Behala body cremated 3 years after death

KOLKATA: He has been running a high temperature over the last few days and the doctor had advised him not to venture out of his home. Yet, 89-year-old Gopal Chandra Majumdar waited patiently for over two-and-a-half in an Alto car to receive his wife Bina’s body from autopsy surgeons. But once at the Keoratala crematorium, he restricted himself to the car even as his wife’s last rites — exactly three years and three days after Bina’s death and an attempt by her son Subhabrata to freeze her thereafter — were performed.
There were no visible tears, but it was evident he was trying to come to terms with the reality. Majumdar finally found enough relatives to stand by him and around 12 of them — all related to Bina — flocked the Behala police station by 1.30pm. “The call had come from Behala police station that the autopsy was over and we reached the crematorium in the next one hour,” said a relative. Inside the mortuary premises, Majumdar stayed put on the left corner of the rear seat. He was constantly flanked by at least three employees.

Though he spoke little, he kept asking about how long the process would take. “We have all assembled here for this old man, our Mesho. He was hinting at shifting to an old-age home but now he says that it will be difficult for him to forget all the good memories of this house. We are now desperately looking for a new maid even as we are making plans on how to keep him safe,” said Ruma Chakraborty, a relative. “It is strange that today when we are at the crematorium, the media is asking us about Subhabrata. We are relieved he is not around. He never wanted his mother to go.
Bina would have liked her son to be present, but in a way this is poetic justice,” said another relative. He gave examples how Subhabrata was eccentric in certain ways. “In 1992, he had expressed his wish to start a cable business. We thought he would ask for franchisee from a firm headquartered at Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road. Instead, he drove away his tenants on ground floor and announced he would make dish antennas himself.
A few years ago, he even tried ordering cows and buying a slaughter house for his tannery business. He would love snubbing people if they pointed out loopholes in these impractical plans. This is the reason we stopped going to his residence. He kept telling us that we lack in-depth education and that it was necessary that we get out of our Bangaliana,” he added. The body was finally handed over to the family at 5.10pm. As police escorted the body through the bylanes of Alipore and Chetla towards Keoratala, the cavalcade reached the crematorium in less than 25 minutes. By 5.40 pm, Bina’s mortal remains had entered the furnace. The Majumdars left with the death certificate, refusing to take the ashes with them.