• Paritosh Bhattacharya ( Bolu), my beloved Rangada passed  away.. sorry for reporting late as details were not available.

Nov1936  - 19 Dec 2017

He was only  eleven at the time of  partition. He lost his mother when  he was a toddler.In the absence of his mother , he regarded my mother ( he  used to call her "Khurima") as his own mother when  all seven children of  Purna Ch Shastri and his brother Promode chandra  ( in the joint family) were being brought up in the sprawling Habiganj  ( Sylhet Dist, then undivided India,now Bangladesh) house.We brothers, from age  five upwards, used to swim in the river Khowai... about 500 steps away from our rear gate.In the evenings,Rangada and seniors used to read aloud ,and at the sametime make me busy with a slate and pencil.  His father Late Purna Chandra Shastri had to leave behind properties in Habiganj and shift to Birati (near Kolkata), then to Barrackpore. Rangada had to go through unimaginable hardship  in lifting his five younger siblings  and himself. He equally loved his younger cousins like me. When I was at crossroads reg my  own educational career  around 1960 in the unexplored dreamland like Kolkata, he sheltered me in all possible ways.He was a man with high EQ , a man without enemy , a man at everbody's beck and call. He retired as chief of Post & Teleghaph Audit & Accounts. 'Bridge' was his passion and played at national level in major tournaments. Let his soul rest in peace in heaven. His sacred soul might be watching us from above.

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• Partha Sarathi Bhattacharya  (Pintu)  passed  away...   

8 Nov,1949  - 8 July 2019

Another brilliant member  of the  family
passed away prematurely. His father  Late Prahlad Bhattacharya settled in Bagha Jatin Palli, Kolkata in late fifties..the then Bagha Jatin colony was a swampy land with modest houses with low cost walls and  corrugatd tin roofs, without piped water supply and sewer lines.I was a teenager then; occasionally visited them  and as  his elder cousin brother, used to make fun  with this gifted primary school boy. Those were the days of bus route no.5, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, Uttam Kumar and Ultorath,Hemanta Mukherjee and Jibonanando Das and of course,upcoming CPM. Evenings were marked by lighting of Kerosene lamps and hurricane lanterns and sounds of thousands of crickets,frogs, and mosquitos with varied frequencies .These sounds were mixed with a distant  dreamy faint voice of a girl singing nijhumo sandhyay pantho pakhira  behind the louder tune of the accompanying single reed harmonium.All of my brothers and sisters of  my generation had to go through extreme hardship during that  period  as our parents had just migrated (risking their lives) as displaced persons from East Pakistan( now Bangladesh).But in one generation the area became cosmopolitan.  Sriman Pintu  had  to  work hard to be a successful Engineer. He got BE ( Electronics) from BE College ,Shibpur...  a distant dream destination for aspiring engineers. His  place of work was mostly in foreign countries, particularly in  the middle east. Please  play the video to hear  from  his wife Smt. Mala  speaking  at the condolence  meeting at the BE college (BESU), Shivpur :

Imput from Smt Mala :

Respected Dada, your brother Pintu( Partha Sarathi Bhattacharya) joined MAMC  ( in Design ) after graduating from  BE College,Shibpur as Electrical Engineer .Then he joined Bhilai Steel Plant as trainee engineer for 2 years . Afterwards he joined Bokaro Steel Plant as General Foreman and did his job for 10 years. But he left his job and joined in DCPL ~Development Consultants Private Limited as Senior Electrical Engineer for 19 years. Lastly he went to Saudi Arabia and did job in Saudi Electricity Company,next to Aramco as  Senior Electrical Engineer and when posted on some project his designation was Consultant .  My grandson's name is Darsh Bhattacharya (now in Sydney with his parents).His  date of birth is~ 15/8/ 2016.

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• Chuni- da  is  no  more   ...long live  Chuni-da 

15 January 1938, Kishoreganj   -  30 April,2020 Kolkata

Formidible  Indian forward-trio of sixties ,best ever, (from L to R)Chuni, PK and Balram

Chunida ,my cousin brother ( pishtuto  dada), was  the  heart -throb of India’s football lovers , a household name  in West Bengal. Some say that  he was the best sportsman of all time , of all places in the world. His mother was Padmanath Saraswati’s daughter and my father’s cousin sister.  Chunida was a footballing legend, a first-class cricketer, a tennis and hockey player at local clubs. The  sporting megastar  later went on to act in a Bengali film and even became a Sheriff of Kolkata. He captained  both the cricket and football teams of his college. He was with Mohun Bagan club since the age of eight. His father Late  Pramatha Nath Goswami ,originally from Jasodal, Kishoreganj ( then in East Pakistan,now in Bangladesh) was an extremely handsome, highly educated,accomplished and widely respected  nobleman who settled in Jodhpur Park, Kolkata in late fifties. He had four sons : Manik( played for Sporting Union) , Chuni, Benu ( played for university and Clubs), Biku.  Each of first three  were good football and cricket players.I first met Chunida in 1958 in  their Dhakuria house; frequented their Jodhpur park house  till 1968 and last saw him in 2011. All his  relations like me were obviously  proud of him as well as enjoyed reflected glory  of such a  jolly, ever smiling and handsome superstar and the most popular household name in  West Bengal.

As a professional  footballer he played as a striker or winger, captained both the Mohun Bagan club and the Indian national team. He scored nine goals in 30 international appearances. The versatile  greatest football player in India, perhaps also in Asia at the time was never paid for his services to club and country. He had 14-year stint with Mohun Bagan. He worked as a manager at the State bank of India’s Chowranghee  branch.He  turned  down  an offer for a trial from English club Tottenham Hotspur in 1960. The Club had won their first league and cup .But he could not think of staying away from Mohun Bagan and his family.  Indian Football team captained by him won Asian Games gold medal; played in olympics .  Although he continued to play for Mohun Bagan till 1968, he shifted his focus mainly to cricket, captaining the Bengal team to the Ranji Trophy final in 1972. However, the greatest moment in his cricketing career came in 1967 when he was part of the combined East and Central zone team that took on  Cricketing  great Sir Gary Sobers-led West Indies. Chunida took eight wickets in the match as the Indian side won by an innings and 44 runs. During that match, Chunida  back-pedaled 25 yards to take a catch ; Sobers termed it  unbelievable from a cricketer in Indian  sub-continent.  Awards that he received  are - Arjuna Award for Football and  Padma Shri.When  Chunida announced his retirement from international football in 1965 in Mumbai, two fans came up to him with a hope to convince him to change his decision. The two  were none other than Bollywood superstars, Dilip Kumar and Pran .Even Lata Mungeskar was their fan when Goswami brothers (Manik-Chuni duo) played in Durand cup in Bombay in late fifties.  I donot know when next  God will send such an angel to this family ;  we were  extremely  lucky to have  him amongst us. May his soul rest in peace in heaven.

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