at a place outside  home. The fifth day of the rituals include worship of lord Shiva when  post puja this remains are  purified with Cow urine , Cow dung , ghee , honey and Ganga water and transferred to a plastic container followed by some more rituals . This container is then buried  near the Tulasi tree inside the home. At the suitable time , one can carry this  for immersion in Ganga . All these rituals are performed with the chanting from Yajurveda.

The rituals entered the tenth day and I performed the Dashakarma .One of the aspect of the rituals is that one needs to tonsure the head. People are saying I  am looking like Dalai Lama ! This is a pic taken on the terrace of my Coochbehar home. You would see the large  lake behind where I performed the rituals everyday during the first twelve days . During this period I need to manage only with two dhotis , no underpants(!) , eat only fruits the first four days and afterwards you can have rice , but only once in the afternoon or in the evening . You are lucky if there is no Ekadashi , otherwise you will go without meal on that day.In Bengal the only meal  during this period is called Hobishyee. Rice, potato, green banana are boiled together in an earthen pot and cooked on a fresh oven ( considering the fact that you would hardly find an only veg cooking oven in Bengal). This is cooked away from public eyes and only mother or wife has the right to cook for you unless you want to try this out yourself . No oil , no sea salt , no turmeric or spices  You are not supposed to talk while cooking .You can have only one serve on a banana leaf . Thank God , butter and mineral salt ( Saindhab salt ) are allowed. I went very liberal with it. And , one more thing I forgot to share , one is expected to remain  a brahmacharry  - that includes most importantly celibacy ! Of course, for this two weeks only .

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.

Last Saturday I was elected the Chairman of the SAE India Southern Section  for 2009-11. It’s a great honour for me to lead this esteemed organization – a position earlier held by many distinguished personalities.SAE India southern section has about 10,000 members with about 60 collegiate clubs – the largest SAE chapter outside Detroit. This picture has the new and the old managing committee members.

In my speech I stressed on the need to draw a Vision 2015 for SAE India Southern Section – how the section would look like  five years hence ? If India continues on  its growth trajectory , with the Detroit embracing a slow death , why cann’t SAE International HQR  be shifted to Chennai  ? With more than 30 % of its cost going into electronics /automotive infotronics , we need to discuss allied technologies around automotive engineering rather than focussing only on  core designs . With growing interest  in aerospace  engineering , proposed an additional conference on Aerospace technology besides holding the usual national students convention. SAE aims to advance the research, design and development of vehicles which operate on land,water,air and space.